Re: Ibanez J-Custom, USA Custom & Prestige (master reference thread)
can you elaborate on the "6 steps/prestige/maple vs not" line of discussion? i mean, i understand that there's things obviously one cannot/does not do to maple fretboards, but are there some things that they "could" be doing but they're not? is the takeaway that--technically?--maple prestige boards may be slightly (in some technical yet forgivable way) "inferior" quality (in terms of care/precision), or receive less attention to detail, due to those steps not being applicable, or being not worth doing on a cost basis (whichever the case may be on a given step)?
"tighter tolerances" on the one hand and more tenderly-cared-for fret ends/finishing/etc on the other hand; is the former something that is a semi-big deal, inherent to the guitar's technical quality, while the latter is something that's mainly comfort/"i paid for extra smooth sh!t" etc? sure, it's at most what, the difference of 1-2-3?00 bucks, maybe several hours at most of an expert's work on tidying/smoothing up fretboard? but is the fretboard itself noticeably and commonly going to be less impressive/satisfactory vs a rosewood prestige? rich, do you reject more maple prestiges due to less attention/detail/handwork on fretboards?
let's say a master lifelong ibanez expert player/tech/dealer is looking at the aforementioned example of RG655 vs 655M. for purpose of the comparison let's say both models are either nice specimens or at least acceptable to not return. is he going to notice merely less finely-TLC-ized fret ends/etc, or is there a feeling like "meh, the guitar itself is prestige quality, sure! but this fretboard finishing is not prestige level, how can they call this a prestige?!"
i'm not questioning or wondering about the overall/final MIJ/prestige quality of the guitars, i'm just curious if there's a meaningful quantifiable difference in these finishing steps that can't/aren't done to maple boards. ultimately is it just technicality/nitpicky thing that means little to the consumer, especially after a dealer like rich puts a X service package on the instrument, or is it like "meh, they really should be putting some more effort onto these guitars, aside from all the scraping/whatever that isn't applicable to maple"