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JEM Jr Upgrade

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gotoh jem jr
41K views 45 replies 21 participants last post by  smular 
#1 ·
Finished my Jem Jr upgrade! Sorry I dunno why my camera on my phone sucks so much haha

 
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#4 ·
For anyone looking to do a similar project, Gotoh SG381-07 L6s, Ge1996t, GHL-2, EPR-2s, Dimarzio Evo bridge, ISCV2 single coil, and Evo neck, Got the pearloid truss rod cover and pickguard from ebay and gold screws from stewmac. It all dropped right in with no modifications required.
 
#5 ·
"For anyone looking to do a similar project, Gotoh SG381-07 L6s, Ge1996t, GHL-2, EPR-2s, Dimarzio Evo bridge, ISCV2 single coil, and Evo neck, Got the pearloid truss rod cover and pickguard from ebay and gold screws from stewmac. It all dropped right in with no modifications required."

That looks beautiful!!! Just ordered teh Jr ... should get it Friday. Want to do some of the same stuff to it. The biggest wall I'm running into if finding the pickguard, rod cover and back plates in the pearloid white. So many and not sure what/which is legit. Any help would be appreciated.
 
#8 ·
Great job. I did a similar one but with Graph-Tech Tuners, Original Lo-Pro EDGE with EDGE locking Posts and studs and the customary EVOs. Looking for a pearloid pickguard - where did you find that? Can you link one here? Thanks!
 
#9 ·
DITTO on the pick guard... I've gone through two... pick guard, tremolo cover plate, and jack cover plate. Sites say they fit... but when I get em... they don't. AND they're from Singapore and such and cost 2 - 3 times what I paid for em to ship back. I'm just about ready to live with the plain boring white plate and pick guard.
 
#14 ·
I bought a pickguard that fit perfectly here; https://m.ebay.com/itm/White-Pearl-...cement-3-Ply-/391225181202?txnId=762014326026

Got a truss rod cover from another place. Just got the one that looked like it had similar screw holes.

I think I'm gonna leave my hardware in Cosmo black or perhaps Black, like Steve's Evo. Like that look better.

For me, the tremolo works fine. One radical improvement was I change the block to a 32 big L shaped brass block
 
#15 ·
Hi!! I may get one of these Jr. at a very low price locally where I live. How is the general workmanship on this JR.? I mean the luthier part especially neck and alignments (in order to get a buzzfree low action)...
I am planning to get a real JEM as well but this seems to be a good platform to perform custom upgrades. Thanks.
 
#22 ·
I got this Jem Jr for 300 bucks used (included shipping costs) from guitarcenterused.com. I had a lot of spare hardware and pups laying around so I thought I'd utilize them on this. I installed a Floyd Special (Fit perfectly) Dimarzio SD3 bridge, Dimarzio Paul Gilbert injector mid and a Dimarzio Evo neck, next was the pickguard, got it from amazon (which probably came from China) and NO all the screw holes did not line up, but I just pre drilled the 2-3 that didn't and the pickguard covers up the existing holes anyway. And because the hardware I was using was black, the only black set of tuners I had were locking tuners, so I used those although not real necessary since i have the locking nut, but they match and it makes installing strings a lot quicker. I have to say I was kinda interested in how all this would fit together and sound and right now it's my most played guitar. I really enjoy it.
 
#24 ·
Finished my Jem Jr upgrade! Sorry I dunno why my camera on my phone sucks so much haha
Sorry to necro this thread, but I recently got a JEM Jr white myself and I'd like to know where you sourced your Gotoh parts from? It doesn't seem to be very straightforward when I look at their site (ie no option to buy directly from Gotoh themselves).

Any info you could provide would be great thanks! And I hope you're still loving your JEM
 
#25 ·
Have you tried Philadelphia Luthiers?

I just got a gold 1996T trem from them. They've got a comprehensive selection of Gotoh gear. I'm sure they'll have what you need.

Just a word of caution, I bought the GLH-2 locking nut and the string tree did not fit the existing tree holes. The locking nut was fine, but I left the oem string tree on.
 
