This is an easy appraisal; the guitar brought in for review was not fit for review. In fact, it was semi-unplayable. There was excruciating fret buzz from the 11th fret onwards, across the board. However, the instrument's physicality was top notch but the playability / set up totally let it down. I passed the guitar to two other individuals to concur my diagnosis on the matter; they agreed.
Upon closer inspection, there seems to be marker / ink stains on many of the frets. Looks like someone tried to cure this issue (maybe by filing the frets) but was unsuccessful. Also, the overall action was too low so that didn't help either. No ratings for this appraisal because no actual appraisal took place. One word: Bad.
Pic: Ibanez
3 comments:
Excellent guitar bro !!
Enjoy music
Thank you for your honest review.
I was surprised to find that the Guitar Center in Roseville, MN somehow has two of these new on display, even though they are listed as preorder only online(GC could not explain). Cosmetically, both of the guitars looked perfect, and the color(s) appealed to me more than the online videos/pictures. I returned back the next day with a fret rocker, capo, and string height gauge planning to purchase the better of the two guitars.
Both guitars were set up with very high action(2.5-2mm) and Guitar Center agreed that they would have their tech lower the action on the guitar I choose, so I could test it with a reasonable string height(1.5mm). I was disappointed to find that both guitars had high frets all the way down the neck in so many places that I would have needed to write down the results to keep track. I had recently purchased a new Sire S7 that had a couple high spots that I was unhappy with, but both of these were much worse!
I considered maybe I could live with the uneven fet job and justify a PLEK, but on further examination, I found that one guitar had uneven neck relief (Low E was ~.01in and High E was ~.02-.025in) and the other guitar had a severe misalignment between the neck and the strings. The high E was too close to the edge up where the body meets the neck and the low E was set in a long way. Somehow I did not even look for this (have no idea how this could get through Ibanez QC on a guitar at this level?) until I was playing and the high E slid off.
The neck relief on the guitar with the string misalignment was even from E to E. Both nuts were a little high; enough to warrant modification, but not as high as the S7 and almost every other guitar I have purchased. Maybe the one with uneven neck relief could have turned out Ok with a PLEK job, but there would have been a lot removed from the Low E side frets to get it evened out?
How do I find a good S series guitar? I am hesitant to order one online to find that it is much less than perfect and still within factory specifications.
@Unknown This guitar was eventually sold to me for a good consideration. I had since, in my limited capacity, rectified the issues. I am by no means a luthier but knowing how to approach the anomalies manifested by this guitar really helped. Also, there are sufficient video tutorials out there to guide novices like me leading to a successful & painless repair episode.
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