!!!The following lines contain information or comments that may appear offensive to hardcore JEM adepts!!!
Yes, the mighty Maxxas still rules!!! *
Being the owner of such an exquisite instrument I feel obliged to reply! (check out harmony-central...)
You read the minds of a very select group of people on this very planet: the Maxxas' owners (or dare I say possessors) and those who want one(ie who are possessed like the owners but unable to acquire that what they aspire...)! And Ibanez will probably ignore us, even mock us in our misery! As we all might and otherwise should know (that's what I believe anyway...): building a Maxxas is a little more complicated than screwing and gluing together a JEM. In other words: they were too much value for money, AND they didn't come cheap! Not enough demand and they were discontinued, I guess... Let us also blame our great icon Vai regarding this issue! He wanted his OWN more accessable (yet still a bit deranged) strat-model built...and thus that model was mass-produced with partially cheap materials, including paper...and without the all access neck joint. What a major bummer! Humanity had to wait 5 more years for that to happen (the buddha of guitars: the mighty EVO!). What would our planet and this site look like if Vai had went with the divine Maxxas!?! Our present demands would have been met to the fullest! *A hypothesis that aches my heart...Being left in a void with only the S- and Soundgear-series for a legacy of what once was and could have been, and being comforted only by that single specimen that proves its magnificence hitherto unknown in the mythology of guitar luthiery.(or something like that)
On the other hand: imagine a Maxxas with flower print and
pyramid inlays...disgusting, isn't it?
But I'll bet they sure made a hell of a lot more profit on the jems! Even when switching from one fully developed detailed axe to a brand new one to brush up the company's image.(ie in general perspective -not mine-:being the evil japanese manufacturer of cheap and tacky strat and les paul clones) *Luckily for me, I was only nine years old at the time and not aware of it all. I just bought a mint and previously un-owned (where does the term "brand new" go after 8 years?) Maxxas in '96. And was immensely impressed at half price...
In terms of quality the Maxxas should definitely return!
Even my most excellent JEM90HAM isn't quite as well put together as my Maxxas MX-2. Pathetic, really...Is it that hard to make a pickguard actually fit both the neck and the
tremolo cavity on a $2500 guitar? Guess Ibanez' margins aren't that tight. A Maxxas simply hasn't got a pickguard (easy solution #...).
I dare say that a nicely shining pitchblack or chromated 7-string, 24-fret, super duper quality, custom shop forged Maxxas Axe -with some mighty mother of pearl inlays- would definitely hit my spot...and shock the world with a 10,000+ dollar price tag! Wait! Am I drooling? Oh heck...yes I am!
MAXXAS RULES! (and yes, Jems and Universes rule as well...)
A question still lives: how many were made? I don't know. I searched the net, found nothing, let it rest, but still I don't know...drat! *
For the record: that nasty (towards Ibanez and probably everything else that's made in Japan) man Ed Roman says Maxxas is the only Ibanez he ever liked. And that's like the pullitzer or nobel prize coming from him.
My apologies if I have discomforted you, my dear reader. This may happen once in a while.
I don't think the Maxxas will ever rise from its grave, it was its time to go. Just like the finnish plastic-bubble holiday houses on legs they used to make in the sixties or seventees which you could move around the country with use of only one convenient medium sized helicopter and looked just like some kind of alien craft. (and those were also very cool, weren't they?)
