Details & History
Ibanez Jem 777 SK
Year: 1988
S/N: 884489
Modifications: None
Condition: Good
Price: £630
Date obtained: 11 August 2004
Well here it is, my first ever Jem and it cost me two
brand new Ibanez Prestige guitars (RG2570ex and RG1550gx). I
travelled all the way from North Wales to London to buy this guitar and it
completely levelled anything else I had owned before. I had wanted a
Jem since my school days(1984 - 1989) and loved the finish on them but it
was a case of money at the time. 16 years later and this one had
appeared on ebay but I missed it, luckily by chance someone offered me the
guitar a couple of weeks later and the rest is history! It needed a
few replacement parts as the original pickup selector switch cap was lost,
the strap buttons were non schaller strap lock studs and the single coil
pickup cover wasn’t standard. Very little wear on the Edge Trem and
once I cleaned the fingerboard and trem, it played flawless, it has been
used but not abused, not bad for 16 years of age, it came with a non
standard hard case so I am keeping it in a brand new Ibanez Prestige hard
case for the moment. Since buying it, I have replaced the single
coil cover as it was the wrong colour, along with its mounting screws, the
humbucker mounting screws, the five way selector screws and the pickguard
screws as they were churned up. I have also replaced the five-way
selector switch tip was white, not doing the guitar justice. Several
auctions later and I managed to buy an 80s original Jem hard case (with
the deep pink finish, not the LNG lighter pink). The colour is almost
there with a little fading but otherwise it’s a player’s guitar and begs
me to play it, regardless of the dings, how did I miss this!
The pictures were taken before the almost finished article in the group
photos....
New Pictures
Ibanez Jem 777 LNG
Year: 1987
S/N: 870101
Modifications: None
Condition: Very Good
Price £1019 (including shipping) ($1579 plus $254 shipping)
Date obtained: 13 August 2004
Approximately two days after I bought the 777SK I went
on a rampage and decided I needed another Jem for a backup, especially
from a similar vintage (late 80s). I wanted a Desert Yellow one and then
I would buy the Loch Ness Green last as it was more expensive. One 101st
LNG came up in Pasadena California on ebay and I decided to bid in the
last 40 seconds, winning the guitar by $9, a week later and it was in my
possession. It’s a player’s example and is signed “7 I mean 8” which is
really amusing.
The signature is bright (its now been protected from rubbing off) and
overall the finish is excellent, marred only buy a sizeable lacquer
ding/crack which has now been attended to so I don’t have to worry when
polishing and playing it. The palm rest has now been repaired and the
guitar has been setup so I can just play it when I want, yes its getting
played as that is what a guitar is for!
Ibanez Jem 777 DY
Year: 1988
S/N: 882150
Modifications: Fretboard lacquer/clear coat removed, one extra scallop in
fingerboard:-(
Condition: Very Good
Price £572 (839 Euros) plus £28 in bank transfer fees
Date obtained: 29 August 2004
Please stop me....three Jems in one month - the guitar I
set out to buy second has now come in third! What can I say, it’s
yellow, bright and a happy looking guitar but it needed a serious amount
of work to sort it out. I won this on ebay just like the LNG and
indirectly the SK, it travelled all the way from Derbach, Westerwald,
Germany and the transaction was very quick. The typical problem of trem
studs working their way out of the body needed sorting out, the trem
needed cleaning as it had been in an oil bath, the five way selector
needed some switch cleaner, the general finish needed a good polish and
clean. The lacquer has been stripped off the fingerboard, a little too low
in some places (doh), an extra fret has been scalloped, there is a very
small amount of epoxy by one of the trem mounting studs as a tiny
amount of wood has come away. Its a decent enough guitar and hopefully I
will get round to repairing the fingerboard (I may just have a new strip
of maple put onto the fingerboard, refret and scallop back to factory
specs) and the bridge section but otherwise it plays good for now and
that’s all that matters!
