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Ibanez S670

 

Review of the Ibanez S670 by The Man in the Jar

At last, a locking trem unit that isn't a pain in the arse!

Features of the Ibanez S670

Tuners - Unbranded, sealed mini-tuners that work smoothly and accurately. Always remember to loosen the three locking nuts on the nut before you go near the tuners.

Headstock - Classic, aggressive Ibanez scalpel design with the Ibanez logo in silver.

Nut - Standard locking nut with three clamps, each clamp holding two strings. 

Neck - Show me an Ibanez with a bad neck and I'll sacrifice my first-born child on your kitchen floor. This beautiful maple neck is no exception to the rule with its lovely slim and flat profile, perfect for the fast riffing required from a heavy metal machine like this. Although the neck is a bolt-on, the heel is really smoothly contoured so you won't have any painful high-speed accidents in the upper register.  

Fretboard - The medium-dark rosewood fretboard has a mottled grain and feel exceptionally smooth under the fingers. Each fret marker is made from two piece of inlaid pearloid which form an oval. the space between the two pieces forms the stylised "S" from the S-series logo. The board is fully bound in antiqued white binding that extends up and around the headstock.   

Frets - Big fat polished frets make for a big fat string-bending experience.

Action - Really low from the box, this guitar has benefited from a good set-up.

Body - The mahogany "Stratoid" body is a bit of a revelation. The central part around the neck pocket, pickups and bridge is of a normal thickness. But as the body extends out to the edges it has been relentlessly carved away to eradicate excess weight. The top edge of the upper horn for example is only half-an-inch thick. Not only does this make the S670 lighter and more comfortable to play, it also makes for a superb look. The mahogany is topped with flamed maple and the "antique flat burst" finish tones the maple to a mahogany shade at the edge. The top is bound with a single pinstripe binding. 

Bridge - I've always had a bit of a problem with floating trem systems. Invariably when I receive one for review I face at least half-an-hour's work to get the system into balance, properly tuned and locked off. And quite frankly I want to spend my spare time playing guitar, not tinkering with the springs and screws. Consequently I do not own a guitar with a floating trem (which is possibly why my trem technique sounds more like a Worried Cat that a Wailing Banshee). I knew that the Zero Resistance (ZR) trem fitted to the S670 was different the moment I started to tune up.

Normally you'd expect to tune backwards and forwards across the strings while the floating trem butt-munched its way into a balanced position. Then after locking down the nut you'd expect to fanny with the fine tuning knobs for a while until everything was properly in tune. With the ZR I loosened the locking nut and tuned once. Yes, once. I cast a grateful glance to the heavens and locked down the nut. Re-checking showed the S670 was still spot on. So I wound in the trem arm and proceeded to give the trem an extreme work-out. When I say extreme, I mean extreme. There was little that was musical involved in this test, it was my own little version of Brainiacs and, yes, I have to tell you it did worry the cat.

I let the unit return to its own rest point and checked the tuning. It was ever-so-slightly flat, but not anything you'd notice in a live environment. The amazing thing was the guitar remained in tune with itself, which indicates the slight slip could've been due to string-stretch. Ibanez claim that if a string breaks the others will stay in tune. From this evidence I believe them.

So let's take a closer look at this beast of a bridge. From the topside it looks very much like a run-of the mill floating trem, but flip the guitar and you see this:

The two outer springs in the picture on the left are attached to a stop-bar that gives this unit its extraordinary stability. The two central springs are the workhorse springs that handle the main operation. Remember when you had to adjust spring tension with a screwdriver?  No more. The picture on the right shows the thumbwheel that adjusts spring tension on the ZR trem. It is apparently possible to remove the extra springs and stop bar to return the unit to full floating operation, although why you would want to is beyond me.     

Pickups - Two Ibanez humbuckers sit either side of an Ibanez single-coil.

Controls - Single Volume and Tone control with a five-way pickup selector.

Strap-buttons - Two medium strap buttons, one on the base of the body and one on the upper horn.

Output Jack - The output jack is on the front of the body set at an angle. Much like a Strat, but here the socket is housed in a drilled aperture rather than a moulded plate.

Finish - This Korean-made instrument is finished extremely well.

 

Sound of the Ibanez S670

This guitar has rightly found favour with heavy metal and extreme metal players. All the pickups are high-output with the bridge humbucker sounding particularly vicious. The provision of the central single coil is really useful for mellowing out the bridge humbucker or fattening up the neck sound, but run alone it has its own grittily useful voice. 

 

Overall Impressions of the Ibanez S670

This is a fabulous little guitar. I can think of no instrument so well suited to its purpose. It's a real joy to play and wear, it's well balanced and comfortable on the strap with some unique style features that make it look amazing. If you want a guitar with a trem system I would highly recommend a ZR-equipped guitar. This system is much less hassle that a floater and it has the added advantage that you can convert it to floating should you so wish. If you play Metal you need to be aware of the Ibanez S670.    

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