First I want to say Hi to Glen, Rich and many old jemsiters. I have not posted for quite some time.
Today is really special indeed. I am not talking about mother's day. Today I became the proud owner of a new RG8470FPR. Here goes the story:
I'm in Japan on a business trip and this is my last leg before heading home. For all these years playing
Ibanez guitars, I have gone through quite a few models but haven't quite found the "perfect" guitar yet. Despite that I own one RG-GOLD (which I manage to keep after all these years), it is unique but then again not quite the versatile instrument that I am looking for. May be it has something to do with the Ash body. I don't dig its sound as much as a JEM. When it comes to JEM my favorite is still the BSB (and too bad I sold mine many years ago).
So after I landed in Tokyo and settled down I immediately headed to an Ikebe store in Akihabara. I stared at the rack filled with J-customs for 10 minutes; but I decided to first try out a JEM7VWH with a sustainer modification (Ikebe does this only with the VWH and bump the price up to approx. US$2,600). The sustainer was fun, but there was no WOW factor in the VWH for me.
Then I saw an Ikebe Original J-custom HRG2007ALQ. Vintage violin color with a nice flame maple top and
mahogany body. It sounded better than the JEM. But this guitar has a few lacquer scratches and despite that it has the highest price tag (even discounted because of the scratches). What a bummer!
I then ask for the RG8470F BX. This sounds pretty nice, not much different than the HRG2007 (both has Mahogany body and AN/BV/TZ pickups), but I just didn't like the black color. Perhaps the folks at Ibanez stained this one too dark so you can hardly see the flames of the maple top. The BXs I saw on Rich's Ibanez Rules do not look as dark and the flames are clearly visible. May be it is due to the flash or Rich's camera.
On the rack there was only one RG8470F PR which is hung way in the back. The sales person carefully remove the FE and the RS in the front. Whoa! I immediately fall in love with the orange shade of the PR.
For some reason, this guitar felt heavier than all the other 8470's at the store. Once I started playing, it is all over. This is it! I've found my perfect guitar.
Team J Craft is without a doubt world class craftsmanship: Top notch materials, flawless bindings, rounded frets and the abalone vine inlay... the list goes on and on. But the main thing is the sound. I am particularly picky about clean tones and this guitar has all the right elements to create some superb sound. In distortion/Overdrive mode this guitar sounds better than a JEM in my taste. I guess after playing JEMs for many years I somehow got tired of how they sound.
I can't wait to bring it back home and start laying a few tracks with this baby. The best part is that the Dollar vs Yen exchange rate improved in the last week and I am getting a better deal then I expected.
