Ibanez JEM Forum banner

Dear Ibanez - I still love you

3K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  Drew 
#1 ·
First of all, I know that title probably makes this sound more like a 'Comments To Ibanez' thing but it's not really (besides, Ibanez has already seen it, and I'm posting it here for Jemsite readers, not Ibanez).

I wrote this on my site http://iheartguitarblog.com yesterday, but in the interests of not spamming everyone I'll post it here in its entirety. Thought you all might dig it.

Dear Ibanez.

We've been together for a long time. I still remember the first time I saw you. It was in the form of a double-neck 12/6 string, from the era in the 1970s when you made successful, competitor-unnerving Gibson and Fender replicas. I thought you were gorgeous. I heard Steve Vai talk about you in 1990 and I knew we were right for each other. I finally got to hold you myself in 1993 when Father Christmas gave me a Japanese-made, Edge-loaded Jewel Blue RG370. It was a rare guitar with unusual specs and an unusual country of manufacture for an RG370. I liked knowing you were mine, that I had something nobody else had. I didn't want to think about how many other people in my town had played you as you hung on the wall of Custom Music in Lavington. I guess others must have strummed your strings before me, maybe even executed a devastating flutter on your whammy bar. Maybe you even liked it. I guess you knew deep down that I already had a Status brand Stratocaster copy - that you weren't my first electric guitar. But we were blissful in our ignorance.

As time went on I acquired more Ibanez guitars and I loved them all dearly. I've leaped about onstage with an RG7620, I won a shredding contest hosted by Allans Music and Triple M using my RG7420, and as a member of Cereal Killer I shared a bill with Rob Balducci at Jemfest, armed with my UV777BK and Jem7VWH.

I can understand if you were hurt when you heard last week that I'd traded my Jem7VWH for a Fender Stratocaster. Really, I get it. We'd been together for so long, and my love for you was so strong that when I worked at World of Music, teaching guitar but more importantly (to you) performing set-ups and repairs, I was known to staff and customers as 'Captain Ibanez.' There was nothing about you I didn't know, whether it be the names of the guys at the Custom Shop who crafted exquisite instruments for my heroes throughout the years (Mace Bailey, Rich Lasner, Tak Hosono), or the correct angle at which to set an Edge series trem (ignore the surface of the unit and instead judge by the knife edge inserts, making sure they're parallel to the body). But to be honest, as much as I loved it and as comfortable as it was to play, the Jem just wasn't for me. There was a time when I told myself it felt like it was designed for me: It seemed to fit my body and get completely out of the way as I executed flurry after flurry of sweep-picking crescendo. But I think I started to realise that that was the problem: it was too passive. It just lay there, letting me have my lustful way with it on special occasions but not particularly getting in on the act itself. I started to feel that the fire, the passion for that Jem was waning, even though it was super-hot and would let me do whatever I wanted with it. So I did what just a year ago I would have thought unthinkable.

I traded it for a Strat.

But here's the thing, Ibanez. Even though I'm one Ibanez down (and to be honest, I'm kinda thinking of trading my RG550MXX Roadflare Red in for a Telecaster, and I certainly have my eye on more than a few Gibsons - and how could I claim to be an objective guitar reviewer if I only loved one company?), I'm still an Ibanez Guy. I still love you. Really. I will never part with my Universe, because her and I have a special connection. Ditto my RG370. And super ditto my Talman TC825 with Bisgby, which has tremendous sentimental value as well as absolutely killer tones. And my two RG7s I mentioned before will always be with me because they sound great, play great, and mean something to me. Sure, I'm also on the fence about my original black 1987 RG550, but that one sounds monstrous and I'd be pretty nuts to sell it, even though a few friends have made some pretty flattering offers.

So what it comes down to, Ibanez, is that although I may from time to time visit another, you're still my baby. It's like Gene Simmons and Shannon Tweed. Everyone knows Gene parties down with other girls. I'm sure Shannon quite happily encourages it, maybe because she knows he won't change, or maybe simply because it's nice to get him out of the house every now and then when she just wants to sit down with the latest Vanity Fair or to make a little caterpillar out of M&Ms and then eat him up one segment at a time (don't be ashamed, Shannon, we all do it). I'm sure if Gene and Shannon were married he would stop his dilly-dallying around with other girls, and if I ever become a famous shredmeister and you come knocking on my door for an endorsement I would proudly stand with you and say 'I do,' forsaking all others. But until that day, let's keep this Gene/Shannon thing going. And you can play with other guitarists too. Are we cool?
 