Ibanez Musician Bass MC924DS (Dark Stain)
1981
S/N - G814291
Bought 2004
Johnny Roadhouse Music, Manchester
Cost £299
Well as you are probably away, this bass has a nasty break in the neck. It looks worse in the photos as someone fixed it with a lot of PVA but my trusty guitar luthier has explained it will be easy to fix. The bass is just used in my project studio and has some fantastic tones which really do come into their own with the different styles I tend to write and record. I run the bass through a Boss VF-1 for digital recording into my Mac and so far, the results have been excellent, coupled with my Jems, I find the sound great and wouldn't change this bass for the world! The downside is they are heavy but you can't have everything, great tone, brilliant sustain (even with a broken neck), ebony fingerboard, neck thru, active electronics, a lot of bass for very little money and crafted in Japan! Its no wonder Sting and Adam Clayton used the 924 for a long time!
Ibanez RG570EX CPK
Year: 2002
S/N: F0156472
Colour: Cyber Pink
Cost: £379
Accessories: Prestige Case, Trem arm, Tools
Bought: 23/12/2004 Coda Music
Condition: Near Mint, slight ding in the back of the neck
I knew this would happen! My Jem collection, bought to
play, not to keep, not to look at, not to admire but all in players
condition - you only live the once so play them or at least that's what I
told myself when I bought them! The honest truth is that I couldn't take
my DY Jem out without worrying about it which is daft, there are so many
on the market but you can guarantee when you want to buy one, it won't be
available! I think in all fairness, the condition of the DY Jem would put
a lot of people off but I've grown rather attached to it and wouldn't part
with it or any of my Jems for that matter. The band I'm in is slowing
coming together and I wanted something to take to open jam nights, low end
gigs etc without risking £600+ worth of Jem (more if you buy from the UK).
I looked on the web and almost bought a s/h RG550EX (£345 plus £8
postage), I wanted a maple fingerboard but beggars can't be choosers! A
limited budget of £350 made things a little more difficult but I found a
couple of s/h RG550s that were for sale in shops, however upon
calling, one happened to be sold and the other one in Coda Music was an
s/h RG550 Galaxy Black with Rosewood fingerboard, in excellent condition
but I had already been told about a s/h RG570EX for sale with hard case in
8/9 out of 10 condition by Doug at Coda. £379 was the price and I wasn't
going to argue so I placed the order the following day (23/12/04) after
doing much research to find out the RG570EX CPK was an older version of
the Prestige 2570EX CPK that I sold to fund my Jem buying frenzy! Perfect,
it had an Edge Tremolo system rather than a Lo Pro Edge on it (like all my
Jems its my favourite trem system) and basically its going through a few
personal changes in the very near future....
I've bought some Dimarzio pink pickup surrounds (the colour CPK is cyber
pink after all), a Dimarzio pink five way selector knob recently. It
should be quite a sight when its completed but more importantly it can be
reversed should it need to be put back to original condition! I hope to
add two push pulls for coil taps/out of phase with a Steve's Special
green/pink humbucker in the bridge, a HS-2 (green cover or pink cover) in
the middle and an Air Norton (green/pink) in the neck. I guess more tonal
options but for now, its a solid Japanese RG guitar for very little
money.... More pictures as the modifications become part of the guitar.
I've taken a look back at all the Ibanez Guitars/Basses I've owned and I have some photos to upload via a scanner at some stage but otherwise these are in order....
Ibanez RG450 Jewel Blue - Japanese model, Black Hardware, Edge Trem,
rosewood
Ibanez Studio Bass - bolt on, Japanese, coil taps, Passive, 24 fret,
rosewood
Ibanez 440S Red - Japanese model, Chrome Hardware, Edge Trem, rosewood
Ibanez RG560 White - Japanese model, Black Hardware, Edge Trem, rosewood
Ibanez RG550BK 2001 Black, Cosmo Hardware, Edge Trem, maple
*Ibanez RG550SA 2003 Sangria, Powder Coated Hardware, Edge Trem, maple
*Ibanez RG1550GX WB WM, White Metallic, Gold hardware, Edge Pro, Rosewood
*Ibanez RG2570EX CPK, Cyber Pink, Powder Coated Hardware, Edge Pro,
Rosewood
*Owned from May 2004 to August 2004
Ibanez are not the only guitars I've owned,
Kramer Barettas (1986 - 1989),
Fender USA and Jap Strats,
ESP LTDs,
Charvels,
Jackson
but Ibanez have remained a firm favourite! The transition from the
original neck joint to the AANJ is strange and both the DY Jem (my most
played Jem) and the RG570 are different beasts but they both feel
comfortable in a different way!
