MusicRadar

The Ibanez SV5470F Prestige is solid mahogany with a maple top

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• Review

Ibanez has spent decades developing and perfecting the Sabre series, and here we’re examining a new addition: the SV5470F. The S series was originally launched in the ‘80s, with a mission to give players an ergonomic, lightweight and comfortable mahogany bodied guitar, and at first glance the SV5470F Prestige ticks all the aforementioned boxes.

Design and construction

As ever, the super sleek double-cut body is the defining characteristic: the first thing that strikes you is the body depth, or lack of it. Measuring a mere 14mm at its thinnest point, there's barely any bulk at all, resulting in a very light guitar overall. The woods used for the SV's body - an off-white edge-bound mahogany body, capped with a flamed maple top and finished in a translucent natural blue - point towards Les Paul and modern Gibson designs, not that you’d know it from the visuals.

The edge-bound Wizard Prestige neck is almost a typical Ibanez compound 'D' shape, but it feels a little more substantial than some Wizard necks we've come across. It’s still very much in the modern camp though, urging your hand round at an angle perfect for launching a sweep attack along the five-piece, maple/walnut back and rosewood fingerboard. The added touch of pearloid dot markers and the three-moon design on the 12th fret is the mark of the guitar's high quality Prestige status.

Overall, the finish of the SV5470F is of a very high standard but, being picky, the finish quality doesn't quite continue on into the input-jack rout and as a result a small amount of white polishing compound has amassed; a very small niggle on an otherwise excellent finish. The recessed, angled jack-socket points towards the back of the guitar, and is best with a straight plug, although an angled plug will do the job fine in an emergency.

Hardware and electrics

Hardware-wise, Ibanez's own-brand SynchroniZR bridge with ZPS-FX spring system has a couple of extremely useful features. Firstly, it offers the ability - via a knurled thumbwheel - to adjust the vibrato's spring tension without having to wield a screwdriver. The advantage of this becomes clear when changing string gauge: we changed from a set of .009s to .010s and, as you would expect, the back of the bridge pulled up under the increased tension. A few screws of the thumbwheel and some retuning had the bridge back down flat and floating nicely again within a couple of minutes. With a double-locking floating vibrato, this would have meant a lot of extra messing about.