29a.ch by Jonas Wagner

DiMarzio Evolution in Ibanez S470

I really love my Ibanez S470. Its very well made and plays really well. But there is one thing about it that I didn't like. The INF 2 bridge pickup. I wanted a clearer, more aggressive tone with more harmonics. After some research I came to the conclusion that replacing the bridge pickup with a DiMarzio Evolution should do the trick.

Replacing the pickup was relatively simple. The biggest problem was that DiMarzio and Ibanez use different color codes. Here's how they relate:

Ibanez INF2DiMarzio Evolution
BlackGreen & Bare
RedWhite & Black
WhiteRed

With the new pickup the sound is now more clear, aggressive and tight. The harmonics are screaming. The new pickup is far more sensible to changes to the volume or tone controls. It does also really highlight sloppy playing. What I do not like about this pickups is the clean sound. But I like the warm clean sound of the neck pickup a lot. So that doesn't bother me.

Now the questions is, was it worth it. For me it totally was. I really love the guitar and this was a real improvement to it's sound. I think the Evolution suits the S470 really well.