What's with the pickguards? - comment to Ibanez...

[Texter]

To my fellow Jemoholics and -philes,

I don't know if this has already been discussed on this forum or its predecessor before, I couldn't find it for that matter, so just blame me if it is out there and I missed it.(but don't forget to tell me where it is at that same moment!)

I've got this thing that's been itching my brain for some time now and call me a "nit-picker" if you may. When I take a closer look at my adored Jems and Universe, I can see that the pickguards aren't that well aligned to both the neck and the tremolo cavity. They are (clumsily or ruffly, but definitely without surgical precision) cut at the edge to sort of fit the guitars at the necks. And they don't match the sides of the trem-cavity on the other end. *
(They must have had a drastic method to cut through the HAM's aluminum pickguard )
I own a jem90HAM, a 7VWH and a UV777PBK. These are supposed to be (and are) *top quality, premium guitars and *the utter best you may expect Ibanez to produce.

Thus my query: Is this normal on Jems and intrinsic to the production method used by Ibanez? Do they just take one out of a big full box, screw on the parts and after that try to make it fit on the body by whacking off what's in the way (a worst case scenario)? Does someone know how they do it ? What margins do they apply here? And are those definitely (not) tight enough?

I sincerely plead everyone to take a close look at their JEM(s) and place a comment to see what's the deal here.

(And no, I haven't been checking out on other brands' pickguard quality yet and YES, I do believe that even I could have done a WAY BETTER job on affixing those stupid (and I don't mean ugly) pickguards on to the guitars(but probably not at the same rate)!!!Could it be THAT hard?)

My apologies (again) if I may have discomforted YOU, my dear reader, but some questions are just there to be asked and I hope you can find it in YOUR heart to reply to them...

[Jeroenn]

Hi,
Mine is sitting perfectly straight.
I know that the quality is improving each and each year, tho. And I'm pretty sure they install it by hand.
But you're right, a 2400 dollar guitar should be perfect in every way.

[Drew]

Originally Posted by texter

My apologies (again) if I may have discomforted YOU, my dear reader, but some questions are just there to be asked and I hope you can find it in YOUR heart to reply to them...

Yeah, you really sound heartbroken, my man...

I'm afraid i've never owned a Jem, but the three Ibanez guitars i've owned (RG-470DX, RG-520QS, RG-7620) have all had flawless trem cavity and electronics covers.

-Drew

[GreasyKid]

i've noticed this problem on alot of jems as well. specifically, i look at the way the pickguard lines up in the lower horn. it seems like every other jem i see is sorta off in this department. those kinda things tend to bug me alot for some reason... bleh

[jem7vwh]

I've notice this a little. My JEM7VWH is flawless, but my RG450 has a pickguard that doesn't fit correctly. Its dimensions are incorrect. It fits around the neck fine, but the dimensions for the screwholes are incorrect.

It's not the end of the world, but there ought to be a way to fix the process.

[Drew]

yep, custom pickguard. Check our a few links around here.

-Drew

[BrianH]

I've had 2 UV777BKs they both were missaligned on the lower horn, but it was so not important and everything else was perfect. All other Jems I've owned were perfect.

[SV300]

[quote="Drew"]

Originally Posted by texter

I'm afraid i've never owned a Jem, but the three Ibanez guitars i've owned (RG-470DX, RG-520QS, RG-7620) have all had flawless trem cavity and electronics covers.

-Drew

I don't own any Jems either, and i only own an RG470. The electronics covers is flawless, but the trem cavity is around 0.5mm off the center of the recession; the holes in the body werent drilled with (enough) precision.

Not something i would be too bothered about on a cheap RG though, I still love the way it plays.

[Texter]

Man this must have been like my second post or something...what was I thinking? Must have been a pee under my chair or something...

[stratman219]

i've noticed that too. on the lower horn and looking at the bottom right side by the pickguard, sometimes theres bigger spaces from the edge of the guitar and the pickguard, and the look really bad like that

[sniperfrommars1]

I noticed it a little, but not extremely its just easier to tell since the jem guard is pointy itself. I see alot of strats that are misaligned too.