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Does this neck cavity look correct??

4K views 49 replies 11 participants last post by  morien 
#1 ·
2010 JEM7V-WH repainted yellow
 

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#2 ·
Well that's awesome man! Looks like it was actually stripped then! I gotta go through that this spring or summer 😑. Not looking forward to removing that hard paint.

The guy should not have painted the neck pocket at all though, it can cause the neck to sit at an incorrect angle causing fret buzz. The paint in the pocket should be removed... Unless is plays perfect, at that point personally I don't know if I'd bother with removing the excess paint.
 
#6 ·
Thats not a legit body. Routing is ... wrong/bad, thats... not alder, that "dimarzio" is ABSOLUTELY fake, counterfeits have *terrible* plating on their screws and thats what Im seeing here, the holes arent drilled properly, the height adjustment screws are too big... and thats just what I can see from this one angle.
 
#10 ·
@bob493, unless you've made the guitar in question from fake parts you're only guessing, like everyone else here is guessing. But I'd wager unless you work at either Fujigen in Japan or Headstock here in the U.K. then the folks who think it's real have almost certainly seen the inside of a JEM far more often than your average player or owner...
 
#11 ·
Not to be rude, but Im not "guessing". 1) thats not alder. that alone is enough. 2) the routings are incredibly sloppy. This is incumbent of a dull bit, something Fujigen would never let slide through. 3) the pickguard is CLEARLY wrong. Dont need to work at fujigen to see these things mate.

As well, Rich hasn't even mentioned anything about it yet. He simply stated "look at the neck pocket". Furthermore, if the people claiming "its real" cant see these issues, then I have to take their word with a grain of salt. Sorry, but that is what it is. At any rate, its not my money and I've said what I wanted to say. I hope Im wrong, but I really dont think I am.
 
#13 ·
Not to be rude, but, yeah, you ARE guessing, unless you want to throw up some evidence other than you don’t think it looks like alder...

I think there are a few people here taking wh you’ve said with a pinch of salt too...

But it’s not my money either so neither of us have too much to lose :)
 
#15 ·
Not to be rude, but, yeah, you ARE guessing, unless you want to throw up some evidence other than you don't think it looks like alder...

I think there are a few people here taking wh you've said with a pinch of salt too...

But it's not my money either so neither of us have too much to lose :)
:roll: no... no im not...

The differences are pretty obvious when pointed out, I've literally shown comparison pictures, and I've said why. Take it or leave it, I really dont care beyond this. If you guys cant/wont see it, thats fine, but telling someone to waste their money on whats AT BEST "sketchy" is kinda crap. The body IS fake, the pickguard IS fake, the stamp on the neck doesnt match at all, the stripes are way too thick, the pickups arent right, the fretboard isnt rosewood, combined with the fact that its REAL easy to grab an old used Edge, locking nut and some gotoh tuners off reverb leads me to be really suspicious about the whole thing.
 

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#17 ·
I can't remember what thread it was in, but Rich had said essentially as long as the neck pocket is stamped then it would be worth the risk. But from those pictures you sent, it could possibly be a fake. But only based on the dimarzio logo. Wood color varies. Especially given the drastic difference in lighting. Too late now though, he bought it weeks ago.
 
#19 ·
Yeah, unfortunately didnt see the "NGD" post until well after I looked the thing over honestly. That said, I've been dabbling in wood working for over 20 years now; thats pretty clearly luan to me; which is a very inexpensive and very available lumber over in asia. But if hes happy with it, so be it.

Wait, let me check... yeah. Yeah, thought so... yeah you are!

I'm sitting here with my white JEM which admittedly is a few years older, but I'm fairly sure is real, and bar the colour, it looks the same as the yellow one. At worst I think the yellow one may have been rebuilt with different screws, but the rosewood looks like rosewood to me, the pick guard looks right to me and so on. You might be the greatest sleuth in the world but frankly your evidence of a few cut and paste photos that are out of focus and out of scale look to be just more misleading than anything else...

