Ibanez trem

Jigsaw

Folks,

Sorry for pestering Boards members with questions about Ibanez guitars but I just want to get my facts straight before I buy. Now I was all for getting a JS1200 there until yesterday and an acquaintance of mine said that although they are a great guitar they are an absolute nightmare to set up, and say for example, if you break a string during a gig, then you're f**ked. He was basically saying that they were great but unless you have the patience of a saint the guitar is going to end up pissing you off.

As alternatives, he mentioned Musicman guitars saying that unlike the Ibanez guitars, they were all hand made in America (mentioning specifically the Axis series) and also Yamaha AES series guitars.

I really love the look of the JS1200 but at the same time I do not want a guitar that is the equivalent of an old classic car - lovely to look at but totally impractical and always breaking down. I do intend to use the trem moderately to heavily and just want it to be reliable and not go out of tune. Will I get this reliability from the JS1200 or does this reliability only come from guitars that have been set up by professional guitars techs?

Help me please!!!!!

R

Voodu Child

The JS1200 just has a locking trem. Millions of guitars have them. They take a little learning and reading up to be able to setup and use effectively, but it's not exactly rocket-surgery.

HOWEVER, from reading this site I realise there are people who don't know and don't want to know how to maintain their guitars (even simple LPs). If you fall into this bracket (and your friend sounds like he does), you probably WILL be frustrated by a locking trem, so steer clear.

Some general points:
-Musicman are excellent guitars. Plenty of them have locking trems.

-You won't get the tuning stability of a locking trem from any other design. A high-quality non-locking with locking tuners will get fairly close, but will never match the stability of a good Floyd or equivalent.

-Any floating trem will go out of tune if a string breaks, whether it's locking or not. If you're not prepared to accept this, just stay away from trems altogether.

Jigsaw

Thanks for the advice voodoo child. I have never owned a guitar with a trem before but as you say, although there are some necessary steps in maintenance it can hardly be rocket science at the same time.

I presume in general terms you would recommend the js1200 being an Ibanez man yourself? Is the top of the market in it's price bracket would you say?

I realise that one string breaking will knock everything else out of tune as the cumulative tension will have been altered. However, does the string changing just work like, say for example a Strat where you just thread it through the backk of the guitar but then you have to retune all strings, not the just the new one, or is it more complicated, involving lifting out the trem unit or something like that which is going to take a lot of time ina live situation?

Sorry again for all these possibly stupid questions but I'd rather ask stupid questions and spend over a grand wisely than keep quiet and waste the money.

Thanks again,

R

Voodu Child

Changing a string involves opening the clamp at the nut to remove the old one from the tuning post, and opening another clamp at the bridge to remove the string from that end (hence 'double-locking' trem).

The new string is clamped into the bridge, threaded around the tuning post as per normal, and tuned to pitch (I do this backwards, but that's just a detail). If you're replacing with the same guage (which you should be), it will provide pretty much the same tension as the previous string, and the bridge will return to the correct position and bring the rest of the strings back into tune. You can fine tune all the strings, and re-lock the clamp on the nut. Shouldnt take more than 5 minutes.

As with ANY guitar, a backup is essential for live use.

In relation to the JS, it's not really my type of guitar. I use RGs and Jems, which have a flatter fingerboard, 24 frets, and a more rounded neck/body joint.

However, quality-wise, i couldnt fault the JS1200. They're very well made and sound great, look cool etc.

Jigsaw

Well I have just been round to the house of a guy who is selling his virtually brand new JS1200 (basically cos he can't be arsed with the trem cos he drops the tuning for a lot of the stuff he plays). This was the first time I had seen one in real life and had a go on it. Have to say it was amazing. I currently use a Les Paul and this was a dream to play in comparison. The guitar was so slimline and light and so easy to play. It was just a pleasure.

The guy even said that he is happy for me to take it to the local guitarshop for a once over before I commit to the purchase so that eliminates any risk. I reckon that very shortly I will be buying it.

Are there any good books or websites that can provide guidance with the set up of the Edge Pro trem and set up in general? I know of that IbanezRules website. Maybe that would be best?

Very excited!!

Voodu Child

Jigsaw wrote:

Are there any good books or websites that can provide guidance with the set up of the Edge Pro trem and set up in general? I know of that IbanezRules website. Maybe that would be best?

Yeah, IbanezRules has pretty much everything you need to know about setting up a Ibanez trem-ed guitar. Pretty handy site tbh.

Good luck with the JS, and dont spend more than guitarbargains.com price.

-=al=-

i broke a string on my trem today mid song jamming, its fun trying to find the ntoes after a string breaks to continure a song

+ it was the same trem thast in the js1200... its ana mazing machine, jus have a backup....


edge pro trems are great

Mystic Fibrosis

Jigsaw wrote:

Well I have just been round to the house of a guy who is selling his virtually brand new JS1200 (basically cos he can't be arsed with the trem cos he drops the tuning for a lot of the stuff he plays).

The guy is selling it because he tunes down for songs??? That's a bit weird tbh. The very first thing I did when I got my RG was tune it down to C# after putting .10 gauge strings on it, it's not a problem, as long as you adjust the intonation when you do it and watch that the tension of the bigger gauges doesn't change the trem angle too much....

Voodu Child

Mystic Fibrosis wrote:

The guy is selling it because he tunes down for songs??? That's a bit weird tbh. The very first thing I did when I got my RG was tune it down to C# after putting .10 gauge strings on it, it's not a problem, as long as you adjust the intonation when you do it and watch that the tension of the bigger gauges doesn't change the trem angle too much....

Not weird at all. Changing string guages or tuning on any floyd equipped guitar requires a re-setup.

Intonation adjustments require the trem to be pulled (or the strings to be slackened right down in the very least), and leaving the trem at a silly angle will have a knock on effect on action and tuning stability. All in all, you're looking at a decent chunk of time to do it properly.

If you're changing once in a blue moon, it's not a problem, but if you only have one guitar and regularly change tunings/guage, of course it's completely natural to want to sell the JS.

demanufactured

Mystic Fibrosis wrote:

The guy is selling it because he tunes down for songs??? That's a bit weird tbh. The very first thing I did when I got my RG was tune it down to C# after putting .10 gauge strings on it, it's not a problem, as long as you adjust the intonation when you do it and watch that the tension of the bigger gauges doesn't change the trem angle too much....

Dimebag tuning...R.I.P Dime.

Jigsaw

voodoo_child wrote:

Yeah, IbanezRules has pretty much everything you need to know about setting up a Ibanez trem-ed guitar. Pretty handy site tbh.

Good luck with the JS, and dont spend more than guitarbargains.com price.

Yeah, the JS1200 is £906stg (approx €1350) on guitarbargains.com and the guy is offering me his guitar for £780stg (approx €1164). Like I say it has all the tags on it still and was clearly in pristine condition and also taking it to a guitar tech to give it the once over so looks like I maybe landed on my feet with this one!!