Ibanez S470

It was a beautiful May day in 2007. Herman Li had come to Malaysia to conduct an Ibanez guitar clinic. My guitar bro and I had long been listening to Dragonforce and was looking forward to the opportunity to catch Herman Li in all his guitar playing glory. If I remember correctly, the guitar clinic ticket was close to RM40, but we were willing to dish out the dough to catch Herman and view his technical wizardry. The event was held in KL, and as per usual, my guitar bro and I would indulge in a bit of nasi goreng tambah telur tambah ayam, before heading out to a night of madness. How the night ended, was truly insane.

So we walked in to the registration counter and the place was flooded with people - in excess of 300. This is quite unusual for a guitar clinic, but the organizer's were well prepared for a large crowd, and this is why they shifted the venue to KL. As we were walking in, we were distracted by a couple of white sheets of paper which you are given after the registration. It turned out that the white piece of paper was for a lucky draw to win an Ibanez S470. The conversation between my guitar bro and I was short and succinct. I don't remember the exact words of our convo, but I know I ended the convo saying "I'm going to win that guitar".

Fast forward till the end of the concert, and the lucky draw event was going on. About 10 names were called up without my guitar bro and I winning anything. The lucky 10 called up were getting clinic tshirts and everything else. When it came to the grand prize, I suddenly heard Herman Li pause and stare at the sheet of paper, and begin to badly pronounce my name. In 2 seconds I jumped off my seat and went "YEAH!!!". And the rest is history. The S470 was presented to me by Herman himself, with his signature on the cutaway. Following that, I managed to meet him, shake his hand and got him to sign my Dragonforce CD sleeve. What a great night!

Quick Facts:

Neck Material: Maple
Neck Type: Wizard II
Fingerboard: Rosewood (22 Frets)
Body Material: Mahogany
Neck Pickup: AH-1
Middle Pickup: AS - 1
Bridge Pickup: AH - 2
Lo TRS Bridge

Make: Made in Korea

Ibanez S 470 Review

Short version of this review is that I've hardly used this guitar in fear of wearing out the signature. I did, however, use this guitar to record two songs from my second album - Oriental Love Affair and Lifeline. The tone of the guitar is exactly what I had expected out of an Ibanez - a nice rocky edge, with smooth tones on the neck, and bordering on metal brutality on the bridge. I'll admit I've hardly used the middle pickup, and if you've read my earlier reviews, in my experience, the middle pickup for Ibanez guitars are usually absolutely rubbish (with the exception of the Prestige series of guitars).

In any case, I recorded those songs with a Boss MT-2 pedal, and the result was exactly what I was looking for. Single note picking on distortion can get a little bit too messy, but nothing a good producer can't clean up. Lead lines can be creamy and smooth on the neck, especially on the higher frets. What I enjoyed - and to me is one of the hallmarks of a good Ibanez guitar - is how versatile these guitars are. One look at it and you tend to think it's an all out metal guitar, but the variety of tones you get out of it always surprises me. I guess this is why I own more than 5 Ibanez guitars - Japan, Korean , Indonesia and China made ones.

In any case, the S470 is an "inexpensive" Korean guitar, worth considering if you're looking for something versatile to suit a harder rock genre. I've coupled it alongside several other pedals and amp distortion and it usually performs well. The output is good enough for both studio, stage and recording, so unless you're looking for a specific tone, there's no real need to change the stock pickups. Well done to Ibanez on that part.

Playability wise, you're looking at a set of jumbo frets, so you can afford a little bit of sloppiness and still hit the right notes. The Wizard II neck is fast as always, and the action is a hair away from the fretboard. Keep in mind though, that this guitar only has 22 frets, and not a 24 you would expect from an RG. The S470 is a classier guitar, slimmer body, Lo TRS tremolo for a lot of "horse screaming" tones, and with pickups with adequate output for most types of music and settings. In short, worth exploring this guitar if you just need 1 axe to cut across many genres.

Overall Rating: 8