felineguitars
Well-known member
I have loved the Ibanez Sabre or S Type for years and have owned a few , but ultimately nothing has stuck around.
Part of the reason is that although I was once a keen Floyd Rose user and nearly all my guitars at one time had them, I have gradually moved away from using the bar and favour hardtail guitars
The big frustration is that the S type never seemed to be made as a hardtail (which seemed odd) - except for a one off model that was made in 1993 - The SF 470
As well as having a tunamatic and tailpiece it also featured a Gibson like 24.75" scale and smaller vintage like frets to appeal to the more vintage type player I guess.
So I've had an eye open for one of these for a while on ebay and a few months ago one popped up
i paid what seemed like an ok price and I rather like it
There were a few things which needed changing to make it the way I wanted it
1) body is bit chipped and scratched up, so I stripped all the paint off with a view to refinishing it or even adding a posh exotic wood veneer
2) try as I might I don't get on with middle pickups - they get in my way - so I removed it , routed out and filled the hole with a block of mahogany that matched the body wood, and then veneered the body front and rear with some Pommel Sapele - v pretty
3) Decided to put some Bare Knuckle Pickups in here - The new Aftermath pickup. They sound great in here. Tight and balanced - great for a wider range of stuff than you'd expect
4) Vintage frets don't suit me - so I've fitted Dunlop 6000 size - the huge ones! (same as many of my other guitars)
5) Fitted an Earvana shelf nut - worked a treat
6) a fair bit of rust here and there on screws etc - Easy to fix with new screw
7) Made a new truss rod cover
8) Upgaded pots etc - Some 550k ohm pots and a vitamin Q oil and paper cap
So here it is in all it's new found glory:
Part of the reason is that although I was once a keen Floyd Rose user and nearly all my guitars at one time had them, I have gradually moved away from using the bar and favour hardtail guitars
The big frustration is that the S type never seemed to be made as a hardtail (which seemed odd) - except for a one off model that was made in 1993 - The SF 470
As well as having a tunamatic and tailpiece it also featured a Gibson like 24.75" scale and smaller vintage like frets to appeal to the more vintage type player I guess.
So I've had an eye open for one of these for a while on ebay and a few months ago one popped up
i paid what seemed like an ok price and I rather like it
There were a few things which needed changing to make it the way I wanted it
1) body is bit chipped and scratched up, so I stripped all the paint off with a view to refinishing it or even adding a posh exotic wood veneer
2) try as I might I don't get on with middle pickups - they get in my way - so I removed it , routed out and filled the hole with a block of mahogany that matched the body wood, and then veneered the body front and rear with some Pommel Sapele - v pretty
3) Decided to put some Bare Knuckle Pickups in here - The new Aftermath pickup. They sound great in here. Tight and balanced - great for a wider range of stuff than you'd expect
4) Vintage frets don't suit me - so I've fitted Dunlop 6000 size - the huge ones! (same as many of my other guitars)
5) Fitted an Earvana shelf nut - worked a treat
6) a fair bit of rust here and there on screws etc - Easy to fix with new screw
7) Made a new truss rod cover
8) Upgaded pots etc - Some 550k ohm pots and a vitamin Q oil and paper cap
So here it is in all it's new found glory:
