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I have a 1991 Ibanez 540 sltd. It was my second guitar and I've been playing it for more than 10 years. I've always liked it, but now that I own other guitars I'm realizing that it is the worst sounding guitar that I own. The guitar plays great and sounds good if I play metal all the time using an effects processor, but when I play straight into the amp or with just a couple pedals, it sounds very sterile and has no character. Right now it has a Dimarzio Fred in the neck and a Duncan Custom in the bridge. Both are great pickups. So why is this guitar so lifeless?

Is it the wizard II neck which is maple with a rosewood fretboard? This neck is very thin - which I use to like.

Is it the body, which is mahogany, but also very thin.

Is it the lo pro edge tremolo which is not hardened steel. I think it is some alloy that Ibanez came up with.

Or is it the pickups?

I'd appreciate any comments you may have. Thanks!

Welcome to the froum. Is the tone that's bothering ou cmoing out of a particular amp, or is it out of every amp you play out of?

TO be honest, I never found Ibanez RG's to be very inspiring guitars. They sound thin and tinny to my ear. Maybe it's just your tastes that are evolving.

welcome to the board

i have a 540s (see avatar) that sounded uninspiring to me - but that was with the stock pups ... you have some nice pickups in there, but you might want to try some new ones to see if you get some mojo back into it ... maybe something from the AIIP / PG / CC family .. or the 59 / C5 family would make it more to your liking ... i went with the 59n/C5b and am very happy

i dont have the lo pro edge, so i cant say for sure what effect on tone that has ... but i voted for it as the culprit given that i was able to dial in satisfying tone with the same body and neck ...

if no pup change helps, it might just be that you have to keep that guitar for a certain role, but not expect too much versatility out of it .. you have a handful of other real nice guitars listed in your signature - i'm sure that all together it's a pretty inspiring arsenal of tone ...

hope this helps
cheers
t4d

quot;you shouldnt teach a pig to sing ... it frustrates you and annoys the pigquot;

I'd say it is most likely a combination of things, but that the bridge is probably the biggest culprit. Floyd's don't make much contact with the body and a lot of energy is lost. The ibanez floyd, as you stated, is even worse because of the less dense material they use. New pups might help, but you might just make that your metal guitar. I sold my 540 years ago. I've been getting a lot of work doing metal guitar stuff lately and I wish I had my old 540 or RG around to handle the task.

Mike

Oh..I also wanted to say that it probably isn't the body, or at least its not due to the small size of the body. My Parker's mahogany body is probably similar in mass to the 540 and it is extremely rich in tone. Lots of nice, wooly midrange growl. I love that thing...

Usually a problem like this can result from a combination of things.

You've got some good pickups in there but maybe they're not your style? Maybe it's time for a change. I've played thick necks before that lend themselves to good sound characteristics but those necks were usually made out of real premium wood and were very stable. I've never found the mid-range Ibanez necks to be too satisfying. Thinner bodies do tend to produce less heavyweight tone but those Sabers usually have a pretty good rep... I dunno about the older ones, but the newer Ibanez Edge Series trems (they're in the Satch models I like), when set up properly, are on par with Floyd Rose stuff and thats pretty darn good, IMO. A trem thats set up properly will have a less pronounced effect on the tone than a badly-set one. It is preferable to have a hardened steel-made bridge like an OFR, though.

I've looked at your other guitars listed in the sig and they all seem preferable to myself, sight unseen if I was going for tone. Personally I'd try a bunch of little things first. Examples:

- If you don't use the trem that much, block it off and give yourself a little more sustain and resonance.

- Try using a different string brand (D'addarios or any nickel-wound string tends to sound better to me) or maybe moving up one gauge (if you do that reset the guitar accordingly).

- Maybe the pickup height is off? Pickups that are too far away from the strings won't produce the strongest tone, and if they're set too close it could kill the sustain and screw with intonation.

These three are all little changes and I'm sure more people can auggest others, and remember that a bunch of small changes can lead up to one big change!

If you try everything you can (including a pickup swap to a model you like better) maybe it's just that your taste in guitars has evolved and the Ibanez is no longer appealing to you. It happens. Give some of those suggestions a try! Let me know what you think. BTW what kind of music do you liek to play and what kind of sound are you shooting for?

Thanks to everyone who responded and voted.

