In February, I posted about buying an Ibanez AR420 that I christened “Ramon”; named after the previous owner, who was such a nice guy and almost tried to give me the guitar for free. It’s in mint condition and I paid $200 (equivalent) and it normally costs about $740 (equivalent) new. It basically hadn’t been played. It was essentially a new guitar.
Then I too hardly played it even though it’s such a beautiful guitar, perfectly set up and with fantastic fretwork and pickups. Why? Because it has a small light body and a relatively standard weight neck, giving it some neck dive. It just gave me neck/shoulder problems. It’s perfectly comfortable to play sitting, but I always play standing up.
Then I saw a video made by a professional guitarist who owns the same guitar. He moved the strap button to the back of the body, where semi-hollows often have a strap button. I found it hard to imagine that this could make such a big difference, but last night I decided to do it. I couldn’t stand such a beautiful guitar hanging there unused. What a huge difference! The guitar is now very comfortable (actually very light compared with my Tele) and there is no perceived neck dive.
I know that this mod may be completely obvious to many of you but I mention it here in case anyone has a similar issue with neck dive. It’s not fun having a very heavy weight pulling on one shoulder. I know that many SGs suffer from this. Surprisingly, trawling the internet for neck dive solutions hardly ever mentioned moving the strap button. Most suggestions were just to get a thick grippy strap, but in my case that didn’t feel comfortable and was not a solution. Many posts said there’s no cure for neck dive and you just have live with it. At least for Ramon, this was not the case.
I’m with you about the strap button solution. It seems like such an easy thing to change the balance point of the guitar by putting the strap button in a different spot. That’s sure a purdy guitar, too. What do the mini toggles down by the knobs do? Are they coil split and phase controls instead of using push/pull pots?
Those switches are nice. There are quite a few Ibanez guitars with the super 58 pickups that have them.
They are three way switches. One is for the neck and one is for the bridge pick-up. down is normal humbucker (series). Middle is single coil (split coil) and up is humbucker in parallel. Because there’s one 3 way switch for each pickup you could have several different setups, ie both humbuckers each in series, or for example neck humbucker and bridge single coil etc. I really can’t hear a lot of difference between single coil and humbucker in parallel tbh.
As mentioned, I haven’t played the guitar much as it wasn’t comfortable with the neck dive. I bought it more as a good buy for the future when I want to play different things as it was such a great opportunity. It’s a lovely guitar and easy to play.
However, I love my tele and when I’m learning new things I tend to use that. 2 pickups, one volume and one tone control knob already gives you a lot of tonal options and is already complicated enough for me . The Ibanez has 2 volume, 2 tone, the pick-up selector switch, then those two switches for the voicing of each of the pickups. It’s a lot of distraction. Fun distraction but I don’t like to take time away from practicing.
I sorta feel the same way about my Les Paul. It has 3 push/pull pots on it instead of the extra mini toggles. 2 of the push/pull pots do coil splitting and the other switches phase. It’s a LOT to think about/mess with.
And it’s for that reason that I simplified the controls on the guitar I’m building. I’m using a single volume and tone pot, a 3-way toggle for my pickup selector switch, and a mini 3-way toggle like these as a coil split switch. But the way I’ve wired it up, it splits both pickups the same way. Sure, I’m leaving some configurations inaccessible, but I wanted to simplify things some while still giving myself a few options.
With the pickups I’m using (Seymour Duncan P-Rails), I get humbucker config (bridge, neck, both), P-90 config (bridge, neck, both), and rail config (bridge, neck, both). Still a lot of options, but I feel like the controls are more intuitive the way I’ve laid them out.
Lots of options can be good, but it can also get a bit muddy. I tend to just use the same setup on my LP all the time (both humbuckers all the time). I don’t tend to care for the coil split sounds on it. I will occasionally use the pickup selector to change that up. I don’t tend to mess with the volume and tone knobs while playing because it’s a pain for me to keep straight which knob does what. I set them before I start playing and leave them be.
I feel like with the more intuitive controls, I’m more likely to adjust the volume while playing more often.
When I was looking for an electric guitar I considered Ibanez purely because they do make gorgeous looking guitars. In the end I got something else but that may have been a mistake. A beautiful finish is the number one criteria in my guitar buying guide.
Funny how individual comfort varies. One thing i dislike on alvarez-guitars is having the strap button on the back at the neck end, didn’t like how the strap twisted. But i dont mind neck dive lol.
I sure wish I understood half of what you guys talking about. At least I know who to come to with questions when I reach the more intermediate stage of my guitar playing.
I bought a Squire Strat in 2019 because:
It’s slimmer and works with my anatomy better than my previous Jasmine acoustic guitar. (I now have a full-size Cort electric-acoustic and a Yamaha 3/4 size electric-acoustic guitar, both which have slimmer body styles.)
It’s easier for me to fret than the acoustics.
It was affordable.
I’m hoping to learn what all the bells and whistles are pretty soon. Right now, I’m concentrating on learning to play clean sounding chords.
My Telecaster is also a Squier (it was my first guitar and I love it). It’s a really nice guitar, but Strats are a bit more comfortable to hold. I didn’t know that at the time.
I’m pleased this worked out for you, especially as this means the guitar will now be played more often.
The body shape is similar to that of my bass, which has the strap button on the back already (right in the middle of the plate). Despite this, neck dive is a constant factor, and I simply had to learn to live with it. I think this really held back my playing. It’s a long-scale bass with a small body and that’s just what you get. It wasn’t until I got my Strat that I learnt what a well-balanced guitar should feel like.
If you ever decide to upgrade and want to stick with a tele, go for a model with a belly cut. I went from a Squier (that was basically an angular slab of wood… and heavy) to a G&L that was more rounded with a belly cut (and much lighter). Way more comfortable to play.
I have an affinity here is Switzerland and a cv in france. The affinity is nicer for me - the aforementioned belly cut, a little thinner body, lighter, modern saddles, better fretwork and satin neck. I put in Tonerider alnico 2 blues pickups and it’s a great guitar.
Older affinity’s don’t have the belly cut and are top loaders
My S-type feeds from the back of the body. My PRS feeds into the front of the bridge, then wraps up and over. I think it’s called a wrap-around stoptail bridge.
. The Ibanez has 2 volume, 2 tone, the pick-up selector switch, then those two switches for the voicing of each of the pickups. It’s a lot of distraction. Fun distraction but I don’t like to take time away from practicing.
At least I know who to come to with questions when I reach the more intermediate stage of my guitar playing. 
really an easy but great fix! I tried to play my acoustic standing up but it’s way too heavy for me and gave up soon. Happy for you Ian!