AxSport4me said:
Again...like i said, this is a EBMM forum!
These kinds of Q's are always loaded, especially when asked with bias, as this one obviously is... but I can only speak from my
personal experience with both guitars.
I played Jems virtually exclusively for many years, and owned five of them at one time (two florals - an '89 and a '90 - a 7VWH, 7PBK, a 7VBK) along with three UVs (777BK, 7BK and 777GR) as well as a few RG's, S's, and other Ibanez guitars. So I know these guitars intimately - hell, I even built my own mock IBZ sig, the
Ibanez Jim, from leftover parts I had lying around after playing these things for so long... Anyway, I've always loved Jems - especially when loaded with Breeds - but I never kidded myself about Ibanez' customer service (or lack thereof) or their hit and miss quality control. For instance, if you buy an Ibanez and find that you have neck pocket finish cracks (a problem that plagued Jem owners far worse than it ever did JP owners), Ibanez response was essentially "So what?". There was never any question of Ibanez doing anything for Jem owners with neck pocket finish cracks - they simply weren't interested; they didn't acknowledge it as an issue, and would dismiss it as expected play wear. Ernie Ball, otoh, have bent over backwards, expending who knows how much money and effort dealing with the issue of neck pocket cracks in the finish on the JPs that have developed them. And in terms of quality control, my $2000 Jem7VWH came with a fretboard full of filler around the vine inlay because the cutting was so rough, and there was sawdust trapped in the clear plastic over the faux screwhead inlays on my 7VBK... and these are just two obvious examples of the many little quality niggles I had with Jems over the years. To their credit, the fret work was almost always very good, but even that didn't meet the standard I have come to expect from EBMM.
However, if my arthritus hadn't started to catch up to me, I might never have looked beyond Jems and UVs as my instruments of choice, but as my hands started to cramp up and ache more often when playing those very, very flat necks, my Doctor (who is also a guitar player) suggested that maybe I should try to find a neck that would give my hands more support... so I tried Jackson and Gibson and PRS and finally wound up with an Axis, and within a few hours of picking one up, I knew the Axis was it... Even so, I still owned three Jems when I got my first Axis, and it took me a couple years to let go completely, but since then there have been no regrets.
In the end, I don't play JPs today for many of the same reasons that I no longer have my Jems - the neck is just not built for my aging hands and my playing style - and I don't know if the JP would really be a guitar I'd enjoy from a tonal perspective or not, but I did own an Ibanez JPM4 for about a year, and let it go because I prefered my Jems. So I think the whole JP vs. Jem thing in terms of tone is very much a matter of personal preference - which particular guitar you like. No doubt John would prefer his signature model over Steve's, and there are many, many people who agree with his ears and his interpretation of what a great guitar should be. Be that as it may, I feel very comfortable saying categorically that in terms of quality, EBMMs beat the Jem hands down - the massive assembly line at Fugigen Gakki has
nothing on the craftsmen in SLO. And you can take that to the bank.
PS: This could be
Jemsite (where I am a long, long time contributer and very well known, btw) and I would post the same thing...
