Gap between neck and body on j custom.

Rex said:
One corner? They'd have had to bend the neck plate to do that. That's brutal. Way beyond hand-tight.
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probably easy to do with an impact driver or maybe even higher torque electric drill, and some neck plates are pretty thin material. Again, couldn’t see it happening with proper hand tools and common sense, but common sense isn’t always that common....
 
lqdsnddist said:
probably easy to do with an impact driver or maybe even higher torque electric drill, and some neck plates are pretty thin material. Again, couldn’t see it happening with proper hand tools and common sense, but common sense isn’t always that common....
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Aye. But it’s one thing to bend a neck plate. It’s another thing to do that while there’s wood behind it.

But yes, an impact driver might could do such a thing.
 
Ibanez RG-style guitars (and other brands too) can develop paint cracks at the neck joint if the pocket is too tight and the neck is stressed. Although the paint cracks is harmless, it probably results in returns and warranty issues so that small gap may be a good thing and possibly intentional. I’ve had RGs and EBMM guitars with bigger gaps that play and sound great. I would not worry about it.
 
rickboot said:
Ibanez RG-style guitars (and other brands too) can develop paint cracks at the neck joint if the pocket is too tight and the neck is stressed. Although the paint cracks is harmless, it probably results in returns and warranty issues so that small gap may be a good thing and possibly intentional. I’ve had RGs and EBMM guitars with bigger gaps that play and sound great. I would not worry about it.
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Sounds great. I adjusted the neck and intonated the guitar and it feels great. The neck gap is way smaller now since it is evened out. I will stick with the guitar for a few weeks just to make sure.

Thanks for the info. That makes complete sense as to why they would leave those gaps. The more pictures that I look at with Ibanez J custom and EBMM, the more I see those minor gaps.
 
Good to know that it sounds and feels good.

A recapitulation of the Guitar World article:

1) A gap is a good thing to prevent cracking the side of the pocket
2) The size of the gap doesn't make any difference in acoustic/resonance. It is only an aesthetic matter.
 
Rex said:
Aye. But it’s one thing to bend a neck plate. It’s another thing to do that while there’s wood behind it.

But yes, an impact driver might could do such a thing.
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This is extremely common . How do you think a neck plate gets bent? the wood compresses behind it. The force that you can exert on the relatively soft body is huge. The maple can take the strain and pull the neck plate down hard enough to compress the softer woods without you having to try very hard.
 
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Piing said:
It is a compromise to decide if you return it or not. If you like how it sounds, keep in mind that another guitar of the same model may not have the same resonance or feeling.

5 years ago I bought this beautiful J-Custom RG8550MZ.

Everything was absolutely perfect, except a dead note at C 523Hz. It was not possible to fix it, and I got obsessed with it. The shop was not accepting returns (customer protection in Thailand is a joke) So I ended up selling it


RG2770-01.jpg
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For the life of me, why Ibanez would put anything other than an Edge or Lo-Pro on a guitar over $1000 is beyond my realm of understanding. ESPECIALLY the J-Customs.
 
RevDrucifer said:
For the life of me, why Ibanez would put anything other than an Edge or Lo-Pro on a guitar over $1000 is beyond my realm of understanding. ESPECIALLY the J-Customs.
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Alot of guys like them. That's the only version of the edge I've not owned. My favorite is the edge pro with the original edge a close second. The edge zero is supposed to be easy to intonate. Although I honestly don't find any Floyd difficult to intonate or float after using them for 30 years.
 
Justincase said:
Alot of guys like them. That's the only version of the edge I've not owned. My favorite is the edge pro with the original edge a close second. The edge zero is supposed to be easy to intonate. Although I honestly don't find any Floyd difficult to intonate or float after using them for 30 years.
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Not gonna lie, the edge zero that came on this guitar is so nice. Stays in tune really well and like you said, it is very easy to intonate.
 
Fixated said:
Not gonna lie, the edge zero that came on this guitar is so nice. Stays in tune really well and like you said, it is very easy to intonate.
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I'm sure it is. What I'm not a fan of is a floyd with a collar on the bar. Of course I've not had the pleasure of using the edge zero and that maybe different. The bar design I'm most impressed with is the gotoh 1996t. Like the one @Andy Eagle used on his build. Man those trems are pretty slick. I've replaced a number of lo-trs trems with those.
 
Andy Eagle said:
This is extremely common . How do you think a neck plate gets bent? the wood compresses behind it. The force that you can exert on the relatively soft body is huge. The maple can take the strain and pull the neck plate down hard enough to compress the softer woods without you having to try very hard.
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I’ve rarely seen a bent neck plate, except for the ones we use in the shop on our surrogate body. It has oversized holes to accommodate different neck configurations, so the corners of the plate aren’t well supported.
 
I had one or two guitars with bended neckplates on my bench but I have to say that they were from really weak material that you could bend with your hands.
 
Basswood bodies are very soft and can dent and crush surprisingly easily. Basswood is about as hard as cheap old white pine, which ain't much. A maple neck is about 3.5 times harder in comparison, so the body wood would definitely lose that tug of war.
 
RevDrucifer said:
For the life of me, why Ibanez would put anything other than an Edge or Lo-Pro on a guitar over $1000 is beyond my realm of understanding. ESPECIALLY the J-Customs.
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I didn't have any issue with the Edge Zero, even though I'm used to play with a Lo-Pro for many years. It perfectly stays in tune, and I could not find any inconvenient.

The ZPS3 stabilizer is an interested feature for those who want a more solid trem (for bendings, and to prevent going out off tune when breaking a string) but I removed it the first day. I am used to total free movement, and I love flutter.
 
I’ve owned dozens, probably over 25 various Ibanez guitars over the course of 30 years. This is a non-issue. But if it bothers you, return it.
 
Piing said:
The ZPS3 stabilizer is an interested feature for those who want a more solid trem (for bendings, and to prevent going out off tune when breaking a string) but I removed it the first day. I am used to total free movement, and I love flutter.
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Isn't it supposed to make double stops and unison bends easier?

I'm with you...love the flutter of a well balanced trem.
 
Justincase said:
Isn't it supposed to make double stops and unison bends easier?

I'm with you...love the flutter of a well balanced trem.
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Yes, the ZPS3 makes bends and double stops easy like playing with a tailbridge. But it kills the flutter, and the bar is slightly thighter. That is why I removed it. I am used to bend with the free floating trem, and for double stops I slightly bend the second string to keep it in tune
 
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