Ibanez SZ320 MH Review

History: I mainly play guitar and drums, i have been playing guitar for three years now, and play in two bands. My favourite type of music is somewhere between rock and metal, which is what we play in my band.

Purchase: I bought this guitar from a local retailer in norfolk, england for £375GBP (approx $650 USD). I bought it in April 2004, as a replacement for my SG.

What I Like About This Unit: The finish on the guitar is absolutely bueatiful, the MH, (Mahoganey) version, is a real eye catcher, both onstage, and in a studio. The pickups are superb, as Ibanez decided to fit dual seymore duncan humbuckers, instead of their own brand ones. The neck has a nice thin profile, and due to the accuracy in the build quality, with a slight bit of tweaking an incredibly low action can be achieved. The headstock is something a bit different for an ibanez, whilst still having the trademark angled end. Through body stringing provides superb resonance, especially as it is coupled with the 3 pc. set in neck, that makes this guitar truly special. Inlays in neck are very attractive The Gibraltar III bridge, allows for superb resonance, and easy palm muting.

What I Do NOT Like About The Ibanez SZ320 MH: The finish on this guitar is quite fragile, as it is unlaquered. if extreme care is taken, there is no reason it wont look like new for ever, but extreme care really is necessary, and just dropping a tuner on it from a few inches can cause a fair dint!! The humbuckers sound superb for most effects that can be applied to them. however if you want to use overdrive with it then you will need to invest a fair amount of money in a decent pedal. Having tried several OD peedals with it the only one that sounds acceptable is BOSSs OD3, they do however sound good with distortion pedals. however all in all it is superb

SZ320 MH Quality: The finish of the guitar is very pleasing on the eyes, there is a small amount of stain on the edge of top of the fretboard, but most guitars will have a slight finish fault, even the most expensive ones. The only other slight complaint is that the jack socket to connect it up is quite loose, and it would of been nice if they had fitted a slightly higher quality one, to overcome the problem.

Summary: This guitar is absolutely awesome for nearly all styles of music, I probably would not use it for really heavey metal, but if I'd wanted a heavey metal axe, i would nuy a bc rich... Really well suited to light rock, but the pickups suit best funky rock. all in all worth every penny, better to play than any gibson, or fender i've played on, and has alot of the great looks found in the more expensive PRSs, which will cost atleast 4 times as much.

Rating of this product: 5

This Ibanez Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Mark Brown

Date: 2006-03-05