Jem players who don't like Vai

hamand · #1 04-20-2004, 10:38 PM

I have to know this. My life depends on it.

Anybody here who owns and plays a Jem but never liked Steve's music? I know some of us maybe turned off from Steve's recent releases, and I'm wondering if there's anyone who just owns the guitar because it's a good guitar (allegedly), and couldn't care less who the man behind it is?

Do you think there are people who go into a guitar shop, see a 7vwh for example and think "I want that!" without any knowledge of Steve's music? I mean, I can sort of imagine that being true for a MusicMan EVH model, because it's such a striking guitar imho, but there's a certain geekiness, if you will, for Satch/PG/Petrucci/Vai fans.

Luke, I am your father. Just wanted to say that.

Two hands31 · #2 04-20-2004, 11:11 PM

I liked the JEM and UV guitars before I'd even heard of Steve Vai...of course I've never played one, but I loved the look, and the sounds others got out of them (especially Korn with the UVs).

JESTER700 · #3 04-20-2004, 11:17 PM

The guitar and the music are totally seperate things, so the answer is obvious. The design definitely allows one to do many things that Steve himself does, but that doesn't mean you have to play like thator even like it.

After all, I had and loved a radius before it was a JS...

davester1234 · #4 04-20-2004, 11:18 PM

you know, to tell you the truth....when I was 12, I bought my first jem, a 777vbk. Actually it was bought for me by my loving parents

I loved Steve Vai, I thought he was the greatest thing since slice cheese, but I didn't buy it because of him. It didn't matter to me what he played. it matters to me more now than it did then LOL! I knew it was his guitar, can't say I didn't...but it was the guitar that won me over.

I bought it because it looked like a lethal weapon, and I had played a jem in Buffalo NY a year earlier that I absolutely loved. I remember driving the guy nuts at this music store playing the end solo for Mr. Crowley on that Jem through a Marshall stack..it was an LNG, and that was the first time I can *remember* playing through a real stack. he thought I was a good kid so he let me really crank it

I had to have one, and luckily my parents had the means to buy it. I can tell you though, if I wasn't practicing an upwards of 6 hours a day, there was NO WAY IN HELL i would have gotten a guitar that expensive. My parents could see it meant more to me then anything.

Last year, i bought a jem again because I wanted to reward myself. Again, not because Vai plays it, but because it's become such a part of my playing that I feel like I have a limp noodle in my hand evertime i play something else!

dot-dot-dot · #5 04-21-2004, 04:52 AM

I've not heard more than 3 or 4 Vai tracks, and there are a couple of JEMs that I think look quite tasty. They're generally outside of the price range that I shop in though, and I'm turning away from super-strats in general. That said, if anyone has a 90th that they don't want at all (or the black & silver one, or the newish blue one)...

Overall, though, I don't really care if a guitar is someone's signature model; I don't much like Staind, but I love my MMM1. If a guitar has all the right features and the right price then I don't really mind whose name is on the headstock.

weserman · #6 04-21-2004, 07:28 AM

The reason I got a Jem is partly due to steve vai, but not entirely. I had a Gibson SG for a while, and then I got into playing EVH/Satch/Vai stuff. Of course the SG with it's fixed bridge wasn't up to the job. I wanted a floating bridge, a single coil for clean sounds and i really wanted 24 frets. Knowing all these things the Jem was the perfect choice for me.

800 posts

jay ratkowski · #7 04-21-2004, 09:06 AM

I liked the JEM before I had heard of Steve Vai. I disliked Steve Vai after owning a JEM... but I have liked him inbetween and pretty much enjoy his music now. So I guess I'm out.

matt_cater · #8 04-21-2004, 09:46 AM

i used to hate the look of the JEM, with its cheesey handle lol.
then i got big into seeing vai and satch play, and an ibanez was the axe for me, and now I love the RG shape (still think the handle is cheesey though)

PekkaM · #9 04-21-2004, 03:55 PM

I like JEM's and only really like S&R and parts of Fire Garden.

