Ibanez SZ720FM
Will be doing a bit of a commentary on the pics supplied for this review. In the pic above you can see me noodling on the newly aquired SZ720FM Ibanez guitar. Not bad straight off the shelf, but a few changes would be in order ( new control dials and pups ) The control dials supplied are of metal chrome, but I had issues with them right off the bat. First and foremost, the dials are not marked in any manner with an indicator or volume setting. You have no idea where your knob is turned in relation to volume and tone. That was an issue with me as I like to dial my volume anywhere from 3 to 10 and tone from 7.5 to 10. My second issue with the chrome knobs is that they are chrome. Doesn't suite the guitar. So I went out and picked up some amber bell knobs with a smokie look on the top of the knob. Makes the guitar look proper now. Pic of it supplied below. The pups get changed. ( that's later in the article )
I bought this little baby on the weekend. Today, I'll discuss the purchasing of this fine instrument, my thoughts of it, as well as a bit neccessary modding that took place to refine it's Tone and what it sounds like through a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 with a red Mesa 4x12 Standard cab ( in red ). Special thanks are in order to BryanJetBoy for the loan / use of his Marshall for this article.
Went to BryanJetBoys place over the weekend and he suggested that we take one of our usual trips to Tom Lee Music as a new shipment of Ibanez guitars where to be coming in at any time. Since for my next guitar purchase I wanted to get an Ibanez guitar of sorts, I whole heartly agreed. Once in the store, we started browsing trying out their vast selection of strings hanging on the walls. Then I was enlightened to hear that we would not be leaving today without a new set of strings. Music to my ears. After that, I started looking more intently on what Tom Lee really had to offer.
I started playing everything they had. I was looking for a guitar up to the $1,500 price mark. So I tried a few Jacksons, Fender American Strats and some various Ibanez models. I did like the Fenders they had to offer, but I didn't love them. The Jacksons were nice, but I would hold off for a Soloist or something similiar. They are about double after tax. Tried a few Ibanez Prestige models with their version of the Floyd Rose on them and they wouldn't stay in tune. They'd work fine until you hammered on the Rose a few times then they would keep going out of tune. That was a shame, as I was playing one I was very interested in. Then I tried the SZ720. I always did like this guitar. It's basically a 520 with more eye candy appeal. I was contemplating on getting one since the Summer of 2005. It's one of those guitars that just sound right and feels right. Since there wasn't anything else I was really interested in on the display, I decided to go with this bad boy. The SZ720 does not come with a case. While I was there, I purchased a Coffin Case ( that fits various models of guitars with a similiar look as the SZ720 ) and another A-frame guitar stand for home.
Brought the strings back to JetBoy's place and then he set up the guitar for the best action, truss rod adjustment ( to prevent string buzz and trueness of the neck ), pickup height for best tone, intonation and the like. He's pretty good at modding guitars in general, has alot of knowledge and experience in the field and is not afraid to dive in and get done what's needed. I myself am hesitant upon such actions and since he seemed right at home doing it, he mods all my guitars.
The pups supplied are adequate and get the job done and has a decent tone, but it lingers of an edge of a muddy sound. To get a truely great sound, the real deal in pups would need to be installed. The Ibanez SZ720 is said to be on par in sound to a Gibson Les Paul. A rich, creamy type tone. I have Seymour Duncan pups in my current Les Paul Classic and love' em. I have a JB Model in the bridge and a Pearly Gates in the neck. Great for that 80's style metal and Classic Rock. Thought I would try something new in the 720 since I am not after the exact sounding tone as my LP. So after some thought and research, I decided upon going with a SH-5 Custom for the bridge and a Jazz for the neck.
As luck would have it, there was no SH-5 Custom to be found anywhere around here. So I had to order it in ( minimum 2 weeks ). BryanJetBoy luckily was thinking ahead and picked me up a zebra JB Model and managed to snag me a black Jazz for the neck. I'll take out the JB Model at a later date....
JetBoy arrived nice and early on Sunday. Being the techie that he is, he brought all his guitar tools, soldering equipment, spare strings, multimeter, you name it. First thing in order was to get those Duncan Ibanez pups out of this thing. Here's what they look like up close.
