Everything looks fine on the JEMJR – no glue residue or scratches. I think it sets the mood, and it’s where poor workmanship is most likely to show itself. My first port of call when examining the construction of a guitar is the neck joint. It’s not hard to get a well-made instrument from the east these days – Dean in particular have some belters – so Ibanez have no excuse to have anything short of excellent for such an attention grabbing instrument. No more than our discussion about the parts used, Steve Vai isn’t going to lap his name on anything poorly constructed. So that’s highly embarrassing for the two biggest brands in their field. It wasn’t just that Ibanez copied the design, but the main issue was that Ibanez’s copies were better quality than Fender and Gibson’s output at the time.
If you Google anything about Ibanez construction quality, it’s likely that you’ll see stories about them getting sued by Fender and Gibson in the seventies. Jatoba is a particularly hard wood, which makes it ideal for fingerboards, and especially so for the JEMJR, because look at that inlay detail! Image credit: With the regulations regarding the use of rosewood getting tighter, guitar manufacturers have using an array of alternatives, not all with names on the tip of anyone’s tongue.
There’s a good chance you’re unfamiliar with that kind of wood, and that’s OK. The JEMJR’s fingerboard is made of Jatoba.
#Ibanez jem copy for sale upgrade
If you get the JEMJR to get yourself started on the road to Vai-dom you can upgrade the pickups later. Steve Vai actually has a signature set of pickups, made by DiMarzio, but they’re expensive. They’re designed and made by Ibanez themselves, and feature on a significant number of their instruments.Īs with the weight, we can spot a cost-cutting compromise here. The JEMJR is equipped with Quantum pickups. Sorry if that disappoints you, but I would say it’s far from a dealbreaker, especially with guitars aimed at shredders: y’all go through so many notes so quickly, those notes don’t get the chance to ring out anyway! The more dense, more resonant wood will be used on higher end guitars. The JEMJR is not that heavy, and at this price, well, that’s not too much of a surprise. Varying densities mean two things for guitars: varying weight, and varying tone. The thing with mahogany, is that it’s a very popular wood, and comes in all kinds of species, with all kinds of varying densities. The guitar feels very light for one claiming to have a solid mahogany body. He needs it to sell to get his cut, and shoddy parts won’t help with that. I don’t know what Steve Vai’s cut from the retail price of his signature gear is, but, I’m 100% certain that he won’t be putting his name to garbage.
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