But as others have said, the guy bought the guitar a while back and is happy enough with it. All you're serving to do now is reduce your already low reputation on the site...
So lemme get this straight... Im wrong, despite showing objective proof and examples, simply because "you said so"? Im not quite understanding how youre incapable of seeing the differences with the pickguard; of everything I've shown thats like... the most obvious mate. Like its not even the same shape lol. And If thats whats "lowering my reputation", then... sure man. At any rate, the differences are VERY clear and obvious, and you can choose how you wish to interpret them, its truly no skin off my butt here.
 
#25 ·
Good Lord. We're basing this on the wood looks wrong, the pickup stamp is wrong and the logo is in the wrong place?

1. This is a repainted guitar and the lighting is bad in the pictures. You are likely looking at a combination of low light pics that always look yellow and probably sanding sealer, which would have raised the grain of the raw wood in the neck pocket.

2. Pickup stamp. I happen to have a loose JEM7VWH body (2000 model) and you can see the small DiMarzio stamp on those pickups. Shortly after that they changed to the larger stamp you see on the Air Norton that came out of a 2003 J. Custom. They still use this today and more importantly, this is something you will only find on an OEM pickup.

3. Logo location. These are hand applied and there is a lot of variation. See logos from the '00 VWH neck and '91 GMC neck.

I don't get what the question is at all about the pickguard? On top of that, you have the correct radius on the grip, which is usually omitted on aftermarket bodies as well as the proper maple "stem" in the vine inlay, which I've never seen on a fake neck. Also, the "JEM" looks completely correct, which is impossible to do with a decal because the script is too fine. Only good way to do it is silkscreened like the factory.
 

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#27 ·
The doubt is there because the real guitar I have looks like the yellow guitar in the photos, in some of the comparison shots you’ve posted my real guitar looks MORE like the yellow one than the white one. The wood looks like alder, despite what you say and so on and so on. That’s why there’s doubt...

The logo looks off to me, I don’t recall ever seeing one on a white JEM that is that badly located but the rest of the guitar just looks like a rebuild to me.

As for the missing bit of the swoosh on the tip, I’ve got 3 RGs sitting here with me that all have that bit missing from years of being played.
 
#30 ·
Looks fine to me. Those who make/sell counterfeit Jems over the internet wouldn't bother going to this level of detail, particularly with the stamp in the neck pocket. In order to keep the price down, they'll skimp on various things, one of the biggest give-aways usually being the trem (a new Edge or Lo Pro costs just about as much one counterfeit axe).

Also, the trem checks out for 2010 and later –*the Edge was reintroduced on Jems, JSs etc. in 2010 and since then it doesn't bear the 'licensed under Floyd Rose patents' script on the whaletail because the whaletail patent Floyd (the man) held run out in the meantime.

Decal placement (and size) does vary subtly on guitars over the years too. Have seen plenty where the 'I' in Ibanez is almost touching the D string tuner bushing.
 
#36 ·
I'm glad I slept thru this.

The routing, I've seen enough neck pockets that absolutely nothing is perfect that would not preclude me to believe anything. Chips in the neck pocket? Common.

The bevel on the pickguard, that I did not catch, that is not right.

The headstock, I never saw close ups of that, I have no idea what's going on with that logo.

That is rosewood as far as I'm concerned.

I've seen alder look like basswood and pine, you can never judge a wood by a little slice of look.

The serial stamp, it is gray, the lower the light the darker the logo looks, the brighter the light the lighter it looks. The dimensions are correct as is placement.

Of course they always stamped Dimarzio on the pickups, except on retail sales pickups.

I would have liked to see a shot of the neck heel when the neck was off to see the inspection marks but if it is a fake they would have gone far enough to have done those too. If they've progressed to this point of accuracy, I haven't seen one. If you have other examples we can look at please post them.
 
