NGD: S670FM (Woot!)

Viper-sfm · #1 10-10-2009, 09:29 PM

Well, some of you might've followed some of my inquires about used guitars on the forums. I've been wanting to get a second guitar for ages now. Although I love my Fender Strat, I really wanted something with a floating trem and humbuckers for a change. The past few weeks I've been searching everywhere for a nice used guitar, but that started to worry me. I was not willing to pay for something that I would not test first, and so decided to go with a brand new one.

So today I decided I had to get a new guitar. I went to the music store with my mind set on a RG, but I saw they had a S670FM there so I asked to try it and immediately fell in love with the guitar. The strings were new, and it was well setup. I tried a couple of RGs as well, but neither made the same impact as the S. I probably should've tried a S470 because it would be cheaper, but I didn't want another black guitar, and the finish of the s670 actually surprised me a lot. Really smooth and it isn't sticky as another satin finish I played before. So anyway, I brought it home, changed strings to D'addarios, did a bit of setup work on it and it is now even better

And btw, I am really pleased with the overall construction for an Indonesian guitar. My only gripe is the fret ends, but that can be sorted later. The rest is really well done. If anyone is on the fence about the S series after it moved out of Korea, I'd say it's a non-issue.

Anyway, pics!

I'll post some more tomorrow morning with daylight

Yousef · #2 10-10-2009, 09:35 PM

That is absolutley sexy. I had a S470 for 2 years and had no issues with it whatsoever. Excellent guiatrs and a great trem on them!

nato101010 · #3 10-10-2009, 09:38 PM

Smokin'!

I was playing an S today at a Long & Mcquade with a ZR trem and loved the thing. But it didn't flutter to well....

Viper-sfm · #4 10-10-2009, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yousef

That is absolutley sexy. I had a S470 for 2 years and had no issues with it whatsoever. Excellent guiatrs and a great trem on them!

Yup! That was one of the things that put me off the RG. The Edge III just didn't cut it. Plus the sharktooth inlays and for some reason my hand just didn't like playing with 24 frets. Anyway, I am really enjoying the ZR trem

stodge · #5 10-10-2009, 10:01 PM

The S is nice but finding one properly setup to try in store was impossible. I wasn't convinced by the quality, especially for the price for the S670, given the RG1570 was only CAN$100 more!

Viper-sfm · #6 10-10-2009, 10:19 PM

Well, anything prestige here in Brazil is just crazy. The 1570 is double the price I paid on the S670.

littlephil · #7 10-11-2009, 02:20 AM

Nice S! How come every time I see D'addarios on a guitar, they have the painted ball ends? Mine have the metal coloured, not just painted over.

IbanezDaemon · #8 10-11-2009, 05:51 AM

Very nice! I like it. Congratz on your new guitar and ENJOY!!!

As Hell Broke Loose · #9 10-11-2009, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlephil

Nice S! How come every time I see D'addarios on a guitar, they have the painted ball ends? Mine have the metal coloured, not just painted over.

I think they're in the process of switching from the painted ends to the annodized ones. I have to use D'addario's on my jazz guitar because it's the only set of 12's I can get easily. Sometimes they're painted, sometimes they're annodized haha.

Viper-sfm · #10 10-11-2009, 08:27 PM

I only had the metal colored ball ends once. All other times it was the painted ones...doesn't really matter though. I put the strings this way to test, but I didn't really like it. The initial tuning and stretching process just didn't work as well. I'll go back to my usual way next time.

Lumi3erjack · #11 10-11-2009, 10:06 PM

Sick flame and burst!

Viper-sfm · #12 10-13-2009, 01:38 PM

Though I'd give a quick review of the guitar after 3 days of playing:

As I said before, overall construction is very nice. Neck sits perfectly on the body, and there's no room in the neck pocket to move it around. Thankfully, it is dead center with the trem. I'm really digging the feel of the neck. Hands can move with no problem. Inlays are all done properly and the body finish is very smooth as well and well done. Only finish problem the guitar has is on the input jack cavity where it feels a little rough. But it doesn't bother me.

The electronics aren't perfect. I've noticed that in some notes the pickups are picking up some vibrations from the springs. Perhaps things aren't shielded right but this is something that I'll definitely take a look at in the future. The neck pickup has a very nice sound when the tone pot is on 4 or so. Both clean and dirty work here. The rest of the pickups are ok I guess. Still, the electronics will be upgraded in the future as I really want some proper dimarzios in there.

The ZR trem is quite cool. Still figuring out all the features. A bit stiff if you like playing with the whammy bar a la Satriani, but I'm yet to try it in full float mode so there's that.

All in all, a 9/10. There are a few question marks over fret durability, but I'll only find out about that in a few months time. If anyone has any specific questions, shoot and I'll try to answer

Yousef · #13 10-13-2009, 02:48 PM

Yeah, go ahead and remove the ZPS bar. Thats what I did the 2nd day I had my guitar and I never put it back in. I even put .10s on the guitar and tuned it to D standard and never had any return to pitch issues.

Also, stuff a bunch of tissue in the trem cavity and it should help with the spring noise issue.

Viper-sfm · #14 10-13-2009, 02:56 PM

Ah, thanks for the tip man. And I'll try removing the ZPS bar tonight then

littlephil · #15 10-14-2009, 06:04 AM

The pickups picking up the trem spring vibrations isnt a shielding problem, it happens with almost all guitars. Its because the pickups have to be mounted to the guitar, so vibrations of any kind will end up getting transferred into the pickups, and with a bit of gain you will be able to hear it. Do what Vai does and stuff some tissue paper in the cavity, or i think you could wrap a little bit of cloth around the springs (not too tight or it could affect trem return possibly)