Creating The ULTIMATE Rock Machine! - Ibanez SA Upgrades!

14:18 I honestly like the silver knobs better, but I think that same type of knob in white might look pretty dope. The strat style knobs just look out of place to me

Sorry for the late night upload! These vids always take a while to put together :) I've had a ton of requests to mod an affordable Ibanez, so hopefully it was worth the wait!

I've always wanted a mid-range SA Ibanez. They make great necks. Even on the super cheap models. I think Ibanez is kind of an under-rated guitar.

Remember to cover your pickups with some painters tape before you use the steel wool. This will keep the steel wool from sticking to your pickup magnets.

Okay those single coil sized humbuckers genuinely convinced me they were single cois but without the hum! I've never ever heard such convincing single coil tones. They had all the spankiness, twang, attack, clarity and reacted like a single coil! These guys have made something truly special! I'm a fan!

SA160 was my very first electric guitar way back about fifteen years. Still got it, even if she doesn't get played as much lately. Won't ever get sold, I love it too much.

Silver knobs tie into the trem and the tuning heads.

16:09 who else thought he was gonna play smoke on the water?

I prefer the silver knobs but white looks pretty fine too. Loveeeeee absolutely S series from Ibanez. Their shape,neck their thin body...i have my S470 with that INCREDIBLE ZR Trem and i´m still in love with her. Great work Darrell! beautiful transformation. You always doing magic with those hands!

Pickups look sick. Keep the silver knobs!!! :)

For the noobs like me who ponder such things: Darrell offers great advice on rounding, cleaning and oiling the fingerboard, from about 09:12 to 11:30 - and explains why it should be done.

the middle "single coil" was really surprising. Really bright! I loved the position 4 clean tone. Its sounds fantastic..! Thanks for this, Darrell !

That is cool you went with the JBEs as well. I did the same with my Ibanez remake. On my Ibanez the pickup config is HSH. However, like you showed in the video, i was able to split the Humbuckers using push/pull knobs. It created a PRS config with the five way switch plus the added split for each of the two Humbuckers. The one problem I have that I did not see with you is my mid pickup is noticeably quieter than the Humbuckers. You had a smoother transition across your set. I wish you shared how you wired the pickups to see how that pick up may have differed from mine. Enjoy your new toy. IBANEZ makes a great body. Like you said, with a couple of tweaks and replacing a few pieces of hardware and you have a really great instrument. Cheers!

White and blue looks amazing. Its a beautiful looking guitar

I could really care less what the subject is, I come here to see and hear this guy play. This is REAL talent on display folks, not some amateur. Yeah, the guitar is nice and the tips are helpful, but when I can learn a new lick, phrase or riff? That's gold. Thank God for the quarter speed option. I can slow it down and figure out exactly what he's doing, then tailor it to me. Magic!

Hi Darrell, I'd like to see PRS SE Custom upgraded next. Cheers!

Knobs on an Ibanez should match the bridge and tuning machine color

Silver knobs for Volume and Tone, defenitly. Look at headstock, Blue, Silver and White, that is winner combo! Nice upgrade job, totally amazing sound. Keep on rockin'! 🤘😎🤘😉👌👋🙂VEVE

Darrell, you are really brave! It took courage to say what you did about the Seamore Duncan Zephyr silver pickups. And this is coming from someone who has them being installed on his new custom shop super strat to having the Zephyrs being installed on it as we speak (OK type). I feel the clear crisp sound that emanates from them is worth the cost-plus the magnets are encased are made with two different metals surrounded by a special material, if I am correct here, sorry for not being able to remember what they were made of, but the sound is phenomenal! And the great people at BYO Guitar do excellent custom instalations, as Shawn over there is an engineer. Joe B

Great Job Darrel! The Ibanez’ really hot rod nicely I find! And thanks for the sanding sponge idea .... I had been rolling with hard, flat blocks and the fret end profile is too easily messed up ..... sponge gives incredible results! Best guitar tip I’ve learned on YouTube to date! I’ve done most of my guitars, as well as numerous student’s guitars in the past month or two!