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Please help me with putting together a Jem build...

1K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  JSibanez 
#1 ·
So I decided to put together a swirl Jem build… I've loved swirls since I first saw Vai play one with Whitesnake and the P&W album. That being said, if I could do something like this, I would totally be in heaven.



For the hardware, I was going to use Ibanez Rules. For the pickups, I was going to get them from Banjo Mike's on the 'Bay.

The body and neck are what concerns me…. I was going to use Perle guitars, but I don't know if Nate offers swirling. At the very least, I could still get the neck and body from him unfinished. Livewire and Sims are out of the question.

Who else does swirling? I would prefer to source this from someone that made the actual body and neck to avoid shipping the pieces too many times.

Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
 
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#2 ·
As far as getting the neck built and body built and swirled all in the same place, I am only aware of Perle in the US. I believe he does do swirls, some of his bodies on his website are swirled.

Mai Guitar builds AANJ bodies and swirls, but doesn't do necks.

As far as I have seen, a Mai body works great with a Perle neck.

I believe Mai's and Perle's shops are very close to each other.
 
#3 ·
the most difficult part of putting a project jem together is making sure your body and neck match up. I put a jem together and the neck pocket was maybe 2 mm too deep and 1 mm wider than it needed to be. I works but I wasn't super happy with it. at that point I had put too much in to it to scrap it. I have had it almost 10 years, I just recently took the neck off and put it on a different body. It doesn't fit that body exactly either, a bit better than the original but still not great.

try and buy your neck and body from the same builder so you can verify fit, or make sure they will take returns if you get a neck or body that doesn't match up right.

You can always have someone do the paint, but neck and body fit is your biggest challenge.

I love warmoth and have done a couple of guitars from warmoth parts. I love them because their quality is amazing, and everything is standardized. They dont swirl or offer ibanez rg style bodies but they are the best/easiest way to go to make any other style project.
 
#4 ·
My personal opinion, save yourself the headache of a full custom and just base it on an existing guitar.

You can find old RG570CT's with direct mount pickups for cheap.

https://reverb.com/item/5802157-ibanez-rg570ct-1994-trans-blue
https://reverb.com/item/5818475-ibanez-rg570ct-1995-trans-blue

You can just have it painted and throw a clear guard on there. For the neck, find someone who will do a board replacement for you, or a Perle neck should theoretically fit on one of those old 56mm heel bodies and you can sell the original neck.
 
#5 ·
I tried this with an RG1570 as a donor but I wanted the Jem routes and couldn't find anyone to do monkey grip, lions claw, angled output jack routes. After shimming the neck pocket the Perle neck fit the Mai body perfectly.

If Perle will do everything, that might be the easiest way to go.
 
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