I'm making my Jem a "True Temperament"-Jem

[Fabio]

That's right. Actually it's in the True Temperament shop right now. I will recieve it on monday!

It's a -88 JEM7RB, the pickguard will be changed to a KICKASS piece of rosewood with true temperament-frets and abalone dot-inlays. Aaah, I can barely wait!

Why have I done this?

Well, first of all I live in Stockholm - that's where the True Temperament shop is. I've been interested in this thing for quite a while, but there's never been an oppurtunity for me to install this system on my jem, as it's usually made on Warmoth necks that uses the Fender neck pocket. But seeing as Vai got to do it on his Jems, I figured I should give it a shot.

Soo, I went down to shop to talk to the inventor, and we sat for a good at least two hours talking about it, and he ended up telling me that "Sure, I'll do it! You know what? Just because it's cool for you, I'll cut out the fretboard at the same time I'm cutting out Vai's fretboard, and when I'm done with it - hell, I'll number your neck #002, Vai's necks being #001!" Weeee! Not like it does ANYTHING, but I personally thought it was aaawesome to have it made at the same time as Vai's stuff!

Apparently there's a bunch of Jem-users thats been in contact with TT and wanting to do this work. The big problem there, though, is that is you do it, you wont be able to keep the inlay, because TT won't do the Tree of Life inlay to the fretboard. It will work out no prob if you find someone to inlay a fretless neck with the Tree of Life, or robbing the LACS is also a way of doing it. Anyway, that's the only downside - that you don't get to keep the inlays. I'm just lucky, I mean.. the JEM7RB's got dot inlays to begin with - and now they're being upgraded to Abaaaaloooone! *Drools*

I have some rather interesting other news, but I won't reveal them juuust yet.. A hint: It's not only Vai that'll do this to his guitars.. *Cough, cough*

The thing is, what Vai did with his guitars, was asking LACS to make him a fretless Jem neck full with kickass inlays and stuff, then sending it to TT (True Temperament) to cut out the fret slots. As I'm not endorsed by Ibanez, I can't do that. So I'll have TT remove the fretboard and installing a new one. I've picked out the piece of rosewood I want, and everything is just soooo cool! The rosewood piece I picked has a rather large amount of purple tone to it, which I hope will fit the Jems pink pickups great!

in the TT shop Anders Thidell, the inventor, also had two other LACS necks, made for Vais EVO and FLO. Whew, it was rather awesome just to hold those necks in my hands.. It's like holding a religious relic, heh..

Anyway, I don't have any pics YET, but I will take thousands when I get her home. In the meantime I'd love to know your opinions about this!

*Ducks for cover*

[nikster]

go for it! neck #002! you luck b******! get vai to sign it!!

[alex.p]

Cant wait to see this mate.
Now I wana live in Stockholm !!

[Lordiesel]

that is sooooo cool... cant wait for the pics.

[CosmicDebris]

Coolness, I messed around with the intonation on my Lo-Pro Edge and got decent results with the tuning of open chords.

[Fabio]

Hah! It's gone about an hour and I still haven't got flamed! Hehehe

Yeah, about signing the neck - I really really hope Steve flies here to pick the necks up, but I don't think so. I have to catch him on tour for the signing or something!

I promise I will post pics ASAP!

Yeah, and Cosmicdebris - I really know what you mean. It's like.. You know, many people always say like "Hey man, cmon.. The guitar's worked in the 'normal way' all the time, so why should we need this? It's just bollocks!"

But the thing is, sure - of course it's worked all throughout the years! It's what we're used to hearing. And the normal way totally works So I'm absolutely not saying a "Normal" neck doesn't work for me. It's more like, when I sat down for the first time playing a True Temperament neck, it was.. Like seeing God, or something. It felt like it was more than a guitar, because it sounded "fuller" than a guitar. When you have the guitar tuned preperly, then you play a open G chord it can sound just as full and awesome on a "normal" neck, because you can tune all the string to that chord if you'd like.

But!