BD2-

I like all styles of music and that's why I have a variety of guitars. The Ibanez was my overall rock guitar and soloing (with a tremolo). Now that I have the others, I notice that they sound a lot better - more inspiring, more tone, etc. Like you said, maybe the Ibanez will just have to be my metal guitar and I shouldn't expect it to do other styles. Actually I shouldn't expect it to do all styles, but I would still want it to do a better job at rock/metal (without having to resort to a lot of effects). I guess I wish it was like my other guitars - except that it will have a tremolo which the others do not have.

I think I will try other strings etc. I have 10-46 nickel rockers on them now.

My tastes have changed over time, but would still like to have a rock/metal guitar with a tremolo.

i would say a combination of pickups and your lo pro edge tremolo.

Rather than trying to make this guitar into something it's not, I would suggest selling it and getting something you'll like a lot better. You can pick up a used American-made Peavey Wolfgang Special for $400 or so...now there's a top-notch rock/metal guitar with a trem. They are the best sounding tremolo guitars I've ever tried. I can't imagine you not being happy with one of those. To be honest, other than the Satriani model, I've never been impressed with a single Ibanez guitar. All of them seem to have thin bodies, thin necks, and floating Floyds, none of which I like.

Ryan

It's time to put the stock pickups back in it, and sell it.

The reason it sounds the way it does is because it's a budget oriented guitar that you've obviously grown past. I won't break it down, but it really has everything working against it, outside of the pickups.

Gamp;L, Jackson, MusicMan, Anderson.......that's the direction to go.

ive found that guitars with thin necks sound thinner and less full sounding. i could be making this up but those are my findings. as others have said, the lo pro trem cant help. ive got an american deluxe v neck strat with a floating trem and i hate it for that reason. if i were you id just sell the guitar and try again. when you go to buy a different one, play it unplugged and see how it sounds and then plug it in. just my $.02

Those thin ibanez necks aren't a recipe for good tone. To me, the ibanez sabres and RGs are designed with a primary focus on playability for athletic, usually gained out playing styles, with tone (at least in the pre-80s, 'vintage' sense) a distant second.

They are a specific horse for a specific course.

I went through the same thing with a custom shredder strat I had built. Total quality, but my ears changed in the years after I got it. I still own it, but it's really a nostalgia guitar for me now.

ditto on the pickups, that rg is a pretty damn good guitar, what kind of tone are you looking for? Try a humbucker from hell in the neck and either a jb or distortion in the bridge, this is a nice versatile combo and sounds great with mahogany.

I would say that it's a combanation of all the things you listed...the thin Ibanez guitars just never sounded good to me, a thin neck is a tone killer as is ANY thpe of locking tremolo...even an OFR! And, maybe those pickups are just not good with that guitar...maybe you've just out grown it, and something quot;betterquot; is needed...Im not ripping on your axe, but maybe the whole thing is the problem.

Thanks for the replies. I not sure what I'll do. I'll probably keep it the way it is and use it for metal using a lot of effects.

The poll and your responses pretty much reflected what I was thinking.

I'm new to the board, but I wanted to jump in here.. I'm currently playing a cheaper Ibanez RG and I like it.. But it has the basswood body.. Something I think that matters with these guitars is that to get some good tone you need a powerful pickup and something that is clear in tone.. That allows the notes to come thru.. I love pickups likee the Duncan Distortion, Dimarzio Distortion, Duncan JB, etc, etc. and you should probably block the trem which is what I do.. as they for sure are tone killers.. You can always do what the Wolfgang does and that's dive only with the trem blocked and you still have contact.. Also, I think it matters if the pickups are floating, or are directly mounted to the wood like the Wolgang.. The wolfie special and the RG guitars are made of the same wood, so all things being equal they should sound similiar.. if constructed the same.. ie,. Pickups mounted to the body and the trem dives only and rests on the body or on wood at least, etc..

Tim


Originally Posted by rspst14Rather than trying to make this guitar into something it's not, I would suggest selling it and getting something you'll like a lot better. You can pick up a used American-made Peavey Wolfgang Special for $400 or so...now there's a top-notch rock/metal guitar with a trem. They are the best sounding tremolo guitars I've ever tried. I can't imagine you not being happy with one of those. To be honest, other than the Satriani model, I've never been impressed with a single Ibanez guitar. All of them seem to have thin bodies, thin necks, and floating Floyds, none of which I like.

