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Ibanez S

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The Ibanez S is a guitar series made by Ibanez. This series was introduced in the late 1980's and was touted as an extremely thin and comfortably designed guitar, that still packed a punch visually and tone-wise.

Ibanez S's have been known to have either HH or HSH pickup configurations, and before 2003 both the Edge,Edge LoPro, and Lo-TRS trem system were used on the (Japanese) models. Known to have Wizard necks in the early S era, fans of the Ibanez S series raved that it had the thinnest neck on Ibanez's thinnest guitar - though thicker necks are now available as playing thin necks are unsuitable for guitar players with tendonitis.

The current (2003 and beyond lineup) S series uses a Zero-Resistance (ZR) tremolo system, and, according to Herman Li, "Stays in tune no matter what kind of crazy things I do." The system uses ball bearings and a built in backstop system, which acts similar to a hipshot tremsetter, in that bending strings will not cause strings to become flat. Essentially this means that the bridge isn't floating freely however the stop-bar can be removed to change the tremolo to floating operation.

As of Late Ibanez has been getting flack over the S series. One it was a high end guitar, now turned to a low end inconsistant nightmare when they switched the way they make them. Example

http://ibanez.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=8635&PN=2

"I just received my S470DXQM BLB, that's the Moonburst Blue quilted model. I am returning the guitar to the seller due to poor quality. This is the second Ibanez S model I had to return because the quilting was so poor, it was unbearable.On this S470 the 2 pieces don't even come close to matching up! One side, nice quilt, other side practically NONE....inexcusable. This guitar should never have passed Quality Control before it was stained and finished. Now I know that buying a guitar over the internet is NOT a great idea, BUT in the case of both the S470DXQMBLB and my S520EXQM, not ONE store in all of OHIO had these models in stock. I was forced to use the internet. The seller is very agreeable to sending another guitar, until I am happy. Certainly each quilt top is unique. BUT Quality Control should have boundaries and guidelines for acceptance versus rejection. Does Ibanez NOT CARE about this anymore???"

Ibanez's S series guitars have been getting labled Junk by it's users ever since Ibanez switched factories in 2005.

Any of those link will take you to a link where many complaints have been filed about Ibanez ruining the S series. It used to have a thinner body, and a thinner neck, and the construction was of better quality.

Links and resources from Ibanez's own website.

http://ibanez.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=4&PN=2