Revisiting the Ibanez S521 - Expensive is not necessarily better
The Ibanez S521 in Blackberry Sunburst. At $569 CAD, it is an awesome instrument
What makes one guitar or bass better than another one?
Some people think it has everything to do the decal on the headstock. Others think it has everything to do with the name of the manufacturer. Others think it has everything to do with where in the world it is made. Some think that it is all in the wood used in the body, the top, the neck and the fretboard. Some think it is solely in the piece parts used, such as the fretwire, the potentiometers, the tuners or even the capacitors.
So what is it for you? I would like to hear from you folks in the comments if you are willing. Whatever you say is going to be correct. For you. And let’s be fair, in the real world that is all that matters.
And of course, I must thank the fine people at The Arts Music Store for getting me an S521 for another look and to measure for this article. If you are in Canada, you should shop there, either in person or online. They do not pay me to say so.
Right For You
Or to be fair, I can only really be completely objective of what is right for me. I can and do tell you if I like something, or if I don’t. I’m always right. For me. As has become a popular response or caveat, “your mileage may vary”.
What a silly thing to say, of course your perceptions will vary because you are the only you. Unless of course you choose to ignore yourself and place the opinions of another entity above your own. Your call, but if you choose to disconnect yourself from your own mind, you are, as far as I am concerned, utterly lost.
So what really does matter? You can and should do this assessment for yourself. For some people, the weight of an instrument is a big deal. While I do prefer lighter over heavier from the physical strain perspective, it’s not a critical component for me. Neck carve and fingerboard radius as well as neck thickness are much more important to me because of my physiology and what causes me physical pain. I’m not a fan of pain. And while I have a reasonable tolerance for pain, I wonder why I would inflict it upon myself while playing an instrument. It reduces my enjoyment so I stay away from necks and their related elements that cause pain.
We all pay a higher price for certain body woods. Why? Is it because we are told it’s better, or because it was the wood used nearly a hundred years ago? For me, I don’t care about that, I care about how resonant it is, how much natural sustain it provides and how well it does the job it has been assigned to do. We can, I think agree that mahogany is a popular wood, both for bodies and necks. But why? Is that because it was once readily available because it was used widely for much larger industries (factually that is true). Does that make it sound better than other woods for the purposes it is used for? Your decision, but if you say yes, I would like to know which specific sub-species of true mahogany that you are referring to. For years Sapele, was referred to as a type of mahogany. It isn’t a mahogany at all. According to my reference material, The Wood Database, they list over 26 different woods that are either called mahogany directly or inferred to be a type of mahogany. However, they also define the species information along with the subspecies. If we consider Swietenia macrophylla aka Honduran Mahogany, Brazilian Mahogany, American Mahogany, Genuine Mahogany and Big Leaf Mahogany, we see a substantial game of bullshit bingo used for just one species of a mahogany. Khaya ivorensis aka African Mahogany is a different species entirely. Sapele is Entandrophragma yet another species entirely. So how do these things all get referred to as mahogany? That’s called marketing. By the way, all the woods I have named so far fall into the family MELIACEAE, which defines a gene family that encompasses over 50 genera and over 700 unique species. So please spare me your speaking about how mahogany is better than something else because it is mahogany. Which one? Which family, which genera, which species and which subspecies. No manufacturer tells you this information, mostly because they don’t know either, unless they OWN the plantation and control what gets planted and harvested.
How does the body sound? What does the wood sound like when tapped? Does it resonant or is it dead? When assembled into an instrument, is the final thing resonant, or does it ring like a crap drum with no sustain at all. All laminates are pieces of wood glued together. The process of lamination creates stiffness because the pieces do not share the same internal structure. It also allows for less expensive wood cuts to be used. Is that bad? Certainly not in an instrument neck. For many people who scream about solid bodies and then demand a maple cap, they are getting a laminate and that will be less resonant than a single piece solid body. The old Les Paul Customs did not have the maple cap of the standards, and are widely proven to be more resonant. In an acoustic, you want the top to be highly resonant. You do not want the sides to be resonant, nor the back because they are then stealing the finite potential energy for vibration from the top. I awn both solid sides and back and laminated sides and back acoustics and because all have excellent highly resonant tops, I have lost nothing other than expense in the instruments with laminate sides and back. To be clear, I paid A LOT less for these guitars and do not find that I have compromised anything in sound.
Does neck wood matter? Yes. A neck needs to be stiff and to not bend. Whatever mechanism achieves this is a good thing. Basses have used multiple pieces of woods for years because the force on the neck of tuned strings is enormous. Does a one piece neck mean better? How would it? Some people eschew necks with scarf joints or glued on headstock wings. A good wood glue is actually stronger than the woods it holds together.
But all the best guitars are lacquer finished. Are they? Where is the data to support this assertion? Lacquer is thin and will crack under temperature shifts, It is chemically brittle. It also takes on a yellowish tint as it ages. I love a high gloss lacquer finish because I love the look. But that’s entirely cosmetic. A polyurethane finish does not discolour, does not crack because it is less brittle, it handles temperature and humidity changes better and it is no longer 1972 when poly finishes were dime thick. A good poly finish holds up and stays looking great. Bob Taylor has proven that over many decades. So what’s the big deal about lacquer? It was the only decent finish available in the nineteen fifties, seventy years ago. Oh wait man, lacquer breathes! It let’s the wood breathe? Really? Wood can breathe through sanding sealer, necessary under any lacquer finish? Some people just will not let facts get in the way of their opinions. And for those folks, that’s just fine, but idiotic for others to accept out of hand.
