UPDATED : An SC320 appeared on eBay and the seller provided me with specs, find out about the “missing link” SC320 model.We found that the PRS Custom 24 Piezo weighs between 7.35lbs (3.3kgs) and 7.85lbs (3.6kgs). Whether this last model was ever produced is unclear, but Google turns up almost nothing about it except a passing reference on a French forum to it being a German model. The SC420CM was just the SC420 with a curly maple cap, and there is reference to an SC320 model in the European 1999 catalogue – but nowhere else – which looks to be the SC420 with the V6 pickups and black plastic surrounds of the SCA220. There are a couple of other variations that seem even rarer than the main models – some were only released in certain territories, and some were niche models such as the SC500N, a nylon-string piezo-equipped guitar in the same shape featuring the same neck and a slotted headstock. The neck inlays are pared back to the 12th fret only, with a complicated inlaid block made of several woods. If this isn’t fancy enough, there’s an SC1620 Prestige based on the SC620, issued in 2000 with the full Prestige custom shop fret finishing treatment, stained nickel hardware, it gives the back-angled headstock a figured maple cap to match the body. At the headstock, a dark rosewood face is also single bound. The cream-bound ebony fingerboard has pearlescent oval inlays and an abalone parallelogram at the 12th fret. All the hardware is gold-plated, the body has real multiple binding on the front edge with a nicely figured flame maple cap. Moving up to the top of the range, the SC620 takes the SC420 as a base and adds a lot more glitz. You get two Ibanez V6f ceramic humbuckers within plastic surrounds, but the 5-way switching options are retained (one source indicated that position 4 only gives the coil tapped neck pickup), the bridge is identical to the SC420’s, while the neck is the same profile but with a back-tilted headstock. The finish is solid all the way round, there’s no faux binding, and there are two large rear cut-outs for the controls and jack socket, which is edge-mounted. The body on the SCA220 features the curved SC top with a flat back and wide belly carve. SCA220Īt the bottom of the range is the SCA220, which loses the thin body but keeps most of the hardware. The heel features Ibanez’s All-Access Neck Joint (AANJ), for great access to the top end. With a 305mm (12″) radius, the neck only gets 2mm thicker between the 1st and 12th frets, and the medium profile is smoothly rounded, feeling like a slimmed-down Tele neck rather than a skinny shred machine. This is actually more advanced than most modern PRS wraparound bridges, where intonation of individual strings is fixed. The Shortstop II bridge is preset to the fretboard radius, overall intonation changes are handled by screws behind the mounting studs, while individual strings can be adjusted by moving the saddles, which can then be locked into place with a small hex screw on each. Ibanez V1 (neck) and V2 (bridge) pickups are controlled by a 5-way switch that adds two extra sounds – the inner coils only on both pickups, and the neck humbucker in parallel mode, which is totally different in character. The neck features small dot position markers from the 3rd fret onwards, and the headstock face is painted black, with a rosewood truss rod cover. It was widely available in two colours, black and ‘black cherry’, with unpainted faux binding around the edge of the body, the pickups mounts are chrome, as is all other hardware. The jack socket is built into the face of the guitar as with normal S guitars. The pickup switch and pots are all front-loaded, with the control knobs sitting in recessed dishes, and a small circular backplate behind them for all the wiring. The SC420 has a thin, lightweight mahogany body, and features an inventive method of mounting the controls to avoid losing too much body wood to cutouts. I’ll start with the ‘standard’ model, the SC420, and describe how the others differ from it. All feature 22-fret necks, offset 3-a-side headstock, dual humbuckers and the Shortstop II wraparound bridge/tailpiece. Based around a PRS-equivalent 25.1″ scale neck (compared to the standard 25.5″ scale seen on normal RG and S-series models), the S-Classic range featured 3 distinct models, plus a Prestige option at the top of the range, all made in Japan at the Fujigen factory. In 1997, perhaps spurred on by the growing popularity of PRS, Ibanez brought out the S-Classic range, a reworked attempt at a slim fixed bridge S-model guitar. Although it stuck around until 1994, the range never expanded beyond that one model, and was quietly dropped. That featured a Gibraltar II tune-o-matic style bridge and Quik-Change II stop tailpiece, and had H-S-H pickup configuration. Way back in 1992, Ibanez introduced the SF470 model – the first model with a hard-tail bridge based on their slim Saber (S) body style.
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