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Below is an old review - but
check out the new review of an Ibanez (sic) JEM 7VWH from CHINA
Is it really good or really bad?
This time we're reviewing a simple low
cost second hand Ibanez. I've talked about this on other pages of this web but
read on.... these views are NOT from a sales man. The model is probably an
Ibanez 550 RG series and we're sure you could pick one up for about £250.00
(US$400.00) or less from most budget music stores or even less if you buy from
the classifieds....
This guitar should really be a nail. It
probably started out ok - in a tree, but somewhere along the line of life - it
met death by being cut down, sawn and a quick dry out, to end up in the Ibanez
wood shed. Ibanez did a quick job (you can see where even the black finish has
sunk in to the couple of joins on the body) but what the heck - hey we're
talking cheap here. The neck - it's exactly what an Ibanez neck should be like -
you've all seen them - the wizard strikes again - thin flat and very comfortable to
play.
Moving on to the hardware, not much to
see here either, there's an Ibanez copy tremolo of the best ones, there's the
Ibanez copies of great pickups ( in this case 2xhumbucker V series ) and last
but not least the plastic knobs and the (quite) dodgy pickup switch.
Clearly, the above seems like a recipe
for disaster, why the hell did I buy this thing, was it for the price and to say
I've got an Ibanez look at me, hell no - it was the sound.
This guitar rocks - it's that simple.
Take a bucket of money, spend it on another well known brand name, get some
nice top on the guitar, look good, feel good, sound crap! There are obviously
problems with this guitar - but nothing that a few pounds or dollars will not
easily fix. The pickup selector is one - spend $10.00 and that's sorted. Other
similar nitty gritty things are as easily fixed.
If you play rock guitar then you would
like this one - strong harmonics, even a cool sound when turned down a little on
the pots, the only disappointment (maybe for you) is the way it looks - yep it's
a rock guitar, a bit pointy, not in vogue of recent times ( at least in boring
UK ) but who cares. I like a guitar that sounds GREAT - if you don't like it's
looks well look the other way - that's what I always say (and if you've seen me
in the flesh, you would look the other way too!).
This is a fantastic instrument from one
of the worlds best manufacturers of rock guitars - find one and BUY IT!
All comments here are my personal views
and you may well disagree !
Tony McKenzie Lead Guitarist.
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