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NGD J CUSTOM S540-JAPAN (URUSHI MULTICOLOUR)

11K views 43 replies 19 participants last post by  freddo 
#1 · (Edited)
Got this baby in the post today. A massive thanks to Tommi (jemsite id Gary Qwa) for selling this guitar to me. Tommi was a pleasure to deal with. He first contacted me last Monday and guitar was in the post Tuesday afternoon, great Jemsite trader!!!

Okay so this is a 1997 J Custom. Mahogany body, Lo Pro Edge, Original Wizard neck, DiMarzio's are Tone Zone, Blue Velvet and Air Norton. Gotoh Machineheads. This guitar is known as the 'Itch' model due to the high content of lead in the paint used. In fact only one artist available to Ibanez would volunteer to do the work. It's based to the Japanese lacquer technique known as Urushi and apparently there are only 12 made.

As an added bonus the guitar has been signed by both Steve Vai and Joe Satriani at a G3 'meet and greet' in Helsinki 2004 I think. Hope you like the pics and thanks for looking!!







 
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#27 ·
Thank you Jim!! Plays and sounds great. Has the original Wizard neck and the standard J Custom Tone Zone/Blue Velvet/Air Norton pickups which I'm always happy with. The finish is certainly different to say the least, might not be everybody's cup of tea I'm sure. ;-)
 
#29 ·
Hello everybody ;)

Really great guitar, thin and comfortable body and full sound(s). I own and play the same model since 2002.
I was surprised to read that model was known as the "itch guitar", wow, strange...8O.
Actually, I had never noticed any rashes on my arms or hands.

So I search for information about that "urushi" traditional japanese lacquer on internet. That lacquer is very itchy when it is liquid, but the itch effect shall disappear as soon as it is 100% polymerised and stable. So it might not be a problem for the guitarists to play that S540 JC now.

Moreover, I learned that the natural urushi finish is one of the hardest lacquer in the world, so it would be great advantage for resonating instruments as violins for example.

;)
 
#33 ·
Freddo, Ruslan,

I would also love to see pictures of your guitars. The s540japan has become an obsession of mine and I'm trying to collect pics of all 12 - so far I have found pics of about 8. PM me if you have a picture but need help hosting it.

In the spirit of sharing, here are some pics of mine:

 
#41 ·
Beautiful guitar Just4Kinks. Thanks for posting. I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
I love it. It has the best sound of any of my sabers. The action is good but not as good as my s540fm - maybe not a fair comparison because I think the s540fm has had some custom fretwork.

I notice that the JCS540 of Ibanezdaemon has a different "J-custom" logo on the head of guitar.
Just4kinks' one and mine have both another logo...(older one?)

...strange.
The small font logo seems to be the most common on the Urushi's.

Nice guitar, Freddo.
 
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