Ibanez S-Classic SC320 – The Missing Link
Remember when I wrote an exhaustive round-up of the Ibanez S-Classic series? At that time, I couldn’t find any real details about the SC320 model, other than it having been in a catalogue once.
Recently a great example popped up on eBay, so I quickly got in touch with the seller. Many thanks to Rich for the detailed pictures and background information.
The guitar was bought new in 1998, and has a 2-piece mahogany body and rosewood fingerboard, as with the other models in the range. It has the slimline SC-series body and minimal cutouts, the only real difference I can see between this model and the SC420 is the black plastic pickup rings and original finish – the stock pickups are an Ibanez V1/V2 set.
The original colour was solid black, Rich has stripped it back down to the bare wood and refinished it with Tru-Oil, to a high quality natural satin finish. Looking at the detail pictures, it seems likely that the body is the same as used on the higher-spec models with translucent finishes. The grain is perhaps not as evenly matched, especially on the back near the tail, but it’s still high quality wood with great patterning.
Other changes from stock include replacing the Ibanez V1/V2 pickups with a 1980’s Tokai set, and swapping out the rubber beehive knobs for ones from a 1970’s turntable. Rich has done a great job with this guitar, if you are looking to pick up an S-Classic you should definitely check it out.
Updated 12th July 2012: Rich passed on a few more details about the guitar so I’ve corrected some points – mainly around the pickup model. With that in place there’s apparently almost no difference between this and the SC420, which possibly indicates why there are so few – possibly this was a way to use up bodies that didn’t make the grade for the transparent finishes on other models.