Ryan

I'm with you on this... i have never found an Ibanez super strat that sounded good... The cheaper ones feel like stones!

WhoFan


Originally Posted by IndyManI'm new to the board, but I wanted to jump in here.. I'm currently playing a cheaper Ibanez RG and I like it.. But it has the basswood body.. Something I think that matters with these guitars is that to get some good tone you need a powerful pickup and something that is clear in tone.. That allows the notes to come thru.. I love pickups likee the Duncan Distortion, Dimarzio Distortion, Duncan JB, etc, etc. and you should probably block the trem which is what I do.. as they for sure are tone killers.. You can always do what the Wolfgang does and that's dive only with the trem blocked and you still have contact.. Also, I think it matters if the pickups are floating, or are directly mounted to the wood like the Wolgang.. The wolfie special and the RG guitars are made of the same wood, so all things being equal they should sound similiar.. if constructed the same.. ie,. Pickups mounted to the body and the trem dives only and rests on the body or on wood at least, etc..

Tim

I play a pair of 1994 imported Jackson Reverse Dinky's and they are made out of Basswood, one has the cheap Floyd copy and the other i have replaced with a Floyd Original... I block the trems to go down only on both. The one that still has the stock Floyd i replaced the posts with better machined posts from Stew Mac... The $12 those replacement Floyd posts costs is worth the effort!!!! The cheaper Floyd posts rock in the wind and the better harder posts seem to help tone as well as tuning.

I also have a costom made start that is made out of Basswood and it sounds great!!!! Basswood can sound amazing. Sometimes i wonder what grade and type of Basswood some companies use..... Some Basswood is amazing and some stinks....

WhoFan

I used to own one of those also. It was pretty limp and lifeless with the stock pickups. I put a duncan distortion in the bridge and two cool rails in place of the single coils. It immediately became the best sounding guitar I owned. I wish I never sold it.

The RG that I had from Ibanez rang out like you woudln't believe, and it had a big basswood body it seemed to me.. Now I know the S series like the original poster I think stated he has, have little bodies, but the RG series guitars have pretty big bodies really. I think they are thicker than a standard strat and wider and taller, but I might be wrong.. Maybe it's just perception on my part.. My wolfie sounded great too with basswood.. I think the hardware makes a huge difference as does the pickups and the amp.. The basswood does need to be good, but I've heard really good Ibaenz guitars that rang out really good, but they were the more expensive Jap models, or one's with better bridges or no trems, etc.. I think Ibanez has tried to make money off of the lower versions of the RG by cheating on the hardware.. I've also found that the real floyds do sound better especially if they are recessed, and you can get some killer flutter sounds, and cool whammy effects with them.. I just hate it that this new guitar I just ordered has a trem, but I got it really cheap and otherwise it's a 10 and I know the guy that I bought it off of, and he always treats me good.. He says it rings really good and so it probably does. Then when I block it or put a real floyd in it, I bet it will sound great with that and new pups. Like a thousand dollar guitar. I don't have the bucks now, or I would have bought the Jackson DKMGT or whatever it is with the strings thru the body as I've had guitars with this and it helps a bunch with sustain and tone. As EVH said, everything should be touching to get the good tone. I find basswood is a great resonant wood for it's weight. It's a little blurry it seems to me, and can be a tad bit muddy, but if you get a pickup with good mids it seems to take that out of it. EMG's work great in basswood as does the Duncan Distortion since it's so clear sounding even with ton's of gain. My fav with distortion because the individual notes just ring thru, yet on most guitars I've had it in, I could turn down the volume knob and play blues rythem, etc, and even get something of a clean sound with the right volume pot.
Originally Posted by WhoFanI play a pair of 1994 imported Jackson Reverse Dinky's and they are made out of Basswood, one has the cheap Floyd copy and the other i have replaced with a Floyd Original... I block the trems to go down only on both. The one that still has the stock Floyd i replaced the posts with better machined posts from Stew Mac... The $12 those replacement Floyd posts costs is worth the effort!!!! The cheaper Floyd posts rock in the wind and the better harder posts seem to help tone as well as tuning.

I also have a costom made start that is made out of Basswood and it sounds great!!!! Basswood can sound amazing. Sometimes i wonder what grade and type of Basswood some companies use..... Some Basswood is amazing and some stinks....

WhoFan