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MATT'S PICK OF THE WEEK
Matt's Pick of the Week
Posted on May 11, 2010
Ibanez JEM20TH Special 20th Anniversary Steve Vai Signature Electric Guitar - Transparent Acrylic with Internal LEDS
The first Steve Vai Signature models, the JEM Series, debuted at the Chicago NAMM show in 1987. The JEM's were the spearhead of the rebirth of Ibanez that year and the eventual status of Ibanez as one of the top three electric guitar companies in the world.
While the first Ibanez JEM's were lightweight basswood and later the more traditional alder, the new JEM20TH body is fashioned of hand-crafted premium grade clear acrylic with a 3-D interior design which can actually be illuminated by internal green LED's. Only 500 will be available worldwide.
The JEM20TH's beautiful acrylic body is made by a Japanese company that fabricates the clear tank walls for the more prestigious aquariums in the world. The actual process is a closely guarded trade secret. Each body is gone over by hand extensively by a highly skilled veteran of acrylic arts.
DiMarzio Pickups for the JEM20TH
The density of the TransJem body is greater than that of traditional wood guitars.
To work best with this construction, Dimarzio designed the TransJem pickups to have greater transient response than standard humbuckers, and the neck and bridge pickups each have individual coils tuned to different frequencies. This combination produces a sound that is both powerful and open.
The middle pickup design is based on the Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2. This design works well with the dense TransJem body, and balances very well in split mode with the neck and bridge pickups. All five TransJem switch positions are hum canceling.
Guitar Specs:
Neck: 5pc JEM Prestige Neck
Neck Type: JEM Prestige
Body: Hand-made premium acrylic resin with 3D multi-color design inside illuminated by green LED's
Frets: 24/6105 Frets
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Inlay: Pearl/ Abalone Vine
Bridge: Edge Pro Bridge
Neck Position Pickup: DiMarzio Trans JEM Neck
Bridge Position Pickup: DiMarzio Trans JEM Bridge
Middle Position Pickup: DiMarzio Trans JEM Middle
Chrome Hardware
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You're right, these JEMs are beautiful. I think that it was Vai's 7-string models that sparked the move to really heavy music by Korn, Deftones etc. and the resurgence of Ibanez. As you said, they're now one of hte top 3! I saw that Ibanez were going to conduct a Steve Vai design competition for the 25th anniversary JEM. Did they ever do that? I did not see any further information on that.
Cheers
Craig