Jem wood versus gibson wood.

[jemke]

I am a great Jem fanatic but I am critical. Do the following test.

Put your ear on the body of a non amplified jem and play a simple chord and listen. Do the same with an unamplified gibson les paul.

The les paul sounds way better unamplified in my opinion. The pickups in the jem compensate this...so the jem sound fantastic.

So would an Jem with gibson wood and dimarzio's be the best of 2 of them?

[jono]

I'm going to stick my neck out and say no.

But a JEM with a big fat Les Paul style neck, made from mahogany and maple, with a set neck, a 24 3/4" scale length and a tunamatic/stoptail arrangement instead of a huge hole for a floyd rose might.

The different wood qualities is probably some towards the bottom of the list of things that make a JEM sound different to a Les Paul, I'd guess the bolt on neck and the Flord Rose trem are the biggest factors, but I'd wait for someone like Eddie or Jeremy whoe have luthiering experience to come along with "proper" answers.

[kangaroo]

Originally Posted by jono

But a JEM with a big fat Les Paul style neck, made from mahogany and maple, with a set neck, a 24 3/4" scale length and a tunamatic/stoptail arrangement instead of a huge hole a floyd rose might.

That would hardly be a JEM, though.

[Globbits]

Originally Posted by jono

But a JEM with a big fat Les Paul style neck, made from mahogany and maple, with a set neck, a 24 3/4" scale length and a tunamatic/stoptail arrangement instead of a huge hole a floyd rose might.

Originally Posted by kangaroo"

That would hardly be a JEM, though.

Thats the point, a Jem, no matter what wood it's made out of, resonantes in a completely different manner to a Les Paul.

[BeastofLove]

A closer apples to apples comparison may be an RGT3120 v. Les Paul.
But the JEM has pickguard mounted pickups, and the sound from the strings is going to resonate differently, which will be especially noticeable unplugged.
If you routed out a chunk of wood from the LP and mounted the pickups onto a pickguard, then you may have a more accurate comparison.
But as it stands, I don't think you can compare the quality of wood between these 2 guitars using the 'unamplified resonance test' because they are so different from one another.

-Ben

[johncowan]

It's really funny, but I had a 77FP that rang like a church bell when you played it acoustically...definately in-line with other Singlecuts. It's the only JEM i've owned that had that serious an acoustic ring and resonance. Oddly enough I hated it plugged in.

JC

[EKG]

jono - you guys are right on track.

Too many factors:
Bolt on neck
Wood
Trem
Body thickness
Pup mounting
etc
etc

If I strum a JEM and then a PGM, I get totally different acoutical sounds. Basically, both modified RG's, but the PGM is mahogany with a fixed bridge. Strung thru the back of the body. Trems really absorb a lot of resonance.

But I don't normally play my electrics unamplified ;-)

[Tezifon]

the only way a jem can sound a little like a les paul i think itīs using the same method that the fender eric clapton signature, with a powerfull mid boost and blocking with hardwood the trem

[urkoman]

But that wouldnīt be a Jem...I prefer it like it is.