culdesac posted:

lol jk i didnt actually click your links cuz i know it all sucks rear end

Dewgy posted:

i wasn't pointing it out for your benefit you boring narcissistic wierdo

GreenAcidRage posted:

i clicked all your links and you play okay and poo poo can you go away now you weird fucker

Photex posted:

He's got all those links on standby just like I did when I was 13 playing in a cover band and posting on ULTIMATE-GUITAR.

All I can say is I hope you become the next Jason Becker.

culdesac posted:

um

i seriously didnt click a single one, dont know what to tell you dude

Steppin_Razor posted:

lmao dude the game you should be playing is the one where you ignore the people trying to bait you instead of getting involved in an internet slap fight

joats posted:

Please don't.

joats posted:

Hey not everyone can have a pizza guitar (I have an Ibanez and love it)

Dewgy posted:

how old were you when thrill kill was cancelled anyway

because i thought dr faustus was the coolest poo poo ever too but i was like 12

Dewgy posted:

yo chill, video games

thought the dude from the play was just faust, not faustus

congratulations

Frankenstyle posted:

See? What did I say before? If you'd just work half as hard on your people skills as you have on your musical skills, you'd have sex and drugs on tap and free money for life. Just take a deep breath and let life wash over you.

Photex posted:

Why the gently caress do you have a hard on for Ibanez RGs? Please tell me they are all not stock too besides the lovely looks.

Stargate posted:

Wow old timer, you should have better people skills by now.

Dewgy posted:

it'd take way more than a 40 to make you interesting bro

Photex posted:

Thanks for that wiki quality post on the The Rise of Ibanez.

quote:

There's a brilliant photo in the book, Ibanez: The Untold Story, of Kramer Guitars’ Dennis Berardi and colleagues at the Chicago NAMM show in 1987. Berardi appears spellbound as he looks intensely at something just outside of the frame. Meanwhile, one of his colleagues wears an expression of utter pain and bewilderment. The reason for these expressions was that Ibanez and Steve Vai had just unveiled the JEM, Vai's signature instrument, and in that exact moment the entire guitar landscape was reshaped. Ibanez was suddenly sitting atop a pyramid not unlike the one Vai himself was perched on in the “Angel Landing” advertisement subsequently used to promote the JEM.

There were probably many reasons the Kramer execs were so befuddled by the JEM. Certainly, securing Vai as an endorser was a huge coup. But the JEM was more than just a signature guitar for one of the most popular axemen in the world: It also incorporated many unique custom features, ones that weren’t common on large-scale production guitars up to that point, and certainly not in the “perfect storm” of high performance specs the JEM provided.

For starters, the JEM had three DiMarzio pickups (a pair of PAF Pro humbuckers and a JEM single-coil) wired in a then-unique arrangement where by the 2nd and 4th positions split the humbuckers into single-coils in combination with the middle pickup. This arrangement, pioneered by DiMarzio's Steve Blucher, allowed Vai to achieve Stratocaster-style in-between sounds as well as the humbucker raunch of the PAF Pro. There was also a high-pass filter on the volume control to help the guitar retain high end when the volume pot was rolled back.

It also featured a “bear claw” rout behind the Ibanez Edge locking vibrato bridge, inspired by the chiseled trench Vai had gouged into his Charvel “Green Meanie” guitar. This allowed him to achieve a much further range of upward motion than simply floating the tremolo at an angle off the body, and it made it easy to perform wild “flutter” effects.

A guitar with 24 frets was not unheard of before 1987, but this was still relatively uncommon. The last four frets were scalloped, allowing Vai and like-minded shredders to really lay into those high notes, and upper-fret access was enhanced by a crescent-shaped scoop around the neck joint area. The JEM also rocked some rather flashy cosmetic touches: three-color, disappearing-pyramid fretboard inlays (keen eyes would note that the green/pink/yellow pyramids echoed the three JEM colors available at launch); brightly colored pickups, knobs, pickup selector switch and tremolo rout; and of course, the “monkey grip” handle, which allowed Vai to pull off extra-flashy stage moves.

The JEM had a less showy but equally shred-worthy and innovative cousin, the Ibanez RG550. The 550 featured much of the same innovation as the JEM (HSH pickup layout with the same custom switching, 24 frets, crescent-carved neck joint; back-routed Edge cavity) but without some of the higher-cost additions such as the scalloping, the DiMarzio pickups, the six individual bear claw scoops, and the monkey grip.

