Chibanez JS project

FMJBT · #1 09-25-2006, 04:17 AM

After seeing several copies of the JS series guitars on ****, I decided to get one for use as a project guitar, with the simple goal of just making it playable. Out of the box I was really impressed with the finish, a simplified Donnie style paint job. The clear coat makes it look almost like ceramic. I scrapped my plans for a repaint and focused on setup and electronics instead. Factory setup was bad. Real bad. More like assembly than setup I guess. Likewise, the electronics were pretty bad as well, pickups were weak, humming in all positions, volume and tone pots made scratchng sounds when rotated, etc. All in all, pretty much unplayable.

Over the course of a few days, I played with the setup while I waited for all the new parts to arrive from various **** vendors. I managed to get rid of 90% of the fret buzzing while still maintaining a pretty low action. Some minor truss rod adjustment will probably be needed to fine tune it. Intonation was kind of hard to set on most strings because the tremolo seems to be mounted too far away from the neck, by about 1/8". Most of the saddles are bottomed out as far forward as possible and yet still need to go a little further. To my ears it still sounds okay as long as I dont try any bar chords above about the 15th fret. After that they become noticably out of tune.

I replaced the pickups with GFS Crusaders, high output units designed to be similar to SD Invaders. These were wired for coil tapping via push/pull pot. Shielding in the control cavity was done with aluminum tape used in AC&R work, from Home Depot. The cheesy plastic pickup rings were ditched in favor of die cast chrome parts.

I was impressed enough with the results of the project that I ordered another one to modify as well. Guitar #2 was even worse out of the box than the first, in all aspects. The donnie paint job was not all that great, with lots of overspray that had been clearcoated over. I sanded it down to #400 grit and resprayed with Black Pearl Testors model paint, followed with 4 coats of clear laquer. Pickups were replaced with GFS Big Mouth units, again wired for coil tapping, along with a high pass filter as per JS-1000 wiring specs. Eventually all the chrome hardware on this one will be replaced with black parts. I'm hoping that a different brand of tremolo might help with the intonation problem by having slightly different saddle location relative to the mounting studs..... I can't say enough good things about the GFS Big Mouth pickups, they sound amazing and have a very broad range of sounds available with coil tapping. I'm still working on the playability aspect of both guitars, which will take a little more time. As far as tone though, they are pretty much perfect. Overall cost for each guitar after mods was still below $300. This will increase as more parts are replaced, but still pretty cheap for two axes that sound really great.

Mike

fettouhi · #2 09-25-2006, 04:36 AM

Nice job

. What tremolo will you drop in?

Kind Regards

André

mi2tom · #3 09-25-2006, 04:45 AM

hmmm that gorilla guitar looks great

Flobanez · #4 09-25-2006, 11:59 AM

Wow, those look good, nice job.

C.Thep · #5 09-25-2006, 01:04 PM

The picture is not working for me!

Edit: Ah, now they work.

Looks really cool!

dragsternj · #6 09-25-2006, 05:39 PM

i though the right thing to say was " don't buy chinese or they just make more?"

fettouhi · #7 09-25-2006, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dragsternj

i though the right thing to say was " don't buy chinese or they just make more?"

Regards

André

Sabre · #8 09-25-2006, 06:09 PM

I'm really impressed, they actually look really really good.

FMJBT · #9 09-25-2006, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fettouhi

Nice job

. What tremolo will you drop in?

Thanks! I haven't decided on the tremolo yet. I'm torn between getting one of the cheaper Floyd Rose units from E-vil-bay, or finding a used Ibanez Edge or Edge Pro. My requirements are pretty simple though, it has to be cheap, black, and double locking in design. I'll post up some more pics when they are totally finished.

Mike

ZOMB13 · #10 09-26-2006, 12:13 AM

hola crap
they look real close to the JS
are you going to put a Ibanez decal on it?

Dino · #11 09-26-2006, 02:13 AM

I have been impressed with the GFS pickups for a while now. I put some in my brothers Jackson, and they sounded awesome. Although it sounds like a fun project, I think you are kinda wasting your time with the guitars though, by the time you are done you could have had the real thing. Good job on the BP paint!

FMJBT · #12 09-26-2006, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sabu2k1

hola crap
they look real close to the JS
are you going to put a Ibanez decal on it?

Yeah, they are really close. If they had better assembly from the factory and an Ibanez logo, they could probably pass for a JS-100 for sure. The only other thing that sets them apart from the real deal is the AANJ neck joint that the JS doesn't have. I've checked, and the neck from an S series guitar will bolt right on to this body. I've though about doing this, as the Ibanez neck would be a lot easier to set up than these. I think I'd rather keep the original necks though because of the headstock markings. It was never my intention to pass either of these off as a genuine Ibanez guitar. In that respect, the fewer Ibanez logos they have, the better.

Mike

fettouhi · #13 09-26-2006, 03:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sabu2k1

hola crap
they look real close to the JS
are you going to put a Ibanez decal on it?

I don't know the horns don't look right. Especially the upper horn.

Regards

André

FMJBT · #14 09-26-2006, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dino

I have been impressed with the GFS pickups for a while now. I put some in my brothers Jackson, and they sounded awesome. Although it sounds like a fun project, I think you are kinda wasting your time with the guitars though, by the time you are done you could have had the real thing. Good job on the BP paint!

Thanks for the compliment on the paint. It had been a few years since I last used metallic paints, and I forgot some techniques and botched it pretty bad the first time. Ended up wiping it all off with mineral spirits and starting over

You're probably right about being able to get the real thing by the time I'm done with these. Unfortunately that's not really my style. I can't leave anything alone for very long. If I had purchased a real JS-1000BP, it would have only been a matter of time before I tore into it with potentially disasterous results. Plus, I've always enjoyed improving things, and there's really not much if any improvement to be had on a JS-1000 short of getting it chrome plated

I'm pretty much stuck on GFS pickups after doing these two projects. Most surprising were the Crusader pups. Metal/distortion pickups are not normally known for possesing good tone, but these have a really interesting tone that is much fuller than most high output pickups I've heard. They also allow pinch harmonics on the neck pickup that normally you can only get from a bridge position. The Big Mouth pickups are a little tamer, but not by much. They are in a class by themselves for tone though. More mid range than most PAF type pickups, but still with plenty of crunch

Mike

ZOMB13 · #15 09-26-2006, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FMJBT

Yeah, they are really close. If they had better assembly from the factory and an Ibanez logo, they could probably pass for a JS-100 for sure. The only other thing that sets them apart from the real deal is the AANJ neck joint that the JS doesn't have. I've checked, and the neck from an S series guitar will bolt right on to this body. I've though about doing this, as the Ibanez neck would be a lot easier to set up than these. I think I'd rather keep the original necks though because of the headstock markings. It was never my intention to pass either of these off as a genuine Ibanez guitar. In that respect, the fewer Ibanez logos they have, the better.

Mike

Very cool