Ibanez SV5470 - need advice

[mcalo42]

I bought a new Ibanez SV5470 less than a year ago and I'm have multiple problems with it. It always had a sustain problem but I overlooked that in the beginning. I had not played it for several months and now it buzzes on the low strings any fret (worse in the low area toward the nut) and won't stay in tune if I use the tremolo. I normally can set up all my other guitars; including a JemV with is my only other floating rose type tremolo guitar. It has become very frustrating.

The relief at the proper amount in the manual and correct angle on the bridge causes excessive buzzing on the low strings. The action has to be adjusted ridiculously high to stop the buzzing.

If we ignore the buzzing issue for a moment and talk about the tuning issue when using the tremolo, it always goes sharp after a moderate dive especially the low strings. I’ve tried making bridge spring tension tighter and looser to no avail. I've even tried used the zero stop but it doesn't correct the problem after a moderate dive either.

I wonder if the wood finally settled in causing all these problems now. The guitar was made in Japan and I live in the southwest desert – no humidity. The guitar has been in its case in my house the whole time, so there been no extreme conditions to cause this. The house temp is about 76 degrees year around.

Since I haven’t had it quite a year yet are these things that would be covered by the warranty? If so what is their warranty service like? Would I be better off finding a luthier in my area, and are these things they could potential fix? The reason I lean to warranty because if they can't fix it they replace it, I think.

This has been the worst guitar experience I’ve had in several decades and I’ve owned dozens of guitars.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

[IbanezDaemon]

Have you tried making adjustments to the truss rod?

[mcalo42]

Yes, I set the relief as specified in the manual then added much more, which ridiculously raised the action before it stopped buzzing.

[MarkE]

Trem problem sounds like your nut (non-locking on this model?) - when you dive, the strings slide through the nut, then get grabbed when you pull back up again, so they go sharp.

Proper solution would be a graphite, brass or roller nut. Cheapo solution to see if it works - get a soft pencil and rub it in the nut slots to deposit some graphite dust.

[Rich]

If the buzzing is even all over, then it's either you, the strings, or the action. There is no magic about it. The metalurgy of the strings, how precise [or sloppy] you pick, how heavy the stroke, or how high the strings are off the frets.

As for the tuning, the strings are binding at the nut. If you're not using some kind of nut sauce, that's part of your problem. The rest of it is, it's not a double locking system. Don't expect it to stay in tune better than any other non locking vintage type system.

[mcalo42]

I admit I'm not near as good or confident when working on set ups for floating bridge guitars. The buzzing all over on the low strings happened when I lowered the action comparable to my other guitars. I do understand playing dynamics and know that hard playing will cause buzz but usually ‘normal’ softer playing takes care of that. The action was already higher than my liking originally but I think I started going to the truss rod to see if that had any impact on the tuning issue> Maybe I’m spoiled with my lower action my other guitars, like my Jem and JP6? I’ve playing these two other guitars for comparison on playing dynamics and other things while trying to set up my SV.

I haven’t been using any nut sauce or lubricant. I'll see if I can find something at CG this afternoon.

The strings are fairly new but maybe tweaking and readjusting over and over could be contributing to problems?

If I can get this guitar to stay in tune when using the tremolo with nut lube that would be great but if this guitar just can’t get lower action without buzzing on softer playing would a fret leveling or something like possible help?

Thanks for the feedback!

[mcalo42]

Some graphite guitar lube on the nut took care of the tuning issue when using the tremolo.

I can live with the higher action and sustain issue again. The buzzing is more noticeable when using the single coils, which my have might influenced my earlier complaint. It's not as bad in the HB mode. Sorry for the alarm - I am historically a gibson player venturing into shredding type playing. Still a long way to go.

All is good when I can spend more time playing than tuning....

Thanks for the advice!

[giantstepjoe]

Originally Posted by mcalo42

I bought a new Ibanez SV5470 less than a year ago and I'm have multiple problems with it. It always had a sustain problem but I overlooked that in the beginning. I had not played it for several months and now it buzzes on the low strings any fret (worse in the low area toward the nut) and won't stay in tune if I use the tremolo. I normally can set up all my other guitars; including a JemV with is my only other floating rose type tremolo guitar. It has become very frustrating.

The relief at the proper amount in the manual and correct angle on the bridge causes excessive buzzing on the low strings. The action has to be adjusted ridiculously high to stop the buzzing.

If we ignore the buzzing issue for a moment and talk about the tuning issue when using the tremolo, it always goes sharp after a moderate dive especially the low strings. I’ve tried making bridge spring tension tighter and looser to no avail. I've even tried used the zero stop but it doesn't correct the problem after a moderate dive either.

I wonder if the wood finally settled in causing all these problems now. The guitar was made in Japan and I live in the southwest desert – no humidity. The guitar has been in its case in my house the whole time, so there been no extreme conditions to cause this. The house temp is about 76 degrees year around.

Since I haven’t had it quite a year yet are these things that would be covered by the warranty? If so what is their warranty service like? Would I be better off finding a luthier in my area, and are these things they could potential fix? The reason I lean to warranty because if they can't fix it they replace it, I think.

