I was reading a past copy of Guitar World issue, by the time Steve Vai released "sex&religion" and it has an interview where Vai talks about the VWH. He says that, in order to keep the tuning right, the VWH has some kind of "special" spring in the tremolo so that when you bend a note, it doesn't go out of tune. Well, i believe him (although i've never played the VWH), but is this a feature common to all Jems after the VWH? And the Jem90 has it too? (i'm asking this about the Jem90 because it has many uncommon features for a Jem: Gotoh tuners, the neck...). And what about the UV777? It has the same "special" spring that keeps the tremolo in tune when you bend notes?

Also, what is the upward interval that you can get in a Jem when you pull up the tremolo? And in a UV? It is the same? And what causes that limit in the note? Breaking a string or the tremolo arm touching the body?

Thanks.

The special spring in Steve's 7Vwh is actually a tremsetter, it's not a standardised feature on any of the jems or uvs.

Differences....betweeen jems and uvs for me would be the cosmetic differences....monkey grip, lion's claw, inlays etc. Physically, 7 strings, heavier....neck thicker.

Tonally...I feel the UVs have much more body and warmth, a very meaty sound to my ears.

Chris

the "Ibanez backstop" was never included with JEMs nor is it made any longer. Go figure... glen

So the spring that Vai was talking about was just a device in his 7VWH and not a standard feature?

And what about the pull-up capabilities between the UV and JEM? Since the tremolo of an UV has more tension, is the pull-up interval the same? (of course this depends of the set-up but i'm considering that the two guitars are set-up properly, and referin g only to the average interval that you guys can get in these two guitars...)

It's not the trem arm hitting the boday, it's the underside of the brigde hitting the rout inside.

I knew my RG-550 was set up right when I could pull up the bar on a 5th fret G string harmonic to a B (Major 3rd)

I only owned my Jem (vwh) for a few days, but the interval was significantly more - probably about a 4th or 5th. *With new strings it bottomed out before the strings broke, but i would guess strings with more wear would be more likely to break before hitting the bottom.

My UV sits somewhere in the middle - probably about a 4th when set up properly. *my guess is that they didn't cut the 'lion's claw', but they did make the rout a bit deeper.

Guitars with Floyds seem to wear faster at the saddles because they're constantly moving in relation to the other strings. *Notice that when you bend the "G" the "B" goes flat? *There's a lot going on down there, so sure you can pull up as far as it'll go, but if you're in a place where you don't want to break a string *be careful*!!!

~Kenny