Are you into math rock by any chance? The drummers tend to stand out more because of weird time signatures.

current guitar BC Rich

newguitar esp explorer humbucker pickupz

current amp Marshall and peavey

No actually, but i have been getting into alot of prog rock quite a bit lately... Can, King Crimson, Gong, Pink Floyd, etc. i've always admired their ability to rock out in funky time signatures.

i love my acoustic i named her suzy and shes just fun to play shes and alveraz btw also my grand ma owns the best guitar ever its a martin from like the 1920-30's that her aunt and uncle got her so she could do something while she was in bed with polio now people have offered her any amount of money she names as well as any guitar she wants but she wont do it cause she already promised it to my aunt but i would do anything short of murder and theft to get that guitar

I've been drumming for about 8 years and once i get 15 posts i can actually show my set. its pretty sweet
PDP black birch

playin a schecter c-1 hellraiser w/ emg active 89-81. also have an epiphone sg special. right now i play through an epiphone 50 watt so.cal tube half stack but i'd like to have a mesa boogie triple rectifier and a line 6 spider 3 150 half stack.my own personal faves. with the amp i have now, i run a digitech death metal pedal. i couldn't live w/ the natural distortion of this amp.

I got a 2002 Ibanez JEM 7V recently from a friend of mine. Too bad I hate Ibanez although I'm still happy I didn't pay for the guitar so no matter how much I sell it for I'm still making a profit. My main guitar now is a Parker PM-10. Everything is top notch on this guitar and you won't find the same quality on guitars twice the price of it.

YOU FILTH!

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Now playing on Winamp: Rockabye Baby! - Stairway to Heaven
via FoxyTunes

Most mediocre guitars I've ever played. I mean this Jem is worth just over €2000 and it plays like an RG350. And it's made in Korea. Once again I'm glad I didn't pay for it because for that price I'd expect it to be made in Japan at least. And another thing I don't like about Ibanez is that they charge ridiculous amounts of money for the high end signatures that the endorsed artists don't even play. They play guitars built for them in an exclusive L.A.-based custom shop. People work hard and save sometimes for years to buy those guitars and it's not even the one their hero plays? That isn't really fair.

Jems aren't made in Korea, they're made in Japan, in Fujigen. Only the lower end Jem555 and Jem Jr. were ever made anywhere else.

If yours is made in Korea, its a fake. The serial number should start with F then 2 digits denoting year of manufacture, then the digits will notate the production number for that year. If its a real Ibanez neck bolted onto a Jem body, with a decal supplied perhaps (Lots of people make Ibby project guitars, and ibanez decals are widely available), then the Korean necks subscribe to the same numbering scheme but the letter will be C, for 'Cort', the factory that ghostbuilds all korean Ibanez models. (Until recently, as due to Cort shutting shop, production has been moved to Indonesia. I don't know the prefix letter for the indonesian factory.)

Also, the LA custom shop was for years open to the public, however Ibanez closed it for the public due to waning demand. The outline of the shop itself consisted of numerous custom graphic finishes, and also a selection of RG pickup configurations for those people who wanted non-standard layouts such as H-S, without buying an RG565 sicne they may have wanted alternative finishes.

It runs today as a shop dedicated to "endorser" models, which is different to signature models. An endorsee artist is recognized as PLAYING the guitars of Ibanez, but not having a signature model. The artist can request custom modifications to an existing stock guitar and they will then be performed at the LA custom shop. An example is Dave Navarro's PRS tremolo equipped RG, or the original version of the 27 fret Xiphos. However these guitars will never be marketed as signature models as say, the Jem or the JS are. They are SINGULAR, NON-production guitars constructed as prototypes for very specific players. in nearly all instances of actual signature models however, no modifications are made or needed, therefore the artists guitars themselves come directly from the Fujigen plant.

In actual fact, Its well documented that apart from crazy modifications done to some guitars like FLO and PIA, all of Steve Vai's onstage Jems are built in the Fujigen plant. Even EVO was a stock Jem7VWH, and to all inents and purposes, still is. Vai has stated numerous times in interviews this fact. Not to mention, a major design reason according to Vai himself, for the bolt on necks, is so that if one broke, Ibanez could just send him a production neck and it will return the guitar to its original specs with no costly custom machining.

Also, with the closure of the Cort factory, and the introduction of the S5470 and SV5470, anything Ibanez make with 'Prestige' branding, is Japanese made now, unless its old stock S prestige models of numbers 2170 and below (Or old stock of the 7 string S model, which was also korean).

Regardless, the Korean Ibanez guitars are by and large of great quality, hell, I own an S2170. My only gripe was the stock pickups, but Ibanez have now revamped their prestige lines for 2009 and are supplying Dimarzio combos in many of them. Also, the original ZR tremolo system had an arm holder flaw, which has since been addressed with the introduction of the ZR2.


I'd say you need to check on what you actually have there, and do some research. Jems are fine guitars and I've played more than a few that have all been of consistently high quality. My favourite being a sparkle blue 2002 model. In fact, the last major QC issue brought up in relation to them was to my knowledge corrected some time ago by tightening up the tolerances on the routing for the vine inlay so that less/no gaps needed to be filled around the inlay itself.



Yeah. I know more about Ibanez and guitars in general than anyone reasonably should. Suffice to say, I think if you've managed to find a jem that plays like an RG350, you've not found a jem. For one thing the neck profiles are completely different and so is the fretwire. Not to mention a 350 would have a nut volute, whereas an 02 Jem wouldn't. Does yours have an ebony or Rosewood board, and can you confirm the serial number for me? If its an early 02 production number, its much more likely o have an Ebony board than rosewood. Later in 2002 however production switched to rosewood in preparation for the 2003 model changes which included a switch to the Edge Pro bridge without locking posts, and I believe the aforementioned tightening of routing tolerances was done around the same time.


UPDATE: After some discussion and Sodacake giving me the serial, number, it was established that unfortuantely his guitar is NOT a Jem7VWH in this post