Another new 2009 J-Custom available: RG8420ZE

[turtlelephant]

These J Custom models all seem very nice, to any of you guys who have experience playing them how do they compare to other Ibanez guitars? It's a shame that the LACS isn't open to the public but this is certainly an interesting take on a high quality Ibanez.

[prydogga]

Originally Posted by turtlelephant

These J Custom models all seem very nice, to any of you guys who have experience playing them how do they compare to other Ibanez guitars? It's a shame that the LACS isn't open to the public but this is certainly an interesting take on a high quality Ibanez.

Read the post below you..... And Jemsite probably wouldn't be a very good Ibanez website if some of us didn't own/play J customs .

[RedTiger]

Why does Ibanez' make their top-end guitars with mahogany bodies? Every so often, the allure of owning an ornate Ibanez RG appeals to be and I toy with the idea of pulling the trigger and buying one from Rich...then I remember that they're mahogany and promptly forget about it.

Ibanez will make a basswood PGM reissue and sell it for $2600, why not a $4k J Custom? If not basswood, how about alder? They make a $3000 alder JEM! They go and make this top of the line super strat and then make it mahogany, which is the last kind of wood I'd want for that type of guitar. Mahogany + Maple top creates a very complex, toneful sound, but its just does not sit right with me in an Ibanez RG.

It just seems absurd and seems like PRS or Gibson aping to me (ironic that I talk about "Gibson aping" with Ibanez, right?). Turn it around, think how strange it would seem if PRS made of basswood McCarty with a thick DY finish. Sometimes I get the feeling that there's this unspoken rule that for a guitar to be truly worth paying thousands for, it has to be mahogany for some reason. Maybe I should coin a term for it...Les Paul syndrome?

[Dino]

Originally Posted by RedTiger

think how strange it would seem if PRS made of basswood McCarty with a thick DY finish.

Now there is a PRS I would be proud to own.

[Tetragrammaton]

Originally Posted by RedTiger

Why does Ibanez' make their top-end guitars with mahogany bodies? Every so often, the allure of owning an ornate Ibanez RG appeals to be and I toy with the idea of pulling the trigger and buying one from Rich...then I remember that they're mahogany and promptly forget about it.

When I was buying this guitar, I wondered the same thing. Weird enough, the mahongany was the thing that made me buy just this one. As I allready own a UV and a RG 750, I had the whole bright, edgy basswood thing going on and I wanted a guitar that is warmer and heavier. But concidering the pickups, I really wondered why they made the other 2009 jcustoms out of mahongany aswell. I tested them too and was a bit dissapointed. The one with the dimarzios just sounded a bit too flat to my UV accustomed ear and I think that either basswood or alder might have worked better. But with these EMG pickups the combination is really working and heavy but the guitar still feels and sounds suitably RG:ish.

Of course, if you don't like mahongany sound, then you don't like it and theres no changing that. There is ofcourse the RG3520 ZE that is basicaly the same guitar with a Super Wizard neck and a basswood body

http://www.ibanez.com/ElectricGuitars/model-RG3520ZE

I might post a sound sample when I get the battery of my camera charged.

Here's a picture of my current guitar lineup to underline my need for a different sound.

[Shredragrammaton]

Hi tetragrammaton

Nice name and geetar

Shredragrammaton

[NeglectedField]

I definitely aspire to having one of those. I say, if the EMGs are a problem there's always the Seymour Duncan version.

[PBGas]

No Mahog love? Hey now....that is why I bought my 3 J-Customs! The last project that I finished for Pixar certainly sounded just right in their mix!