New Guitar Day: Ibanez JEM Jr.
The other day, as I was watching Mr. Tom Quayle demonstrate guitars for Dawson's Music on a seemingly endless playlist, my two-and-a-half year old daughter walked past the relatively giant screen, pointed, and said "Pwetty. Pwetty eh-tar".
"Huh," I thought to myself. "That's a first."
Fast forward a few days and wouldn't you know that someone posts an Ibanez JEM Jr. for the princely sum of $350. Feeling that the universe was speaking to me, I offered $300, thinking that the seller would reject my offer.
Nope. Happily accepted. The universe had spoken. A slight drive out of the way, and $300 later, I was the proud owner of an Ibanez JEM Jr.
So why did the owner sell a near new guitar for less than half of retail?
When I went to pick up the guitar, I noticed that the bridge was pulled slightly forward. The owner noted that he had put heavy bottom strings on it, and hadn't bothered to set it up. A few strums quickly revealed that the guitar was tuned to D.
There's a lesson here: A little bit of know-how, and a willingness to do the work, are great ways to save money.
I got the guitar home, and set about replacing the strings with 11s, and playing with various springs (the stock ones were a bit flimsy) in various configurations. Configurations are important, because despite what some others say, the correct layout for 11s with this guitar was like this:
If the outer springs were placed parallel, the tension of the springs would be too great, and the bridge would deck itself into carve out, resulting in strings reseting on the board.
Once set up, it played really well. the neck is fairly flat on both sides, but WIDE. The shoulders of the neck (the neck just after the fingerboard) are tall, so despite the flatness of the back, you end up with a good amount of wood in your hand.
Phrasing?
If I have one gripe, it's that the pickup wiring seems suspect. Rolling off volume increases signal noise a lot, and I've never encountered this before, so I'm off to the internets to discover the cause and solution.
More on this guitar later.
"Huh," I thought to myself. "That's a first."
Fast forward a few days and wouldn't you know that someone posts an Ibanez JEM Jr. for the princely sum of $350. Feeling that the universe was speaking to me, I offered $300, thinking that the seller would reject my offer.
Nope. Happily accepted. The universe had spoken. A slight drive out of the way, and $300 later, I was the proud owner of an Ibanez JEM Jr.
So why did the owner sell a near new guitar for less than half of retail?
When I went to pick up the guitar, I noticed that the bridge was pulled slightly forward. The owner noted that he had put heavy bottom strings on it, and hadn't bothered to set it up. A few strums quickly revealed that the guitar was tuned to D.
There's a lesson here: A little bit of know-how, and a willingness to do the work, are great ways to save money.
I got the guitar home, and set about replacing the strings with 11s, and playing with various springs (the stock ones were a bit flimsy) in various configurations. Configurations are important, because despite what some others say, the correct layout for 11s with this guitar was like this:
x000x
0x0x0
If the outer springs were placed parallel, the tension of the springs would be too great, and the bridge would deck itself into carve out, resulting in strings reseting on the board.
Once set up, it played really well. the neck is fairly flat on both sides, but WIDE. The shoulders of the neck (the neck just after the fingerboard) are tall, so despite the flatness of the back, you end up with a good amount of wood in your hand.
Phrasing?
If I have one gripe, it's that the pickup wiring seems suspect. Rolling off volume increases signal noise a lot, and I've never encountered this before, so I'm off to the internets to discover the cause and solution.
More on this guitar later.