See less See more
#6 ·
in other words: you're getting older.
i mean, i still have my collection of Ibanez colorful goodies but as i'm getting older, i feel i was made for bass, not guitar. and, though i already have a beautiful Padauk-Pau Ferro Soundgear i'm really going to get a good Precision. this doesn't mean i'm swapping my favored brand since 1987, though. it's just a "promenade" onto a different garden. i'm alsp one of the biggest Ibanez "unofficial" promoters in my country and have converted many people onto Ibanez, for free, of course. so i think i can take a walk wherever i want, sometimes.

so, welcome to the club ;)
 
#7 ·
It's so true. Also, through work (guitar mags) I get to play a LOT of different guitars and you can't help but broaden your horizons when that happens. Interestingly I still haven't found an amp I like more than my Marshal DSL50, but my guitar tastes are definitely evolving. I'm also more into low-output pickups these days, and that's another thing I love about my Strat.
 
#9 ·
The interesting thing about his "letter" is that he describes the guitar as being too easy to play. Isn't that sort of the point? At least, that's why I've always been an Ibanez fan.

I can sort of relate from my experiences owning motorcycles. Some of the newer ones are simply too easy to ride. It takes a lot of the joy out of the riding experience. On the older ones, you may not be going as fast but you feel like a much bigger hero really working the thing over to bend it to your will.

But I guess I just don't look at motorcycles and guitars the same way ;)
 
#11 ·
I can sort of relate from my experiences owning motorcycles. Some of the newer ones are simply too easy to ride. It takes a lot of the joy out of the riding experience. On the older ones, you may not be going as fast but you feel like a much bigger hero really working the thing over to bend it to your will.
That's pretty much it. Also, the lower-output pickups have a much wider dynamic range. Sometimes I want a high-output pickup to even out the rough edges of your playing, and other times I want to emphasise the peaks and the valleys (while using my technique to even out the rough edges instead).
 
#14 · (Edited)
Great post man! I completely understand. Deep down I will always be an "Ibanez guy". From my first real electric, an EX140 (RIP buddy), my next REAL guitar (RG550), my lovely RS400 and my newly aquired 540S, I just love these high tech machines that I can buy for a song and a dance.

They're tone can't touch my semi-hollow Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean, which is just an unbelievably warm and awesome beast. But I will never be a Gibson man... Short scales are for wussies! Luckily my Gibson is an oddity that is pretty much a long scale copy of a Gretsch (speaking of overpriced....)

Most people are Fender or Gibson men. No matter how many of their guitars I might have, not that I'm dying to go drop a grand on a strat that they don't even bother to adjust the truss rod on, I will always be an Ibanez man.

Keep on paying your thousands of dollars for a 70's Strat guys, that Roadstar from the 80's that I picked up for $200 is a better built guitar, haha.

Of course every guitar, and company, has it's own mojo. Ibanez has surely put out some crap guitars, just like every other guitar company. When you pick up a nice vintage Tele there is something about it that nothing else can exactly copy. Of course that Les Paul is a great guitar with an iconic tone. But those are what EVERYBODY plays, and wants, and the pricetag will always reflect that. I just personally identify with a good Ibanez in a way that I never feel with other guitars. And I can't even afford a Jem....
 
#20 ·
Thanks folks!

I'm really digging the Strat. It's a much more interactive experience than playing my Ibanezes. Ibanez guitars can be set up so fine that it almost feels like you're playing the frets rather than the strings, if ya know what I mean, whereas with the Strat (especially cos I wanted a 7.25" radius one with small frets) you really feel like you're playing the string. After not quite 2 weeks of playing this thing I feel my chops have increased by about 50% - which means whenever I switch back to my Ibanezes I've increased my killing power by like 150%. Hehehe.
 
#21 ·
There is always something to be said for having to dig into the strings and actually put some work into what you are playing...

it makes going back to wheedeloos and oodelies on your shred machine that much easier!

I also have 10's on all my other guitars, but keep 9's on my Ibbys which make it that much easier to play as well.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top