Improving my Ibanez SGE130VS

[zinzin]

i recently bought this IBANEZ SGE130VS:

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/ibanez_sge130vs.htm

 

i wanted a cheap jumbo (i already own a beautiful seagull s6 which i care for) to play live and came across the ibanez: it looks very good and sounds rather good too. it comes with a decent pickup.

only the string tension is a bit high and holding down the strings is hard. would a change of the bridge change this? should i also change the nut? both parts are cheap plastic. other than that the fingerboard feels fine.

 

its very strange, my ibanez jumbo was like 180 euro, very cheap, my girlfriend also bought an ibanez for 150 euro, even cheaper (!) but it feels and plays very very good, much better than my jumbo. i guess it has to do with (the non existent) quality control in china ...

[garthman]

Sounds like it needs a set-up. Either take it to a music shop and get it done or do it yourself - not difficult - you'll find info in the Annex or go to www.frets.com

[djuna]

Hi there

 

From my limited experience, it seems that Ibanez acoustics can be a little hit or miss when it comes to quality; that being said, you can certainly take steps to improve the one you have.

If there's a shop near you, I'd definitely bring it in for a setup to have it checked out and to get the action lowered. If that isn't an option, and you think you'd like to work on it yourself, check out frets.com--there's a lot of info there about how to adjust things to your liking. Replacing the saddle with bone is generally a good upgrade. The general opinion around here seems to be that the nut makes little difference, so I don't know that I'd bother replacing that (and it's a bigger job than the saddle).

Hope that helps, and I'm sure others will be along with their ideas shortly