Ibanez J.Customs in 2022: Are They Worth The Pricetag?

Personally I would get a Suhr in the superstrat formula, but I think that's really down to taste. I can't really speak to the J. Custom either way.
 
I am a guitar tech, on the side, and have been so for over 23 years. I have worked on a TON of guitars of all types and price ranges. The J Customs are flawless. I have never seen a setup so utterly perfect, I don't know how to duplicate it. Frets, PERFECT. Action, CRAZY LOW. No buzz and the neck was super fast. The rounding of the fret edges were amazing. The fit and finish were awesome. Played itself.
+1000. I worked my way up from Ibanez standard, to prestige, to J. Custom, to JCRG to custom built Hoshino JCRGs. The fit and finish is unmatched. I'd say J. Custom is the level to shoot for. JCRG+ is more about the finish detail (tops, book matching, etc). The rounded fret edges on a PLEKd next is sublime.

Find a used J. Custom and you'll thank me later.
 
I have had 3 expensive guitars with dead spots. It's all good and fun until you play a song that has a lead part on which you have to really linger on that note. Then suddenly all love for the guitar goes away, cause you can't hold that note for more than 2 seconds. You can't play your song with the guitar without feeling uneasy or picking the string again to lengthen the note.

Dead spots are a very real and irritating problem. That's why you have to make sure to play through all the frets in a guitar that you're looking to buy. Unless it's an Aristides... :hearteyes:

Or a Vigier.
 
Or a Vigier.
As much as I like Vigier they are expensive and hard to sell if you don't like it.
Yep. Kicking myself for not buying a couple of guitars on my list when I had the chance 3-4 years ago.
Totally agree, half the time now I just think that the prices aren't worth it to me because I already have 32 so I don't actually need anything. I either own or have owned all my bucket list guitars . I lost count at around 300 and as I tech I have played thousands over the years and the best guitars I have ever played I own.
 
Vigier's are great, sure. But the point of Aristides is that it physically can't have dead spots. No wood at all, just Arium which is resonant across the whole spectrum.
He is right to mention them because the carbon in the neck instead of the truss rod pretty much prevents dead spots because it moves the resonant frequency of the neck away from the likely clash with the body.
 
Vigier's are great, sure. But the point of Aristides is that it physically can't have dead spots. No wood at all, just Arium which is resonant across the whole spectrum.

What Andy said is why I mention them. I’ve actually seen it in their ad copy before, that the reason for their 10-90 Neck system sans truss rod is that it’s Patrice’s solution to avoid dead notes.

To your point, Vigier made an all carbon fiber Neck for this purpose also, but customers complained about missing the tone of wood, so the 10-90 neck was gods answer. And from what I’ve read anecdotally, it seems to work.

Also anecdotally, I had a Gibson Flying V with an intense dead spot, where one note just wouldn’t even sound, turned right into a harmonic, and three notes above where just very very quiet. Switching out the Kahler for a Hipshot Tone-a-matic not only completely removed the dead notes, but made the whole guitar beautifully resonant across the fretboard.
 
What Andy said is why I mention them. I’ve actually seen it in their ad copy before, that the reason for their 10-90 Neck system sans truss rod is that it’s Patrice’s solution to avoid dead notes.

To your point, Vigier made an all carbon fiber Neck for this purpose also, but customers complained about missing the tone of wood, so the 10-90 neck was gods answer. And from what I’ve read anecdotally, it seems to work.

Also anecdotally, I had a Gibson Flying V with an intense dead spot, where one note just wouldn’t even sound, turned right into a harmonic, and three notes above where just very very quiet. Switching out the Kahler for a Hipshot Tone-a-matic not only completely removed the dead notes, but made the whole guitar beautifully resonant across the fretboard.
Right, one learns something new every day! :D

Would love to try out a Vigier. Never played one myself, but have heard raving reviews.
 
Right, one learns something new every day! :D

Would love to try out a Vigier. Never played one myself, but have heard raving reviews.

I've never played one either. :neutral: I'm in Denver, so there are no dealers anywhere close. They're pretty few and far between in The States anyway. But yeah, virtually everything I've read has been glowing. The other advantage is the utter neck stability. Here's a video of a Vigier neck being frozen as well as heated in a steam room, then played, to emphasize that:



When I think about forward thinking design, I think about Vigier first. So, if this is true, feel free to play a show anywhere in the world and not worry about adjusting the neck to compensate.
 
Vigiers are great but they insist on having that knurled collet on the tree arm, poor design on what is an excellent trem system, puts me off right away
 
I have owned 4 vigiers at this point. They are great guitars but their electronics are their weak point. The pots that come with them are much too bright!
 
I have owned 4 vigiers at this point. They are great guitars but their electronics are their weak point. The pots that come with them are much too bright!
Sorry to be thick, but what exactly do you mean by this?
Pots themselves are passive devices, they literally can't add highs, or lows, or anything else.

The only thing somewhat like this I can think of that Vigier might be doing is using a large bypass cap, also known as a treble bleed cap, so as you turn the volume down, some highs bypass the volume control, and don't get turned down as much. The idea is to avoid losing highs as you turn down, but it's always a compromise approximation, and could result in tones that are actually brighter as you turn down.

Is that what you mean? Or do you just think the guitars are too bright overall, even with volume all the way up? That could be true, but I don't see how that could be due to the pots. More likely, you don't care for their pickups, or combinations of woods.

Have you talked to them about this? They may well have some suggestions.
 
Sorry to be thick, but what exactly do you mean by this?
Pots themselves are passive devices, they literally can't add highs, or lows, or anything else.

The only thing somewhat like this I can think of that Vigier might be doing is using a large bypass cap, also known as a treble bleed cap, so as you turn the volume down, some highs bypass the volume control, and don't get turned down as much. The idea is to avoid losing highs as you turn down, but it's always a compromise approximation, and could result in tones that are actually brighter as you turn down.

Is that what you mean? Or do you just think the guitars are too bright overall, even with volume all the way up? That could be true, but I don't see how that could be due to the pots. More likely, you don't care for their pickups, or combinations of woods.

Have you talked to them about this? They may well have some suggestions.

Excalibur models, which are the bulk of what they make and what you can find, use 1M pots. I spoke to a dealer in Texas over the phone, and he said that was the one thing you want to compensate for when you play one. He said he's always rolling back the tone pot to get it to a more normal frequency balance. I think the other thing is they come with some of the lowest action possible on a guitar. Especially the Shawn Lane model. But their models in general are built for unbelievably low action with a standard set of 9 - 42, which will also make you lose heft of tone. Of course you can raise the action yourself, no problem, but this is just how they come from the factory. I've always wonderful if the 1M pots are there to allow for better neck humbucker clarity. Their nod to traditional Strats, called the Expert, uses 250K pots.
 
Vigiers are great but they insist on having that knurled collet on the tree arm, poor design on what is an excellent trem system, puts me off right away
I personally love those type of trem bars. I've retrofitted a dozen or more guitars with them.

That being said, the method used on the Gotoh 510 and 1996 (Floyd Rose) with a push in adjustable bushing plus a screw in the bottom of the socket is very cool!
 
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