As many of you will know I'm a massive "old school" Ibanez fan. I'm not going to get into the whole debate but I personaly have not been moved by any of Ibanez's recent guitars and I yearn to be whisked back to the golden era of 87 to 93 but alas that's another kettle of fish.
I was recently in the market for a brand new guitar yet was stuck to a strict budget of £200. This put me in the Ibanez GRG/GRX range or at a real stretch perhaps the RG350 range. I went out and played multiple models from both. I was gob smacked at the poor quality pf the GRG/GRX's whilst the RG350 range did little to convince me to stretch my budget by a further 70 pounds. So unfortunatly my beloved brand had nothing to offer the man with my budget. I tried some LTD's which were actualy very nice but again, I would be required to stretch past the 200 mark. Having not owned a Jackson since the Fender take over I was curious to see what they had to offer me.
The JS30DK is made in India (yes I didn't think I could ever become the owner of an Indian guitar either). The first thing that strikes you when you unpack it is the quality of the finish, in my case a thru black with a
flame maple veneer underneath. It's flawless ! The neck fit , set- up, were all acceptable (still required some work though) straight out of the box. The trem responds very well to all manner of abuse. The pickups are pretty much what you'd expect on a budget guitar but are useable until the replacements arrive. Over all it's fantastic. If I had to be critical then I'd prefer 24 frets and fluro neon 80's colours with maple boards but hang on......I only paid 200 notes so what the hell am I complaining about.
My JS30DK is not long for this Earth as a plain black guitar. I remember reading a post from a guy who got a pro printed sticker of the Ritchie Kotzen "scary" guitar applied to the face of his RG and I've sourced a local company who can print whatever I like for about £30. I'm in the process of deciding what sort of graphic I want and then finding a hi-res image of it.
Here she is..
She's so good she's been added as one of my main gigging guitars.
I saw an Ibanez advert in this months Guitar World with that Terry guy from Evanesance(sp?). He had a custom model with Jason from halloween leaning over some stairs handrails on the front (you'll know what I'm talking about if you've seen it). I'n not thinking of copying it at all but I do like the general idea so I'm hot on the heels of some cool hi-res images to have a bit of fun with in photoshop.
Ben
