Ibanez J custon

[232cap]

Anyone here play a Ibanez J custom guitar, I am looking at one on ebay and looks great. It is priced at 1950, very hi res pics and it looks like a super quality piece. The J customs have the tree of life neck inlay and are only sold in japan. Are they worth it coin??? Thanks

 

[Code001]

I've played one before. The neck felt amazing, and it had great tone. I'd say it's worth the used market price, but I have a hard time paying the $2k+ new price for one when I could get a nicely built Suhr for the same price.

 

[roodboy]

Anyone here play a Ibanez J custom guitar, I am looking at one on ebay and looks great. It is priced at 1950, very hi res pics and it looks like a super quality piece. The J customs have the tree of life neck inlay and are only sold in japan. Are they worth it coin??? Thanks

I've had a couple, they are really well made guitars and to me are in the same league as Suhr and Tyler. They are also a good value for the money. Especially used.
I am partial to Ibanez though. I'm not crazy about the edge zero trem, its a bit too firm although that could probably be adjusted.
Jemsite will give you a boatload of info.

 

[Apex1Rg7X]

I used to own a JC 8427F 7 string but sold it recently but currently own a RG7CT, which was a prototype for the RG7-1VV J Custom awhile back. Their is only 24 CT's in existance. The quality on the J Custom is top notch, ive never played anything nicer honestly. Heres a couple pics of them.

This is the CT which i currently own

Heres a couple of the 8427F, i replaced the crappy tone zone with an evolution bridge pickup.

 

[fearhk213]

Whether it's worth it or not is up to you. Are you an Ibanez fan and just looking for a nicer one? Or did this one just happen to catch your eye? I had a J Custom for a while and it was a nice enough guitar, but I ultimately sold it. It looked killer, but the neck was too wide and flat that it made my fretting hand hurt. I didn't like the tone either. I've played tons of Ibanezs (only 1 J custom though) and I'm not a fan of them overall. I've really only played two I liked, the J custom I had and an old neck-thru USA model a friend of mine owns (his guitar kills and I'd take it in a heartbeat!). I got mine at a steal and I think for the price I paid it was worth it, but no way would I have paid $1950. It was a nice guitar and all, but I'd have been severely disappointed had I paid that much for mine with what I've played/owned around that price range. When you start talking about guitars in the 2k range I expect a lot. IMO my J Custom wasn't in the same league as my Suhr in tone, playability, and quality/fit/finish. My buddy with the nice Ibanez has quite a few more Ibanez's as well and is a total Ibanez fanboy, but even he said my Suhr was the nicest playing guitar he's played so take that for what it's worth. I'm sure there are some really nice J Customs out there, but Ibanez does not have a good track record with me so. If you do decide to pick one up I wait for a used one.

 

[Dallas Marlow]

I had a really horrible experience with my J Custom, the guitar looked great, sounded pretty damn good after I changed the pick ups out too, I wasn't wild about the dimarzio IBZ's.. but heres where the saga begins... ok a little dramatic but my personal experience lol.

I bought it SLIGHTLY used, basically someone bought and returned it so I got it for a little discount, it was brand new tags and all not a pick swirl on the damn thing. It was a RGT320Q by the way..

After I think like two weeks, the 5 way switch went bad, and its a printed circuit board switch and it has this little ass ball bearing inside of it, and once part of the metal wears a little bit, the ball can come out and the thing is totally useless, so I had that replaced, never could get the wiring proper with out the PCB switch though, ended up with a PRS config which I never liked as much as the original switching. Then I switched out the pick ups because the stock ones were a bit thin and just didn't sound all that hot, put in a Air Norton and a Super Distortion, loved the Norton, wasn't wild on the Super.

Then after I got the switch fixed, put in new pick ups, literally like two days later the volume pot froze, just completely stopped turning... back to the repair shop again.

Got it back and it worked yaya... but I always had issues with the bushings on the tremolo arm, I use 10-52's so the damn things would CONSTANTLY wear out, so I tried to fill it with teflon tape, or you can heat them up to swell them with a lighter but the arm always gets loose, so I got a screw in kit and replaced that part of the trem, it helped but still would get loose and back out.

The guitar was nice, well made physically not electronically, and the edge trem arm just sucked imo, I've got PRS trems and Suhr trems non locking that the arm is WAY more stable on either.

Eventually I broke a string while using the trem arm and went that day and got rid of it. I don't think I'd ever purchase another one just because the electronics were made so shitty, and I'm not like one of those people who beats their guitars, I've had many guitars with no electronics issues at all.

