Wish it was back (Part 1)

I wish the Ibanez RG565 is resurrected because it's definitely my kinda guitar; maple fretboard + 2 pickup combo- I'd swap the neck unit there with a single coil, though. The missing ingredients in many electric guitar designs today are simplicity & functionality.

Smashing GIO

Spent the morning with the above 2 darlings:

• Ibanez: GRGR010
• Smash: S2 Lite

Default vs replacement

The Ibanez has a Duncan CC in there. This is one of my guitars which proves a point- when the default pickup fails to please, do not hesitate to replace it. When I used to play this guitar with the default covered Powersound humbucker, my mind kept telling me to stop & choose another darling because the tone hurts (as in, it's not what I wanna hear) despite the very appealing playability. So this is indeed psychological & it warrants some attention; the guitar which keeps you going in terms of playability & tone is the one for you, not one which bothers you with either issue. The Smash, on the other hand, has a point to prove too- default electronics doesn't always equal repulsive electronics. I've been very happy with what the S2 Lite offers me tone-wise so it remains as it is. Thumbs up to this one.

D vs C

The GRGR010 sports a rather flat D-shaped neck; it's typical Ibanez this one so playing fast stuff is a breeze, almost effortless with the right action & amount of distortion. The S2 Lite is very Fender-y; a rounded C-affair with practical depth for lots of bends & shred alike. When I play too much of one guitar, I'd switch to the other & this gives a relief of sorts to the fretting hand as it adapts to a contrasting profile with every change. Sometimes I feel I've had enough of a certain neck feel & it bothers me, mistakes were inevitable. The constant swap here is yet another psychological remedy.

Thicker Duo

The Ibanez humbucker you see above belongs to my SV5470. It's the manufacturer's True-Duo model which is evidently thicker because it features a stacked magnet formation. As the humbucker was conceived to voice a split coil tone, the manufacturer made efforts for it to be silent in single coil mode so even in this non-humbucking mode, the pickup remains humbucking.

Neat inside

Ibanez's Prestige range of guitars represent the manufacturer's fine craftsmanship. However, cost cutting sloppiness are left in unseen places where owners have the least access for inspection. We sometimes hope the unseen aspects of our very costly piece of equipment live up to the classy external appearances which isn't always the case.

The SV5470 cavities here are proof of the manufacturer's extension of quality; there is neat application all round & we feel good knowing quality exists beyond the reaches of our general inspection.

Sharp corners

The non-TB Seymour Duncan pickup models (SH & others), come with angular mounting flap corners. Majority of guitar cavities with non-pickguard/ mounting bracket feature, sport rounded corners. As such, the sharp Duncan corners would have to be filed & rounded off to fit.

3 in 5

The VLX91 5-way pickup selector you see above is taken off my Ibanez SV5470. It's a little different because effectively, when one flicks the lever from any of the humbucker-only selections, it will revert to the middle detent, in any other selector models, this would be our single-coil only (middle pickup) selection (HSH combo). One has to carefully select positions 2 & 4 with much controlled movements as the mechanics drive it to auto-position to the middle selection by operation.