I mean other albums are ok and definitely fine guitar music, I just don't like listening to instrumentals a lot... Still I'm going to G3!

Chris Brooks · #10 04-21-2004, 08:04 PM

I was given a John Petrucci Ibanez before I'd heard any of his music, but was a nice guitar even if the army paint job was like, awful (I still have it but will be getting a new paint job for it). It could be way worse. What if you bought a Tom Delonge strat and later found out that you hate Blink 182?

Artist · #11 04-21-2004, 08:35 PM

The reason I got a Jem was that my bare minimum specs were :

24 frets (had been playing a 22 S series and had started wanting to play a little higher)
H/S/H, My S had this, and I loved the sounds I could get (yes out of powersounds :P) from position 2+4, aswell as the strong sounds of buckers.

I looked at the RGs, but really I wanted a prestige or other high end model. This was going to be my big bad guitar, I had saved for over a year, asking family only for money towards the guitar for christmas' and birthdays.
I was heading towards a JS, as I felt I could deal with 22 frets if the guitar was that cool. I almost bought one at a blow out price ($699) but just missed it.
Then I found this place, and found out the price I could get a Jem for. Done dusted.

It was actually between the time I had almost fully decided to get a Jem and actually getting it that I got into Vai, although I had been played a few tracks before and had asked my friend "no lyrics?".

**jemaholic** · #12 04-22-2004, 09:40 AM

Good post.
I'm 47 and was a music major in college in the mid-'70s. I honestly don't know how many guitars I've had, but it's a substantial number. For years I was a real "High-End/American Only" snob and spent stupid money on things like mint '68 Les Pauls and early 60's Strats.

One day about 8 years ago, a friend dropped by the studio with a Jem and I verbally bashed it (and him) pretty good for awhile- telling him how he had gone astray and how to get back on the rightous path to snobbery, and then tried the guitar. I was amazed. How could a Jap company produce such a guitar??!! It felt and sounded great - -but-- wait, it's a rice-burner....

then he told me Steve Vai designed it with Ibanez and the rest was history.

Now I don't care if they are made in Ubekistan- the Jem is the most comfortable guitar I've played and I will always have a few in my stable.

I guess even snobs can learn a thing or two!

GuitarWizard · #13 04-22-2004, 10:13 AM

I was one of those rare kids that made Steve Vai a household name at my house at the tender age of 7 when Steve played on David Lee Roth's solo albums.

When the movie "Crossroads" came out, Ralph Machio was on Johnny Carson talking about how fantastic Ry Cooder (playing his part), Arlen Roth (his personal teacher for the movie) , and of course prasing Mr. Jack Butler (Vai) for a terrific ending.

Although Crossroads wasn't a HUGE box office smash....our small town had it on the big screen. My dad took me to see it.....I was the ripe age of 8...and I loved Steve Vai!!

(My dad explained to me how he lost on purpose for the movie)

A few years later I picked up guitar....and have been playing ever since.

I have owned 6 Japan made Jem's in my life...and I just can't get into them. I sure wish I could. I hate Floyd Rose's .... and please know this is just my opinion, but it feels cheap made to me.
I have other Ibanez's I love.

I just can't get into the Jem.

I love the strat body (as Fender strats are my favorite guitars)
I love the look of the Jem (flash is good!)

My feelings towards Vai have changed over the years. His 1985-1991 era was by far and away my favorite era for him. I actually prefer Vai in the role of guitarist in a traditional band...ie: Whitesnake or with Roth.....
I actually don't care for him as an instrumentalist.

My $.02

hamand · #14 04-22-2004, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

(My dad explained to me how he lost on purpose for the movie)

HE LOST ON PURPOSE??!?!!! Yeah right, and I suppose Santa doesn't exist either, huh?

lol, that's a cute post. You must've been heartbroken!

davester1234 · #15 04-22-2004, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

I have owned 6 Japan made Jem's in my life...and I just can't get into them. I sure wish I could. I hate Floyd Rose's .... and please know this is just my opinion, but it feels cheap made to me.

dude, why would you buy 6 if you can't get into them