A little off topic.....Over the months I have aquired a few additional SD pup. When I first bought my LP Classic it had hot ceremic pups in it that I didn't care for. Since I was after that Classic Rock Tone, I went out and bought an original Gibson PAF 57' Classic pickup in gold. ( it's my most expensive pup to date ) I popped it in and tried ot out, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for ( at that time ). The tone is bright, crisp and clear. I was looking for something a little more gritty and dirty, but still have bright, crisp, clear highs. JetBoy steered me onto the Seymour Dunan JB Model ( his favorite ) and it was the ticket I was after for the LP. Ever since, I've been a SD pup supporter.
Now the Ibanez pups are being removed. As you can see JetBoys has a nice array of quality tools to make the job as simple as possible.
The JB Model is now ready for install. It will be replaced with the Custom that I have on back order sooner or later.
It's always adviseable to have a wiring schematic on hand to get the job done " properly ". Wire it wrong or poorly and you just might let the smoke out and the pup will lose it's magic.
The wiring from the factory. At least this model gives you some breathing room in order to work. So guitar's wiring quarters are ALOT more restricted than what's pictured here.
The end product after JetBoy's handiwork. JetBoy edited the pic so you can see exactly what goes where.
Once the wires are fed through the body, the pups can then be secured and then the stripping / soldering of the wires on the underside of the guitar can be performed.
Once the soldering is completed and wires neatly tucked into place, new strings are added and then truss rod gets adjusted. Intonation is then adjusted, then pickup height for the best sound. The trick there is to get the pups on the bridge as close as you can to the strings, but not so close that the magnetic pull of the pup effects the wire. It's all really a matter of preference. Adjust both pups until you find that sweet spot that pleasing to your ears. Always adjust the bridge pup closer to the strings then the neck. Then adjust the individual pup screws ( one over each string ) until all the strings strummed have a unison volume. Make it so one string isn't louder and more prominent over another. The strings should have have the same volume level. Then adjust your tail-piece height until the strings are as close to the frets as possible and run your fingers up the neck, while plucking each note on each fret. Listen closely for any fret " buzz ". If you hear a buzz, then the strings are too low. Adjust the tail-piece accordingly. It should only be a minor adjustment if you truss rod is adjusted properly. ( strings are level all the way across the neck ) A straight edge with a feeler gauge is a good way to check for that. The gap between feeler gauge and fret can be anywhere as low as .002 - .010. I have mine set to .004 - .006 I like my string as action as low as possible to the neck. In the pic below, JetBoy is hard at work setting up the pickup height.
And now for the Marshall Head. As stated earlier, JetBoy was kind enough to bring his Marshall w/ Mesa cab to my place for me to try out for a spell. I'll admit, I'm rather green when it comes to Marshall. I have never really toyed with them or their settings. Luckily, I am able to use this unit for first impressions of this review and for an undetermined time thereafter. That will give me a good feel if I am going to like a Marshall product enough to go out and buy my own. And if I do, I will. Although I may not have had first hand expeience with Marshall Amps , I have however, heard many of them and know what type of sound to expect from them. Dubbed - " That Marshall Sound " - . Alot of my favorite Rock Bands ( guitarists ) depend on Marshall for their "patented" sound. And it's that sound that made me fall in love with the band in the first place.
I've only been tinkering with the Marshall for a week now, so perhaps this section of the review is a bit predentcious. Once I have had more time to see what this amp "really" can do, I will come back and change this section of the review accordingly. For now, I'll label it First Impressions.
First Impressions :
Features: 9
The Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 100 all tube head ( EL34's ) is a really a versatile amp. I mostly play blues, rock, classic rock, hard rock and some Metal and PuNk and I can get all the tones I need from this amp. ( damn near ) It has two channels that each have two modes so you have like four completely different sounds. Channel 1 can be clean or classic gain and Channel 2 can be lead 1 or lead 2. The only problem with this amp is that the modes on each channels are not footswitchable. You can only change from channel 1 to 2 via the one button footswitch. That's why this amp doesnt get a perfect 10 here. There are separate outputs for 4, 8 or 16 ohm and the reverb can be turned on and off if you buy an additionnal footswitch. There are a deep switch (accentuates bass) and tone shift (cuts middles) that are very useful if you want a really brutal tone. I wish it had seperate eq controls for the 2 channels though. This amp is a real beast and has more power than you need. I mostly use this amp for practicing at home ( Overkill? ). Its my first tube amp and now I really cant live without that sweet tube sound. I'm looking to perhaps, purchase a Marshall in the future, since I am quite impressed with this current rig!
