Brightness

[Devon8822]

Why exactly do Ibanez guitars sound so bright... i think mainly the older models. My 1990 JEM, and the other Ibanezs I have tried from the same era are so bright, making it less than ideal for jazz. is it the locking nut? its almost unplayable unplugged, and in order to obtain a good clean tone you have to EQ out the highs. Is this consistent with you guys too?

[brothersnowgone]

I find the volume knob on the guitar can help a lot with that.

[nuno]

Originally Posted by Devon8822

...making it less than ideal for jazz.

would you ever run the NY marathon in high heels and complaining about them not being too comfy?

[jim777]

It's the PAF Pros inthe 90's that make them bright. They are brighter versions of the PAF. I took the Evos out of my Jem and put in Bartolinis, and now it's a better jazz guitar than my FA-100 ('78 ES-175 copy). Swap out the pickups for warmer ones, and you'll be good to go.

[ken_r152]

Just take a look at the frequency responses on the DiMarzio website and you'll see that many of the Jem pickups were designed to be a little more treble-y than not. It's by design.

[Agent540]

the secret way.....is...... mahogany ! but shhhht !

[Kerem]

Why my 7vwh is so bright with alder body and evo pickups?!
I asking why my god why!

[jono]

As others have said, the JEM is a bright guitar and was designed to be a bright guitar, which might not be ideal for jazz, but is ideal for rock, especially when the signal path is heavily processed as it almost always was arounf the time we're talking about. Thus an overly bright guitar for jazz is a shimmering texture monster when it's fed through 2 eventides and a TC2290

Horses for courses! But yeah as Jim said, put in some nice, warm, jazz pickups and off you go

[ken_r152]

It's kind of hard to visualize Joe Pass picking up his trusty Jem to record some Jazz...

but as said above, a change of pickups would make a big difference.

[TicTac in my eye]

Originally Posted by jono

Horses for courses! But yeah as Jim said, put in some nice, warm, jazz pickups and off you go

Exactly take out the bright pickups and put in a nice warm jazz pickup. For a nice smooth tone. Yummy!!!!

[Devon8822]

I am not talking about the pickups, they are fine, I am talking about its natural tone. When I compare it unplugged to a strat or a gibson, the jem is very bright. It is great plugged in but acoustically it is pretty horrible. anybody else notice this when played acoustically?