JS 1200 sloppily lower string sound

[hmbreit]

How does your JS 1200 perform on lower strings (A, E)? My JS has a spongy sloppily sound with lack of attack. it's amazing because the higher strings (d - e) sound clear and bright.
First i had a 009 - 042 setup, now i tried with 01 - 046, but now it's even worse.
Can you guys tell me where i have to search for, or is it just a matter of design i.e. characteristical for the JS?

Thanks

[probableaim]

Try get it professionally set-up (If you haven't already). I use 009-042's and I have great attack and it the guitar feels great. Maybe try raising the action a bit, it helped when I first got mine. Hope this helps

[Mufaza]

I had mine set up by Rich, and the guitar sounds great, but I will say this, is that for E and A string stuff I stay away from the neck pickup as it sounds kind of muddy to me, the higher strings sound very warm. But on the bridge pickup everything is bright. This is a personal preference to me, usually I will just pull the tone knob back and get the warmth that I need than going with the neck pickup. Not a setup issue, just the way the neck pickup sounds on the low E and A.

I did change from Ernie Balls 9s to Elixir 9s nanos and the helped really brighten up the sound. So maybe try and different brand of strings, guage really won't effect that brightness of your sound, at least in my humble opinion.

[rhildinger]

I take it that the lowers strings sound fine when played open, but exhibit this problem when fretted? It sounds like your lower stings are getting choked, which is similar to but not exactly the same as fret buzz. Choking occurs when the combination of low action and very little neck relief cause a string to *slighty* vibrate against several of the downstream frets, instead of rattling heavily against the very next fret as occurs when with "fret buzz". The combined of effect of slight vibration against several frets causes the string vibration to get "choked", losing attack and dropping sustain quickly.

You could easily verify this by raising the saddle height of the lower strings a significant amount to see if that causes the problem to go away. Having said that, the best fix is as probableaim says: take it to a professional and have them do a workup on it. At the very least, it sounds like you need more relief in the neck.

[hmbreit]

Thanks for your answers.
Yesterday i had my JS checked at a musicstore and they told me that everything should be ok with my setup. But i don't know, if they are Ibanez professionals there. But i think, i swap to 009 again because i don't really like the feeling of the 010 'ropes' under my fingers and the the sound of 010 is not as bright (in my ears) as with 009. Is it a bad attitude for a guitar player not to play on heavier strings ? My problem is often, that i can't play with other guitars than mine, above all having heavier strings. That's embarrassing for me. Well, i think, my JS is good at Satriani-like songs but not for hardrock like Deep Purple, AC/DC and so on.
I'll have to accept that. I'm owning an American Telecaster Deluxe, too, giving me that crispy sound on lower strings. Now i'll have to find a Guitar in between those two.
Nervertheless, thanks for your helpful comments and keep on rockin'.

[Devo]

hey hmbreit, don't give up yet. Pickup height could be your problem, sounds like the pickup is too far from teh string on the Bass side. Try set it somewhere around 4mm under the low E string and see how that sounds. Then if it needs less bite or attack then back it off ot 5mm if it needs more then bring it up to 3. Hopefully that should solve the problem.

[RSVampire]

I had this problem and then moved to 10 gauge strings, then the problem went away forever.

[Sickbean]

Have you tried Hybrid string sets?

Personally I find Ernie Ball skinny top heavy bottoms to be the best of both worlds - you get easy bends on the top strings (where I'm yet to be convinced of heavier gauges being of any benefit), and big clear punchy sounds from the wound strings (where heavier gauge definitely is a benefit).

Give em' a go, there's a lot to be said for being able to really dig in on the low strings.