Sound Quality:
This amp produces the most incredibly juicy sounds! Channel A (Classic Gain) goes from clean to blues to hard rock and further. OHHH the Clean sound! Marshall has finally done it. This amp has some GREAT clean tones. Very full with a great top end. Three dimensional sounding. Turning the gain up will get you into the realm of the Mighty Plexi ( even at lower volumes ). Engaging the Mode Switch can yield tones from SRV to a very big, tight bottom end. Moving over to Channel B (Lead) is where you get what you paid for. The best marshall distortion since they invented it. Lead 1 is punchy and full with a smooth top end that doesn't tear your head off. This sound is very dynamic, yielding different characteristics depending on how hard you pick and cleans up nicely when you back off your guitars volume. Juicy, very Juicy! Hitting the mode Switch and going to Lead 2, it gets even better. An increase in gain and more mids (in the right frequencies ( not nasally ) is just the start. Single notes just get huge and chords just ring out clear. No harsh top end, a buttery midrange, and a tight bottom end......and then you have the DEEP and TONE SHIFT buttons. Engaging the DEEP switch will have you thinking you are playing a Rectifier head but this bottom end stays tight even as you turn the amp up. This feature compliments all four modes perfectly, adding a whole new dimension to all sounds. I personally think this setting is what makes the amp, as it fits my style of playing to tone perfectly. The Tone Shift button scooped out the lower midrange and made the amp extremely tight. This is definately more for the guitarists that want a Pantera or Metallica sound, although I found it useful in all modes on both channels. One very cool thing about this head is that it sounds really good at lower volume. Of course it sounds even better the more you turn it up. The four Svetlana EL34's overdrive in a very sweet way and the distortion gets clearer and smoother the more the Master Volume is turned up. Even all the way up on 10 the amp was still smooth and tight and just plain HUGE sounding. I am so impressed by this Amp! The clean sounds got a little dirtier when the amp was cranked, but backing off the guitars volume a bit cleaned it up. You can get a very loud Clean sound without harsh distortion if you adjust the gain control for your guitar. If I haven't made it clear.....This head has tone out the ass. All this tone combined with these very cool useable extra's makes you want to play it all night and day.
On a final note, this amp does not have an irritating hum going on like my old amp did. Another aspect that gets my thumbs up approval is this amp is not overly complicated to use. Not a 101 dials and switches. More is not necessarily better. It doesn't get much easier to find a sweet tone. The only problem is every time I tweaked those dials, I seem to keep coming up with a sweet tone I didn't expect. ( and that's a good thing! )
The Marshall DSL100 JCM2000 is played through a Mesa 4x12 standard cab with Celestion Vintage 30 watt speakers. This rig is well suited for my Gibson LP Classic ( pictured ) and the mighty Ibanez SZ720FM. Both guitars now host the JB Model pup in the bridge. Both guitars are made of mahogany with a maple top and rosewood fret board. But plug them in and to my suprise, they both sound completely different. The LP is a brighter sounding guitar as compared to the SZ which has a darker, more brooding sound. That could be due to the fact that I have re-wired my LP. The Volume knobs when turned higher will cause more raunch to omit from the amp rather than the amp just getting louder. It's not a bad thing. The LP is more at home for blues, rock, classic rock. The SZ is more at home for hard rock, metal style playing. Gives me a nice variation.
Pictured here with the rig is JetBoy's own black Ibanez RG42. Awesome guitar in it's own right and a pleasure to play.
After a few hours of hooking up the amp to various foot pedals and such, and installing the newly aquired Seymour Duncan pickups, it's time to see how this baby sounds. Sounds great! Creamy sounding, rich tone with an air of dark broodiness. If you are after an LP sounding guitar but don't want to pay a Gibson price, try your hand at an SZ720 or any SZ series guitar. They are all pretty much the same... some just look a bit fancier when compared to others. I wanted the inlay design and liked the smokie amber colour of the 720. For your dollar, the SZ720 is hard to beat. I recommend you install your favorite brand of pickups as the stock ones will not do this guitar justice. In closing, I'd just like to say " ROCK ON ! "