If you've tuned the guitar to a open G, when you play, let's say an open A chord, it's out of tune. Not so much out of tune so you'll start crying, but it's out of tune. And that's just what we're used to, right? It's always worked. Big deal, a guitar isn't the best tuning instrument.

But playing on a True Temperament really was like picking up another instrument! All the chords I tried sounded just perfect! And I'm by no means known for haveing soime kind of mega-ear that can hear differences int uning by the cent. Not by any means But this thing really works!

Oh, and for you that thinks bending and lpaying on the neck feel weird, it actualy really doesn't! I was really sceptical to this at first, but I tried numerous times bending over the most weirdly shaped frets, and didn't feel a difference at all, soundwise or feelwise.

I might add that I don't get any credit at all for telling you all this - after all I paid.. Uh, let's see.. About 1,500$ to have it done. Call me crazy But actually I wouldn't have done it if I didn't miraculously win a Gibson USA Flying V on a lottery, hahah :P

So I sold the V and that paid most of the bill. I got about 1,000$ for the guitar.

Oh, and or you that says it's ugly - Yup. Or rather, I thought it was wicked ugly at the beginning, but it's growing on me, more and more. I like the fact that the frets are a bit curved, it inspires me - let me get philosophical and say that it makes me think about melody and such more freely, because I feel more free when the frets aren't mathematically straight! I don't really know how to explain it, but it makes me feel melody is alot more organic or something. I hope you get what I mean!

[jb4674]

This is really interesting. I have some questions....

1. Would it have been better to get a new neck to do the TT experiment on?
2. Can the fretboard be replaced with a regular fretboard if you don't like it? or is the TT process a one time deal kind of thing?
3. Who else is getting TT necks done?

Jimmy

[screamndemon69]

Interesting.

I felt that way with an ESP I had with a special cut nut and a USA Washburn N6 that had the Buzz Feiten system. It was very noticeable when I swapped to another guitar (7VWH) after playing one of the others

Looking forward to pics.

[jim777]

Originally Posted by Fabio

I might add that I don't get any credit at all for telling you all this - after all I paid.. Uh, let's see.. About 1,500$ to have it done. Call me crazy

Dude, you're crazy!

Good luck with it!

[screamndemon69]

[CosmicDebris]

I know what your saying but I get good results with moving the intonation of the G and B a tad sharp and it sounds nice. Granted not as "perfect" as the TT necks but for the cost of a Lo-Pro intonation tool it works pretty well.

[Fabio]

jb4674:

1. Sure would. But I think the TT thing is so good I've decided to have it on my main axe, and my best-feeling neck I don't know if Warmoth (read Fender) necks fit the old Ibanez neck-joint? I've never really come to terms with if they're a tad different than each other or the same?

2. Sure, you can switch back. It's a tiresome process though. Anders is going to rout off the fretboard and install a new one, so sure, you could rout the new one away an put on a standard one later if you'd like. It's a little tricky to get the same fretboard that you had in the first place, though There's just splinters left from that one.

3. Well.. It's itching.. Gaah! At least one I've been told not to tell! One less famous that's doing it is Mattias IA Eklundh, oh and also Uli Jon Roth wants do do a Sky Guitar with TT frets. The big one, well.. I'll have to ask him for permission


Jim777, I sure am! But like I said, if I hadn't miraculously won that Flying V, I would've never had this oppurtunity, money-wise.

Oh, and CosmicDebris - I have to say that you're the smarter one of us two. Economically It's just that I'm a total gear-geek and having this on my jem is like having a wet dream come true!

[sick-boy]

I'm confused. What is it exactly that they do? To the neck I mean.

[CosmicDebris]

Originally Posted by Fabio

Oh, and CosmicDebris - I have to say that you're the smarter one of us two. Economically It's just that I'm a total gear-geek and having this on my jem is like having a wet dream come true!

Dont' know about smarter but I am most surly cheaper

[brothersnowgone]

Originally Posted by sick-boy

I'm confused. What is it exactly that they do? To the neck I mean.

The frets look really wierd is the best I could describe it. It's basically frets that are intonated individually, instead of just intonating at the bridge (or nut for the feiten system/earvana nut system.) Just google it or something, it's really hard to explain.