This has been the worst guitar experience I’ve had in several decades and I’ve owned dozens of guitars.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

I've owned my sv5470 for a week and I am encountering some of the same problems you mentioned. It seems that there is no way to set the truss rod and action so that it is comfortable to shred on without it buzzing. I tried setting it with more relief and higher action and was eventually able to get it not to buzz but it was extremely difficult to play and felt horrible. I now have it set with far less relief and the action lower (the way I want it to feel ideally) and there is a very noticable buzz on the low e string and slightly less noticable buzzing on the a and d strings and even some minute buzzing on the remaining strings. As you mentioned it can be almost livable in humbucker mode but in single coil mode you hear all of the buzzing. I was planning on putting a pair of my Jason Lollar Imperial Humbuckers in it as an upgrade but now I don't know if I should. Were you able to solve your problems with it and if so how? Should I take it to an Ibanez endorsed repairman and let them sort it out? Or can I get this thing working right on my own?

[anuj]

Wow, sounds a lot like my roommate's problems with his SV (Rich: he briefly corresponded with you about it after getting it from you). We've done just about everything we could (we've worked on all our other guitars, including mine and other Jems ourselves with no problem), and he finally took it in to the local respectable tech. He struggled with it for a few weeks and his verdict was that it needs a fretjob/leveling on the lower frets where it has incurable buzz on the bottom two strings.

I'm pretty sure it was playing flawlessly when it left Rich, but ever since it's been here in the CA bay area, it's been an unusable guitar. My roommate's since bought an American Standard Strat and loves it. He still really wants the SV to play well, but it just .. doesn't seem to want to. I'm pretty disappointed, since I was the one who told him about the guitar (and, for that matter, Rich :P). Since Rich is above reproach in this equation, my disappointment mainly lies with Ibanez.

~A

[Rich]

Hey ~A, who was the buyer? If it had a level there should be no fret isue, unless something popped but that would be extremely rare on a new guitar. The other problems, lack of sustain, tuning return, are just built in issues that really have no remedy.

[anuj]

Rich - David B., bought new, uh, I can't really remember how many months ago, but I wanna say sometime in the spring. His main issue isn't really sustain or tuning return, but fret buzz on the lower 5 or so frets on the bottom two strings going further up the neck on the bottom E. You have to get the relief and/or bridge height (and consequently action) significantly worse than your average strat (making it pretty unusable) to get the buzz to go away.

He hasn't had any fretwork done on it yet, but if that's the way to go, then I suppose that would be what's called for. Pretty disappointing on a new guitar. I've linked him to this thread and suggested that he directly get in touch with you about it again.

~A

[Rich]

He wrote. March, was a Bronze setup so no fretwork was done. It would have been tested though and there would have been no choking frets. Past that buzz comes from many reasons, strings, how lively the guitar is, type of frets, and the player contributes much also. I asked him if he'd tried changing to a tighter [metalurgically] set of strings like DR Tite Fits.

[anuj]

Yep, he uses those strings anyway. I'm pretty sure some sort of shipping/environmental concerns are what screwed this particular instrument up. It's genuinely worse than any other Ibanez I've owned, played or set up. Once again, I'm pretty sure it's not you, it's the guitar.

I didn't really want or mean to turn this thread into a public support call or anything, so since you guys are corresponding, it can go offline off of here, haha.

~A

[giantstepjoe]

Originally Posted by giantstepjoe

I've owned my sv5470 for a week and I am encountering some of the same problems you mentioned. It seems that there is no way to set the truss rod and action so that it is comfortable to shred on without it buzzing. I tried setting it with more relief and higher action and was eventually able to get it not to buzz but it was extremely difficult to play and felt horrible. I now have it set with far less relief and the action lower (the way I want it to feel ideally) and there is a very noticable buzz on the low e string and slightly less noticable buzzing on the a and d strings and even some minute buzzing on the remaining strings. As you mentioned it can be almost livable in humbucker mode but in single coil mode you hear all of the buzzing. I was planning on putting a pair of my Jason Lollar Imperial Humbuckers in it as an upgrade but now I don't know if I should. Were you able to solve your problems with it and if so how? Should I take it to an Ibanez endorsed repairman and let them sort it out? Or can I get this thing working right on my own?

Updating- I finally got it setup so that the buzzing is almost totally gone and it's comfortable to play but it still needs professional setup work to be just right. Also IMO the pickups suck!. Cool idea to have so many tonal variatons but the humbucker sounds are terrible and I just can't have that so I dropped it off to a luthier I trust to install a set of Lollar Imperial humbuckers and a dimarzio virtual vintage in the middle. I'm having him use the stock switch and pots and coil tap the humbuckers so the guitar will still do what it was intended to but hopefully much better.

[giantstepjoe]

I talked to the guys who are working on the guitar yesterday and they will most likely not be able to use the stock switch to install the pickups I want because it is specifically designed to work with the tru-duo pickups. They are still trying to figure out a way to make it work but I will probably have to get a new switch.