Vintage builds are better you know. Really? Which ones specifically? We have all kinds of guitars built today using the same materials and pieces as were used in the late 1950’s. Theses guitars can be really excellent players, but they don’t sound or play like a real old instrument, because they are not real old instruments. And by the way, there was very little consistency and no ISO levels of quality control back in those days. The instruments coveted today are the ones that survived because they were not awful. Old is not necessarily better, vintage reissues are not the same as real old instruments. They are just old, or made in an old way, that has likely been improved substantially over time. Will a 2025 built instrument be coveted in 2075? I won’t be around to find out, but I suspect not, but not because of a lack of quality but because innovation in creative music will have been murdered by AI and its moronic proponents.
Are electronics worse today than they were 70 years ago? Of course not. They are built better, more consistent and now cost less per unit than ever. But you cannot fix stupid or delusional.
What materials are in the strings we use? If I have pickups built specifically to replicated the sound of a late 50’s Gibson PAF and I am using steel strings, it will never happen. The closest thing I could get to the sound of that guitar in its day would be to string it with Monel strings, and also force the decay of the magnetic field as if 70 years has passed. That’s what great pickup builders do., They don’t build a PAF like they did way back way, they build their PAF to sound like what that 70 year old pickup would sound like at age 70. I think builders like Tim Mills and Ron Ellis have done a great job at this kind of work, but what if you are happier with the sound of a new pickup with new strings? Maybe this whole bag of vintage fakery is not the right answer for you.
So what as any of this to do with the Ibanez S521. First and foremast, it is a fantastic guitar regardless of the decal or the price tag. Any player handed it blindfolded would find this. That player may not care for the feel, or the sound of the pickups with no tone circuit into a clean amp, That would be fair, but I do. At $569 CAD MAP, I have not found a better instrument in this price point. And price point matters, because not everyone can afford $3500 for a guitar with specs no better than this guitar. It’s the player not the instrument. I could hand this guitar to Eric Johnson or Jimmy Page or even guitarists who don’t inspire me, such as Tim Henson, and they would sound like themselves. Would it be the ideal instrument for any of them? I have no idea, but they would still be themselves. People now equate Eric Clapton or Buddy Guy with the Stratocaster, but either gentleman would play and sound like themselves with any playable guitar. The Ibanez S521 is immensely playable. I have detailed the actual measurements made by scientific method below because some people really want to know, but I will also say that I can pick up this “cheap” guitar and play it for hours without pain, standing or sitting, through any amp, pedal board or modeller and be a very happy guy. Whether that is true for you, only you will know, but if it is, you just proved that the price tag and the decal don’t actually mean anything at all if you like it.
Ibanez calls the body wood Meranti, which is sometimes called Philipine Mahogany. It’s not a Mahogany at all. It’s another species called Shorea spp. Does that make it bad? Not at all, just not one of the so called preferred woods, although its physical specifications are very similar to mahogany. My example guitar, weighs only 4.85 pounds and rings like a bell, so there is nothing bad about that. The neck is called Maple, but the subspecies is not specified, same as every other maple neck in the majority and those only use marketing names, not sub species names either. What I know is that it is very stiff and in the time that I have been able to spend some time with it, over several months, it hasn’t moved at all. The fingerboard is called Rosewood. Whether it is actually a subspecies of Dalbergia, it’s not documented. It feels good, has rosewood’s open pores and is dark coloured. Feels good, plays well, so I don’t care if it is rosewood at all. If I did not like the colour, and I do, the local hardware store sells rosewood coloured stains. Many of them, none exactly the same colour. Quelle surprise considering how many different Dalbergias there are and how many additional woods are called rosewood when they actually aren’t a rosewood at all. Marketing and truth rarely encounter each other. The S521 proves my point that you can find a superb instrument that is tonally wonderful, a joy to play and that sounds terrific without spending huge sums of money, or paying for a particular decal. You sure can if you choose to, but I am inclined to ask why.
I have not touched on country of manufacture. We see a lot of marketing drivel about being designed in one place but built in another. None of us play a design, we play a finished product. It’s not the location of build that matters, it is the limit on the budget for materials and labour that matters. Now you may choose to buy only an instrument made in the USA for patriotic reasons or because you believe it is supporting American labour. Nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Being Canadian, I could make a similar decision, and while I prefer Boucher acoustic guitars over all others as a generality, and I am pleased that they are made in Canada by Canadians, I also know that rosewood does not grow here, bubinga does not grow here and some of the other components like tuning machines or pickups are not built here. I choose Boucher because by my criteria for myself, they sound and play better than similar instruments from other makers in general, but at purchase time, I buy whatever sounds and plays best to my ears and hands. I own wonderful acoustic guitars from Martin, Gibson, and Taylor, plus single units from PRS made in Indonesia as well as Godin instruments and multiple Boucher guitars made here in Canada. A great instrument is never defined by where it is built. There are many wonderful violins not made in Italy, flutes not made in Germany and to avoid run on sentences, you get the point.
Here are the measurements made using the example S521, taken off the rack as it came from the box. The action is a bit high by my preference but completely playable.
So am I saying that you can get a fantastic guitar for under $600 CAD? Yes I am. Do I recommend the S521, even over more expensive instruments from the same or other companies? Absolutely. Should you buy one? Play one yourself and decide for yourself.
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