So theres my vote, I'd say no, but maybe if its an older one better parts who knows?

Dallas

 

[Code001]

Couple of things here:

1. The RGT320Q isn't a J-Custom. It's a Prestige model.
2. The electronics are known to be lesser quality and not quite the best on the lower end Ibanez guitars. The pot shouldn't have cost more than $5, and the switch shouldn't be more than $15 for high quality replacement parts.
3. The bushing arms that you hate so much have been used since the 80s during the original Edge days. Lots of people like pop-in arm style.
4. You broke a string, so you sold it? Sounds like you just wanted an excuse to sell it for whatever reason.

 

[glpg80]

i hated the pop out trem bar on my jem and the prestige.

spent $30 and took a file, got rid of the threaded grooves and installed a brand new schaller screw type floyd rose bar.

works great ever since

the ibanez design pickups arent the real deal's i guess. but they are pickups. basically i have the air norton/tone zone setup, just not the real pickups persay.

its w/e - great guitar - but the tone and playability of it is more important than the electronics.

 

[Digital Jams]

Prestige is not J-Custom for the replies regarding this thread.


J-Custom fretwork, you will not find this on any other guitars that I am aware of,

 

[Anonymous]

Here ya go:

I've had a ton of guitars. Never had fretwork like on these - amazing...

Steve

 

[EXPcustom]

Just a FYI in Japan these are going for around 148,000 used so with shipping and exchange rate it comes out to just right around 2000 USD.

Hope this helps I have no experience with them but I loved my Iceman White Zombie model.

 

[gbsmusic]

I used to own a JC 8427F 7 string but sold it recently but currently own a RG7CT, which was a prototype for the RG7-1VV J Custom awhile back. Their is only 24 CT's in existance. The quality on the J Custom is top notch, ive never played anything nicer honestly. Heres a couple pics of them.

This is the CT which i currently own

Heres a couple of the 8427F, i replaced the crappy tone zone with an evolution bridge pickup.

NICE!!!!

 

[glpg80]

that j-custom fretwork is amazing scott.

here is my Jem's - theres just no competition. considering the prices involved its shocking.

and yes - what i was mentioning was for his prestige comments. i agree with him on a few things about those guitars - but sometimes you get good ones, sometimes you dont. the j-customs on the other hand are in another league all their own.

 

[Apex1Rg7X]

The fretwork was the best ive ever seen on my 8427F. Everythng about that guitar was top notch as far as quality and craftsmanship go, i just didnt like that trem all that much.

 

[Jakem]

I've seen a few J-Customs and played most of the ones I've seen. I gotta say that all of them have been totally flawless when it comes to finishing and built. You can't find Ibanez' that are better made than J-Customs... One just needs to be lucky to get good sounding woods as with any other guitar.

 

[232cap]

Well I pulled the pin on a J Custom I guess we will see what they are all about soon enough, thanks for the comments.

 

[Digital Jams]

that j-custom fretwork is amazing scott.

here is my Jem's - theres just no competition. considering the prices involved its shocking.

and yes - what i was mentioning was for his prestige comments. i agree with him on a few things about those guitars - but sometimes you get good ones, sometimes you dont. the j-customs on the other hand are in another league all their own.

Would love a Jem but no way new, just too much money for a mass produced guitar. I love my 3 Ibanez guitars though, here they are but the blue 1527 was sold and replaced with a black one......

The 565 was Rand Van Sykes, got the 550x from Greasygeo's store, and the black 1527 from Code001........yeah I do business with formites

 

[glpg80]

i love that 550x

here are a few pics of my prestige:

i want another ibanez pretty badly. i come across them here and there - not really going to spend money on a new one like i did my Jem - you only do that once before you learn your lesson the hard way.

i might get the balls together to get a J-custom but anything else i will not purchase until i play it - unless i really have no choice of course.

what pickups are in the 550x?

 

[Digital Jams]

Stock Neck and now have a Walker El Presidante custom in the bridge which is a hot alnico and zebra striped. The neck is good enough now but would like to throw a sd jazz in there.

The Walker rips

 

[glpg80]

TBH i would hold off on a Jem scott. the tone and feel/neck wood quality of my prestige just wooped my jem's ass up and down. i traded the Jem for the charvel and ibanez prestige and lucked out.

plus... i fucking hate gold hardware bro... you have no idea