Ibanez SA260fm service!

Here's an Ibanez sa series guitar that came in for a setup and a pickup mod. The SA models are very nice guitars, comfortable to play, with a dream-like neck profile, low price tags and decent tones.












For instance, the sas32fm model has a set-neck construction and it's my favourite Ibanez:

 The sa260fm model has a bolt-on neck and a flamed maple top. Here are its official specs:

neck type	SA 3pc Maple neck
body	Quilted Maple top/Mahogany body w/Abalone body binding
fretboard	Bound rosewood fretboard w/Pearl dot inlay
fret	Jumbo frets
bridge	SAT Pro II bridge
neck pu	AHS (S) neck pu
middle pu	AHS (S) mid pu
bridge pu	True-Duo Bucker (H) bridge pu
hardware color	Chrome True-Duo switch on volume control (push/pull
Neck Dimensions	Scale 648mm/25.5" a : Width at Nut 43mm b : Width at Last Fret 56mm (at 21 F) c: Thickness at 1st 19.5mm d : Thickness at 12th 21.5mm Radius 400mmR

  The specs on this guitar are very good but this one needed a setup and a simple pickup wiring modification in order to play and sound even better!

First things first:
  Once I got the guitar, I removed the old string and cleaned it up. The frets were polished, the fretboard was thoroughly cleaned and lubricated. The nut was oiled and run with a pencil to get more tuning stability.

Pickup mod:
 Then, I checked the electronics and found that the duo humbucker pickup didn't sound that bright or different in split mode. So I rewired the push-pull pot the Seymour Duncan suggests in order to get a  single-coil tone in split mode. Now, the bridge 'bucker sounds definitely like a "true-duo"pickup as ibanez claims.




 Setup:
The guitar was finally set up with a brand new set of Ernie Ball skinny top strings. The 2-point tremolo was set up like a vintage 6-point tremolo in a non-floating position. This non-floating 2-point tremolo setup is much more stable, more comfortable to play with and makes tuning and string changes quite easy. You can also obtain better tuning stability, note definition(e.g. when bending), action and intonation accuracy with a non-floating trem.
 The guitar sounds and plays just like it should be. The playability is now excellent and you get to do drop D tunings in a second, not in a matter of minutes!...

Here are a few pictures of the actual guitar:

Cheers,
Thanos