While some JEMs have been modded over the years, the majority of owners tend to keep them in their original state. It's rare even to find a JEM with a pickup swap, so there isn't really a particular set of common JEM mods to speak about. However the RG550 and its stablemates make great starting points for fans to build their own custom JEM-style guitars. They're relatively inexpensive on the used market, and their modern-day equivalents (such as the RG2550) exhibit exceptional build quality. Anyone with a pin router, a steady hand and a lot of patience can add a monkey grip to their RG550. You can reshape the Edge rout into a bear claw with carving chisels and maybe a bit of wood filler to rectify the odd mistake. DiMarzio makes various Vai signature pickups (the Evolution, the Breed, the Evo 2, and the new Gravity Storm), which would likely get you closer to Vai's tonal mojo.

It's common for RG-to-Jem conversions to feature a variation on the multicolor swirl paint technique pioneered by Darren Johansen of About Time Designs and seen on various JEMs, as well as the 7-string counterpart, the Universe. Two of the most revered swirlers, Herc Fede and Out Of This Swirled, recently announced their respective retirement from the swirling biz, but there are many talented painters out there (Perle Guitars comes to mind) who offer swirls in every color. Rich Harris' Ibanez Rules is a prime location to purchase JEM-friendly parts, from vibrato arm socket holders to new-old-stock (NOS) pickguards and colored DiMarzios.

One particularly interesting JEM-style custom is owned by James McDonald from Western Australia. McDonald's JEM (pictured at right) started as his sketched entry for the “Design A Jem” competition put on by Ibanez and Vai in 2010. When McDonald's intricate black-and-white design didn't win, he decided to have it made with the help of ET Guitars, and then he painted it himself.

Another rare example of an actual modified JEM belongs to Dean Dynna of Canada. His 1991 JEM7PBK has been repainted with a green marbling effect on a black background, providing a slight thematic link to the swirled JEMs but maintaining the original black vibe of that stock model.

But as much fun as it is to upgrade an RG to near-JEM specs, there's still something magical about a true Ibanez JEM. There have been a few changes over the years, such as different body and fretboard woods, different pickups, a few rear-routed models with clear pickguards to showcase fabric finishes, a new neck joint and different fretboard inlays, etc. But a brand new JEM today bares much in common with its 1987 counterpart, and in many ways the JEM is still that same guitar that gave Kramer such a shock in Chicago 25 years ago.

Xen Tricks posted:

I own this it looks cooler than any of your guitars gently caress you faustus



Look at this versus your stupid samey ugly colored poo poo do you see any "seafoam green" on this?

Dewgy posted:

you as a poster are entertaining, as a human being you are boring dreck

i'd say i don't know now that isn't obvious, but then again,

i wanted faustus wigging out over a billion things with boring walls of text and terrible comebacks and i got what i came for

also some other high quality ugly guitars

e: that i would probably buy because i have awful taste

Third World Reggin posted:

I made this for you faus

Xen Tricks posted:

I know it's hard to wrap your head around anything that isn't shaped like a million other guitars owned by 15 year olds but you should try for once

Third World Reggin posted:

He is being a mean jerk not using the sig I made him.

Xen Tricks posted:

Yeah but there sure are a lot of 15 year olds with the same dickwaving looky at my totally old and rare and cool bro guitar attitude

Sorry

e: also lol @ thousands of dollars spent on minor variations in tones

Senorita Stinkers posted:

Have you ever seen The Life of Brian?

Xen Tricks posted:

You spent thousands of dollars on different bodies for pickups and lol I can do that too it's called a computer or effects pedals

I bet those 4 guitars I saw that look like a paint swap totally have like $5000 worth of "tone difference" between them

Photex posted:

I don't believe you. We want to see frequency graphs plox.

Dewgy posted:

D)
E)

Xen Tricks posted:

Ha ha ha "discerning musicians" are more often than not idiots that think magical juju totally unrelated to sound generation makes a deep and intimate difference in their music. Also lol I can replace your gear with free software.

Photex posted:

It's funny because if you ever watch rig rundowns with a lot of the 80s and 90s guys now they all switched to Fractal AxeFXs because they can just feed their old master recordings in and get exact models and patches made in minutes. It also costs a gently caress ton less when touring when you don't need to haul a ton of poo poo.

XENA I LOVE YOU posted:

Xen Tricks posted:

Almost any old keyboardist says that modern smaller digital synths are a godsend compared to hauling around hundreds of pounds of fragile poo poo when they can just get the same sound for cheaper and easier. Technology kicks the poo poo out of nostalgia most times

Xen Tricks posted:

also you didn't deny that musicians (and everyone else ever) are superstitious morons

Photex posted:

I was going to dick wave how I work in live production but it wouldn't matter because you still wouldn't understand

Xen Tricks posted:

Ah ha ha ha ha ha h ha loving ha ha ha try dropping a yamaha cs-80 or a moog modular or an old siel/whatever the hell else whose oscillators go out of tune if you so much as bang it

You're an idiot who doesn't know anything about gear besides your little six stringers

Try even moving a mellotron, go on, try it, show me "genius"

Photex posted:

sorry it's a 4 hour minimum freelancers fee for me to give you a show rundown.

