I just purchased an SZ2020 model from Sam Ash and have a few concerns and questions about it.
I saw a picture of the SZ2020 owned by GermX and his looks different than mine. His appears to have a clear finish on the back of the body where the mahogany is recognizable; mine is painted black, with a finish so thin the there are grain indentations showing. The walnut stripes on the neck also have a few grain indentations. The face color of the headstock on my is different than GermX's, mine is made of walnut, like the one at NAMM. The
trussrod cover is also different, mine is walnut.
Another bothersome detail is a wood chip missing on the ege of the input jack hole. The hole was cut somewhat crudely and could have/should have been sanded in order to smooth out the rough edges, or a jack plate utilized to cover up the hole edges.
One feature of the SZ720 that impressed me was the attention given to the work inside the control cavity. The wires were soldered neatly and tied off with ties, decent pots were used, along with a few neatly-applied coats of shielding paint. My SZ2020 has tiny pots, smaller in size than a dime. The shielding is in the form of aluminum foil, albeit neatly done. The electronics work on the 2020 looks cheap compared to the 720.
While I'm complaining, I should mention the lousy setup my SZ2020 came with. The neck had .011" of relief, and medium-high action that was 3/32" at the 1st string and 3mm at the 6th string. When I tried to adjust the trussrod with the allen wrench provided, it wouldn't catch inside the nut. I'm assuming that whoever set this guitar up had the same problem while using the same allen wrench and decided to set the intonation with the trussrod loose and ship it out. I broke out my metric
allen wrenches and the 4mm wrench fit the trussrod like a glove, which was indeed completely loose. I straghtened the neck up a few hours ago and reduced the relief to .005"--it plays and feels much better. Tonight I'll lower the action a touch and set the intonation.
To wrap up my criticisms, it irritates me that such a nice guitar with such potential, that could have been perfected easily was shipped out in the condition this one was. If Ibanez plans on moving Prestige production to the World factory, the factory and Ibanez will have to tighten up their quality control or lose business.
Providing a few positive comments, the overall look of the guitar is very attractive. The hardware looks good and the top is quite beautiful. The neck is worthy of the title prestige. The sanding and planing on the fingerboard are excellent, and the fretwork top notch. All the frets have been shaped and polished properly, and are level as determined with straightedges.
Overall I think the guitar is worth the $999 I paid for it, but next time I intend to be more critical and less tolerant of the lack of attention to detail.
