Ibanez Signature

I play music ranging from blues to metal on a VOX VT 40+.

It's an incredibly beautiful, very well-made guitar. I had played for a long time on a home-customized Les Paul and I feel like born again. For metal and everything that involves heavy sounds, the weight is perfect, the neck is fast, the frets are wide and easy to access, and the Floyd and stopbar very efficient to keep everything in tune.

The clean sound is very acceptable (not Gibsonish but it's not what you expect from it either), but crunch and lead sounds are very good!!! My Les Paul is equipped with EMGs and they don't provide artificial harmonics as easily. Not even to mention the very reasonable background noise for pickups in that price range.

Its pros?
- Everything! I've been dreaming of a JEM for 20 years, now I have one!
Its cons?
- Low-quality factory strings (for a 500-bucks axe, Ibanez could afford an Ernie Ball set)
- Original setting was very approximative (in addition to the tuning I had to set the Floyd Rose's parallelism and height)

In a nutshell:

A beautiful guitar that's agreeable to play and extremely versatile.

I'm in love !!!

Mostly used with a Peavey Tube 60 for rock/hard rock/heavy.

Perfect workmanship. The blue flower pattern on the body and the tree of life on the maple fingerboard look awesome and are well finished. Just a slight disappointment with a very tiny knot within the wood in the back of the neck, but to me it’s only a detail and it has no consequence on the sound. Note the flower pattern on the headstock.

In spite of the transportation it had undergone, the guitar was perfectly in tune when I unpacked it! As of now, I control its tuning daily before playing and I rarely have to tune it again (although I’m a heavy Floyd user).

The neck is comfortable and warm (JEM-type, 5-piece maple and walnut with Titanium trussrod)), the real definition of a left hand’s highway: acceleration comes naturally. Too bad the last 4 frets are not scalloped… Not that it’s that important to me.

As a whole, I expected to have a lot of things to modify when I got it (trussrod setting, Floyd), but that wasn’t the case: the original setting was perfect for me, and nothing has changed since then except for a few minor modifications here and there, because of the way the wood slightly alters with time and the influence of temperatures.

The pickups are DiMarzio Gravity Storms: warmer and rounder-sounding to my taste compared with the Evolution model. I even find them a little more versatile than the Evos (clean to crunch to the most extreme distortions). I think there’s a little gain in the lows too – to be confirmed.

+ value-for-money, finishing and sound
- the Floyd: why an Edge Zero 2 instead of the Jem70v’s Edge? Even if it does the job, it’s a pein to have to screw the nut to set the bar in place.

Overall, I consider it a beautiful guitar in all regards, when I ordered it I didn’t expect such a level of comfort when playing. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it, and for such a price I really recommend it.

I use a mesa boogie rectoverb with my JS2000.
PROS
Ergonomic to hold and light.
(Lies in your arms like a beautiful chick)
Neck is simply excellent. Smooth like butter so your finger tips just dance around.
Sustain and tone excellent via fixed bridge.
Versatility of sounds - from sweet gentle smooth jazz to monstrous hyperspace rock.
Offers an alternative, modern and compelling sound to Les Paul and Fender Strat, who tend to dominate the history of rock and roll.
Beautiful to look at, like a sculpture.
CONS
They ceased production.
Hold her gently as to not damaged her.

I bought this guitar based solely on its specs. I had never heard of these models until a few weeks ago and am not familiar with the artist who designed them. But he did a great job imo.

For my needs this guitar proved to be almost perfect, from the custom profile neck, to the placement of the controls, to the EMGs and featherweight 6.75 lbs.

The neck has the same width as a Gibson 60s neck, but is much more shallow with a flatter (15.75") radius. There is ample room between the E strings and the side of the fb, but it feels like there is a lot of real estate between the strings as well. I guess that is because of the shallow neck. Really comfortable to play.

The control is placed with convenient access, but they left a comfortable distance to allow palm muting. I prefer having the pickup selector switch under the control pot as well. Something I would have never thought of.

The control pot has a feature I really like. When you roll off the volume to clean up the sound there is a resistance point that lets you know you hit the sweet spot. If you want the volume all the way off you use more pressure when you turn the control.

The EMG pickup set 81-B and 60-N offer a nice match and enough balls for my taste as a Hard Rock guy.

My neck and back are tired from playing Les Pauls and this guitar is lighter than most SGs.

The frets are pleked so no issues there, but they do need to be dressed and polished as they are a little sharp along the side.

I have two LPs, two SGs a Strat an AH-10 and AH-20 an Axis and several others to choose from, but the MBM2 is the one I am using as my main guitar guitar now. That is basically why I signed up to do the review.

I use a DAW with ProTools and Amplitube.