#37 ·
Hello everyone. So..... I have gone over this guitar with a fine tooth comb. Bridge is correct, pots and electronics are correct, pickups are correctly stamped Dimarzio EVO's., neck has the correct stamp and I have the original hang tag with the serial number on it to verify it. Headstock overlay looks to me like the "artist" who painted it masked off the logos and refinished it. The guy I bought it from told me that he didn't want to disturb the original logo. Neck pocket stamp is correct. The last 4 frets are scalloped. I have owned 4 Jems prior to this one and this one feels, plays and sounds like the other ones. Its not heavy at all. All the screw holes match other Jems, it has a pop in bar. The guy I got it from is local. He has a Pia and several other Jems. He was selling this one to fund the purchase of another Pia.
Here are my thoughts on this guitar. I paid $950 for it. He was asking $1100. I can't see why someone would go through all the cost of creating a fake which meant getting everything correct including the neck and all the electronics and the bridge etc... and then refinish it in a non stock paint scheme. You would think that after all that effort and money they would paint it the factory WH color. Regarding the logo placement on the headstock... I owned other Jems and the placement wasn't exactly the same on any of them. I didn't weigh the guitar but it feels like its around 7-1/2 lbs. Similar in weight to an RG550. I am in no way an expert on JEM guitars but I did own 4 of them in the past and I have been playing guitar professionally since 1979. I do all my own work on my guitars and amps so I have take apart just about every type of guitar you can think of. To me... this looks like its a stock JEMV-WH that somebody refinished in yellow confetti and added some pink accents. The headstock looks to be exactly what the seller told me it is. The logos were masked off and it was refinished. When he pulled the tape it left the edge that you can clearly see. Judging by the quality of the paint on the body I am not surprised. Its not a great deep thick glossy paint job. Its very smooth with no runs but its certainly not a pro paint job. I defer to the experts though. If it is a fake.. its the best fake I ever saw and it has a ton of great parts on it including an awesome scalloped Jem neck complete with the original hang tag.
 
#38 ·
There was always fake hang tags to go with the guitar that matched the serial number, the problem was they all had the same serial number which was usually for a 555 or something else. Of course we've been talking about all the problems with these fakes for so long we've given them a roadmap of how to build a correct fake. These are still $100 in China. The guy you bought it from didn't fake it, a sweat shop would have, but this is one they would have taken off an original to get this level of detail correct. The version 09 is correct for the year and all stamps match, although they have had a decade to make counterfeits close enough that pictures won't easily reveal as they would when they were hideouts. I'm not saying it's fake, but I'm not saying it's real, I'm saying if bob has more examples of fakes to this level of accuracy he'd be doing us a great service to show us instead of arguing over this guitar.
 
#40 ·
Absolutely and I went into this with both eyes open. Worst case scenario is I got a beautiful playing and sounding guitar. Its a joy to play and it sounds fantastic. I did tons of research and asked many questions for easily 2 weeks before I pulled the trigger on it. I researched every fake I could find and every website or thread explaining how to spot a fake. From what I found.. fakes fall into categories and they all have tell tale things that are blatantly wrong. Especially the VERY inexpensive ones.
Regarding fake necks... I have never seen a fake one that looked as correct as the one I have. The fret work, the inlays, the scallops, the tuners, the serial number on the back... they are all correct. The serial number color, font, placement on the back of the headstock is all correct. Even the pots, 5 way switch, wiring and the jacks are all correct. If its fake.. I am cool with it. I love the guitar. I don't believe it is fake. Nobody would go through that much effort regarding correct JEM parts and then blow it at the end with a custom paint job that obviously doesn't look stock.
 
#39 ·
I found the reddit thread bob used for his "can you tell which is which?" post:
Compared to 10 years ago, it's absolutely closer, but without the censoring it's still really easy to tell (ignoring the hardware. The shape of the headstock, the monkey grip, the soft, roundness of the body edges)
 
#41 ·
A redit page of an obvious fake isn't helpful. I'm talking about one that will fool us by pictures.

If you can buy a fake that will pass picture inspection new for $500, add some original parts, use it for whatever, and still get your money out of it, there is no argument. The question remains, are fakes of this level of "originality" out there, and if there are I want to know, I want to see lots of close ups, I want to buy one to pull apart to show to Ibanez.
 
#47 ·
Bob has some valid points but I don't see them as clear cut evidence. Honestly, we're looking at pictures in different lighting where angles also make a difference. Without personally inspecting that guitar I couldn't give you any definitive answer. What I wanted was a link to another from a verified Chinese seller that we could all look at and [except for the hardware which they'll never pay enough to get perfect], say oh ****, change the hardware and that would fool anybody. Until I see that, I'm not convinced either way. All the example pictures he sent would be easy to spot a mile away, or at the least on a second glance.
 
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