Ibanez JS100 - Review

Type of Gear: Electric Guitars

Brand Name: Ibanez

Model: Ibanez JS100

Price: 7100 Mexican Pesos new  (about 600USD)

Review - Please try to include as many specific details as you can: This is my fifth electric guitar and most expensive too in 8 years as amateur guitar player. First time i played this JS100 (korean) it was really good, but there is no big deal with factory pickups. JS1000 are too expensive for my wallet so, i bought a couple of dimarzio pickups to aproach the sound of a JS1000. PafJoe for neck and Fred for bridge position were my choice. The sound is really good. In mechanical features, JS100 is ok but Edge Pro II bridge gave me a week of troubles trying to find the correct calibration. If you want to set the neck action too low in order to decrease left hand effort, you may see that bendings above 13th fret just sucks.... string buzzes and pushing the strings results too difficult...another detail is in the 3rd string that has a buzz even when playing open D. I hadn't found the reason. Well, i use .009-.042 strings and finally found the best neck tension to keep it flat with minimum buzz. Try all tips written by Joe Satriani Guitar Technician at http://www.satriani.com/2000/about/gear/ they are helpfull. Hmmm..something else? yeah...before JS100 i had been playing an Ibanez S470DX with Zero Resistance bridge....nice tremolo system, Edge Pro II is a bit harder to use...and even when they say it has superior return to pitch, sometimes I need to push it fully down after a hard bending to reset the distribution of string tension and bring back the correct tune to all 6 strings. I had to add a fourth tension spring to mantain the bridge in his natural position while bending a string. Finish of JS100 is pretty good, it needs a transparent acrilic to protect from pick scratches. Push-Pull switch for single coil selection on tone control is a nice feature. I head this guitar very close to JS1000. I'm happy. LOL

Rating (On a Scale of 1-10): 9

Additional Comments/Final Verdict: I have a week and a half playing with this setup and really rocks!!! I have to say that I'm a big fan of Joe Satriani tone...if you want it, the most affordable way might be this one: buy a JS100 and replace pickups...Also you need a valve amp...remember this last thing to keep your tone wild. All features are ok with this guitar but tremolo system Edge Pro II could be improved. It took 1 point down. And remember PICK UPS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE. Greetings!

Your Name (optional): Carlos Alejo

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