#26 ·
I'm in Australia so Philadelphia isn't going to happen :D But I did find a place over here that sells the 1996t and the tuning pegs, locking nut as well. I'm not fussed about the string tree and will most likely be swapping out parts slowly as I am on quite a limited budget (ie I am poor as feck lol) so I'm not in any rush. Thx for the response though!
 
#33 ·
My mother-in-law knew about my obsession with Jems and bought me one of these before she passed away from lung cancer. She loved the tree of life inlays and thought it would be a gift that would have special significance to me. She was right, it was an incredibly thoughtful thing to do. Obviously this particular guitar will never leave my family, but there are some issues which really bug me about it. The finishing on the frets is hideous and it also needs to be leveled and crowned which is something that shouldn't need to happen with a guitar straight out of the factory, so it's off to my luthier for that.

The main issue I have is with the tremelo, it just annoys me, it's dull and responds poorly. I've decided I'm going to install an original edge on it, has anyone successfully done this? Obviously it's a job for my luthier and I'm happy to pay what I expect to be a significant sum of money to do so, but given the circumstances with which I came to possess the guitar, money is not an issue in this case. I feel that I should do what I can to make it a guitar I love to play and the frets and tremelo stop me from enjoying the guitar, so they are the first priorities.

One thing I've noticed is how heavy this is compared to my 88 FP and my 89 VBK. Apparently it's made from mahogany? maybe this partly explains why it sounds so much brighter than my other Jems. The pickups seem to be OK, I haven't decided if I'm going to change them to offset/complement the mahogany body. Anyone else noticed this? I was lucky enough to get the rosewood neck, sorry but the orange tint in the Jatoba versions is not something I think I could live with. Hopefully with the CITES regs being relaxed later this year Ibanez will be able to go back to rosewood.
 
#34 ·
My mother-in-law knew about my obsession with Jems and bought me one of these before she passed away from lung cancer. She loved the tree of life inlays and thought it would be a gift that would have special significance to me. She was right, it was an incredibly thoughtful thing to do. Obviously this particular guitar will never leave my family, but there are some issues which really bug me about it. The finishing on the frets is hideous and it also needs to be leveled and crowned which is something that shouldn't need to happen with a guitar straight out of the factory, so it's off to my luthier for that.

The main issue I have is with the tremelo, it just annoys me, it's dull and responds poorly. I've decided I'm going to install an original edge on it, has anyone successfully done this? Obviously it's a job for my luthier and I'm happy to pay what I expect to be a significant sum of money to do so, but given the circumstances with which I came to possess the guitar, money is not an issue in this case. I feel that I should do what I can to make it a guitar I love to play and the frets and tremelo stop me from enjoying the guitar, so they are the first priorities.

One thing I've noticed is how heavy this is compared to my 88 FP and my 89 VBK. Apparently it's made from mahogany? maybe this partly explains why it sounds so much brighter than my other Jems. The pickups seem to be OK, I haven't decided if I'm going to change them to offset/complement the mahogany body. Anyone else noticed this? I was lucky enough to get the rosewood neck, sorry but the orange tint in the Jatoba versions is not something I think I could live with. Hopefully with the CITES regs being relaxed later this year Ibanez will be able to go back to rosewood.
Great story about your new guitar and I hope you'll start a thread on it dedicated to your mom and showing the upgrades you did to it.

Small world sometimes; my JEM-FP is an '88 and I actually saw it in the store when it was new, then bought it a few years later out of a newspaper ad.
 
#39 ·
I actually just ordered that Pearloid Pick Guard for $10. So you didn't need to redrill any holes? If not that is awesome!

I got my Jem Jr from Sweetwater, and did the Plek option and setup. My Jem Jr hardware is chrome, and the neck wood is that newer lighter color wood. Guitar actually sounds really good through my AxeFX. I got the Jem Jr specifically as a project guitar to have fun with.

Other upgrades ordered on the way.....
I got an Original Floyd Rose in Chrome($190), 32mm Brass FU-Tone Block ($30), chrome Dimarzio EVO Pickups ($132, $69, $132), chrome Ibanez Head stock logo ($7). I will post picks when i get it hopefully all installed correctly.

I have an old RG350? with same HSH configuration, so it will get the Jr's Trem, Qauntum pickups, and possibly the pick guard if the shape works and there's little redrilling.
 
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