Think about it. It has to be the dumbest move in history. And of course, it was Steve Vai's idea. They discontinued all the $3000 MIJ jems and now the only way to get a new MIJ jem is to buy a $3500 flamboyant PIA model. Maybe you can get the $3000 discontinued one from some dealers who still have them but is over. The worst part, now that they are discontinued, they are going to be overpriced by all these people who think they own a 1960 strat lol

They kept all the premium jems and jem JR lol those guitars suck, the premium are overpriced for what they are. Some of them are $1600, made in Indonesia, and have a poor trem system.

but I guess that's how they make most of their money, is what the fans buy the most since they can't afford the MIJ ones.

The 30th anniversary maple ones are already $4000-5000 on ebay and reverb for the most part and these are only 3-year-old guitars.

and worse the people who buy into these prices, all they do is make things worse. They could price a new jem for $5000 and people will buy it.

Steve himself said in one of his livestreams that he could literally stop touring and making albums and do perfectly fine off the jem royalties, think about that

The PIA is a better playing guitar in many respects.

But I digress. Yes, is a shame that they are moving so much production out of Japan. The Indo guitars are nowhere near the same quality.

That said, a lot of the JEM allure has been to collectors versus players. So you need to keep limits on the product, which they never fail to do.

JEMS have never been about making the best guitars for the masses. Otherwise we'd see a $2,299 JEM with stainless steel frets, AANJ and multiple cool colors readily available.

Dumbest move? I'd sell 1 VWH / year. The only thing that was dumb was not having fresh Japanese offerings instead of building them all in Indo. But it is a business and that's where the price point sales were. I'd sell 1 VWH but I'd sell 10 BFP's, do the math. The VWH was the only Japanese JEM left so that you're complaining now is several years too late. The fact is, I like the PIA, it's fresh, and it's a nice change. And it's built in Japan. I fully expect Indo models soon, as I expect at some point they'll build another JEM in Japan. But this is the way it is. Buy, don't buy, always your choice.

I don't like the PIA, to me it's like a caricature of the JEM. The hard outline has been softened , the grip has been feminized, the vine has been altered so that it's lost its uniformity and now looks unbalanced. In fact the PIA has actually made me look towards other guitars and other brands.

BUT...

I see why some folks might like the scoop on the back of the lower horn, I think it's not orientated correctly to work, I get that a lot of people need stainless steel frets. I love the new colours, they're brilliant.

The main brilliance comes from what Rich said though, arguably the best Ibanez dealer in the world sells one of Ibanez's flagship guitar a year, because it's 25 years old and whilst there have been subtle changes (fretboard width, fretboard material and three different bridges) realistically, it's hardly changed at all in that time.

The Japanese JEM needed a refresh. I just don't think it needed THIS refresh, but time (and sales) will tell us if this was a clever move or not.

The whites, aren't flying. The colors went fast, they are nice color choices although I didn't like the mix of colors on the vine like I do the white. Do an FP3 I'd have sold 30 of them if they looked good. It will either take a while for those to dig it enough to buy, or it'll stay a niche model. I do love the new contouring though.

Yeah, the colours on the vine really should have been the three colours of the guitar. If they're putting blue in the vine, we should have had a blue guitar... But the soft contours are a hard no from me

And yes a good FP3 would solve everyone's problems

I've got 5 MIJ Ibanez now..
I think an FP3 is about the only thing likely to tempt me to buy another new one. Otherwise it's mostly swapping in/out in the 2nd hand market for me.

A lighter coloured FP3, maybe a Japanese cherry blossom theme, with maple neck.
With the stainless steel frets from the Pia and the contouring would probably have me preordering...
Otherwise I'm probably just gonna customize my own from a 2nd hand Jem505...

The Indonesian 7V has the same bridge and same pickups as the Japanese, so what's stopping you?

And don't get me wrong I prefer the Jem to the PIA aesthetically, but with the PIA having stainless steel frets it's a big step up. I hope they do add another MIJ Jem, but if it doesn't have SS frets I won't even consider buying it at that price point. It seems they weren't selling many MIJ 7V's anymore, and it also seems the demand for the PIA is pretty high so from that point of view Ibanez made a good business choice. Now as for the 30th Anniversary 777 models, they are collectors editions and only a limited run, what do you expect?

I own a 777, I ordered it in early 2017 to avoid disappointment, but the price has only gone up about £300 from what I paid new, if you shop about. Hardly a big complaint for a low production collectors guitar.

I have to say the SS frets are the least of my interest. I can take them or leave them, with "normal" frets having done the job adequately for however many decades, I just don't get the sudden "need" of guitarists to have stainless steel frets...

If you saw the state on my Jem 777 frets already after 3 years, you'd get it. They are all flat topped and I have divets in several places. The frets aren't large to begin with so I'm reluctant to do a levelling yet and after one levelling the next step is probably a refret, I feel pretty down about it actually. Once I took delivery of my SS fret Suhr and had my 7V repaired and refretted with SS I can't go back, at least not if I'm paying big money for a guitar. The difference is with SS frets I can play my guitar all day every day and not have to worry about fret levels or refrets.

I play my guitars every day, often for several hours and pre Covid (and hopefully post Covid) made my living that way, so I do put a lot of mileage on them. Lately I tend to play my 777 less than I'd like, just to save the frets.

Ahh, see I don’t make my living playing guitar and when I actually get the chance to play for an extended period of time, I’ll probably use 4 or 5 guitars for a half hour each.

I’ve been working from home since March and my music room is now my office, but I have a half dozen guitars out and grab whichever one takes my fancy when I have 10 minutes.

I’m not at the stage of, “I broke a string, I need a new guitar” but it’s nice to have options

Yeah I've actually bought 3 new guitars since the 30th 777 so I have a lot of freedom to switch now too. There was a period where I played it everyday at home and then the period where my 7V neck split in half last year and I swapped to the 30th as my gigging instrument, so it's had a pretty hard life for a 3 year old guitar. I did recently refret my 70s P-Bass and opted for nickel frets for the sake of originality, but I barely play that thing and it's more a family heirloom (my dads guitar he played during the late 70s and 80s). I just bought the EVH frankie which also has nickel frets, but I was able to set that aside as it's only about 1/3 of what I paid for the Suhr or the Jem 777.

I ever buy another guitar in that price range I just want the peace of mind that if I wanted play it for 5 hours a day I can do that without worrying about fret wear. For that reason the step they have made with the PIA is big for me, I just don't like the way it looks and that price hike is massive, it's competing with Custom Suhr's and other high end stuff. If the right one comes along though, I am susceptible to impulse buys.

My 77FP was my main gigging guitar for years too.

It's on that point of fret dress vs refret too. I don't think I'll ever sell that guitar. So I'll probably go SS refret one day without worrying about the impact on resale value.

Agree that if dropping £3k+ on a new instrument whether to refret is not a decision I want to be forced into making too soon after buying it.

The frets on my JS1000 that's been my everyday guitar during lockdown are showing a few scars already...

I need to start practicing properly again, don’t I.

😃 haha