AwakenTheSkies
Life is like a box of chocolates
This is a bit silly, but let's see if someone can help me figure this out. I bought this used Ibanez SZ 520, loved it and now I'm always looking for more of them.
But there's a little bit of a mystery with the pickups, which I changed over a month ago anyway so it's not a big deal. I'm just curious.
According to the serial number this guitar was made in December 2003.
And taking a look at the Ibanez catalogs, SZ 2003-2004 had a white nut and SZ1 and SZ2 pickups, which were said to be very good. Then 2005 and forward the nut is black and the pickups are Duncan Designed copies of a 59 and Distortion, which are not that good (I can confirm this).
My SZ has a white nut, that makes sense. But the pickups were Duncan Designed?
How is that possible? You could say the previous owner might have swapped them, but why would he do such a side or down grade?
The guitar came with the neck pickup magnet flipped because he wanted to do the phasey sound thing, and there was a coil split switch. So it's not like he swapped them last minute before selling it to me to keep the better pickups, there was a purpose to the whole electronic setup. And these DD pickups are exactly like the ones that came stock in SZ guitars after 2005. Bridge pickup with hex shaped polepieces in one of the bobbins and all that. What could have happened?
But there's a little bit of a mystery with the pickups, which I changed over a month ago anyway so it's not a big deal. I'm just curious.
According to the serial number this guitar was made in December 2003.
And taking a look at the Ibanez catalogs, SZ 2003-2004 had a white nut and SZ1 and SZ2 pickups, which were said to be very good. Then 2005 and forward the nut is black and the pickups are Duncan Designed copies of a 59 and Distortion, which are not that good (I can confirm this).
My SZ has a white nut, that makes sense. But the pickups were Duncan Designed?
How is that possible? You could say the previous owner might have swapped them, but why would he do such a side or down grade? The guitar came with the neck pickup magnet flipped because he wanted to do the phasey sound thing, and there was a coil split switch. So it's not like he swapped them last minute before selling it to me to keep the better pickups, there was a purpose to the whole electronic setup. And these DD pickups are exactly like the ones that came stock in SZ guitars after 2005. Bridge pickup with hex shaped polepieces in one of the bobbins and all that. What could have happened?