Xen Tricks posted:

Lol "ancient singularity machine" *plays an instrument with the same design as 70 years ago" also it's Moog, it was a name, it's not all caps

And the point is the same, old stuff sounds good but is extremely expensive and fragile where as all the poo poo you do with custom modeling and tone difference and all that lah dee dah can be contained in modern digital systems that give an all but indiscernible sound for 1/10th the price and much more reliability

also lololol http://www.musiciansfriend.com/power-conditioners-surge-protectors I wonder what these are for your little "voltage blips"


also also also you "world of guitar amplifier emulators" wouldn't exist without my "ancient singularity machines" I don't think DSP technology just sprouted out of your rear end in a top hat

Dewgy posted:

oh wow that is kind of awesome and awful at the same time

seriously what do you do for a living

who else gets paid to put up with you on a daily basis

because the paycheck bragging really does make you look like a humongous baby

Xen Tricks posted:

you're a dinosaur

Wall Balls posted:

its always a bit shocking when someone with an ancient regdate shows up posting like a complete fucker

Senorita Stinkers posted:

if that was even remotely close to the truth you would only have like 2 guitars, a few old effects pedals and a amp you got from a pawn shop

Cannot Find Server posted:

because it's not massively douchebag pretentious poo poo that's technically involved but ultimately soulless and boring poo poo like what steve vai writes.

Xen Tricks posted:

You went the most expensive route you possibly could have for making music with guitars

quote:

like goddamn instead of buying 10 loving guitars to get a tone you like why not just get a computer, guitar rig, and some pedals and save yourself a shitton of money. And lol @ fuckin "tired and true tech", you got the tired part right, that's for sure, but i'm sure all those Foghat fans love your sound

quote:

e: You even bragged about making your own custom switches and modifying your expensive guitars, where the hell do you think you get off being like "I'M A BLUE COLLAR WORKER WORKING HARD FOR MY MONEY AND I VALUE WHAT LITTLE I COULD SPEND".

quote:

Yeah I'm not saying popularity=good and idk really know poo poo about the Deftones besides they've sold a lot and i've always heard people liking them, but it was one of the first rigs I clicked on and it's fuckin hilarious cause bam there's guitar rig front and center shaping the entire sound that faustus would hate so much

Dewgy posted:

what does this even mean, just flipping words around on people doesn't make a valid comeback

Dewgy posted:

maybe if i swear and tell people to eat my nuts they will accept my musical superiority

also better spend some more money

Cannot Find Server posted:

jesus christ faustus why do you feel so strongly the need to justify your every goddamn action and purchase you make

you're either the most insecure poster i've ever seen or the most narcissistic. or both.

Dewgy posted:

you're adorable, you can seriously change gears from "gently caress you i found your two week setup fee in my couch bitch" to "i need to afford what i can its so hard" without batting an eye

its impressive

Xen Tricks posted:

I like how you haven't said one single thing in response to the fact that most of those 27 years were wasted on poo poo you didn't need for what you wanted. Like why would you do some circuit wizardry and waste your time for all your guitars when like a $50 pedal could prob do the exact same thing if not better without the work involved.

quote:

You've done nothing but skirt around everything I and everyone else has said about the monetary cost and your horribly outdated view on musical equipment.

quote:

That, and you can't even stick on one point, at first you said that this is all saving and spending on what you need for your music and you can't afford all the ritzy poo poo and flash of bands and you're making your meager dollar go as far as it can for your needs then you're saying poo poo like "Sorry if you can't understand being passionate about craftsmanship or a well-made authentic instrument with quality woods and appointments, but you can also eat me." which means nothing but "I like buying really nice instruments because they're really nice" which is a totally different point. Which is it, Faustus, which is it?

quote:

It's cute cause it's like he's trying to boast and then be humble but all it's doing is making him look like an insecure retard. You know, i'd love a Prophet 12, or a Moog voyager, but I realize that spending $4000 on one is a poor investment for what they can do, it's boutique, it's luxurious, but one thing it sure as hell isn't is frugal or blue collar. If you need all that stuff to make music then maybe you should drop the hobby.

Cannot Find Server posted:

the difference is that i actually gained some semblance of self awareness

Photex posted:

Wait you're 40 and still living in an apartment? I'm beginning to doubt your ability to afford my 4 hour minimum.

Xen Tricks posted:

Ok really now, how about you explain how your magical $9 pots and a cord do what no pedal can. I'm interested, please do tell.

And no, your guitars are all built on the same basic electronics, there's different styles of pickups and all that but pickups are pickups and well there's no other electronics in a guitar so nvm. I don't think you can say that your 10 or 12 or whatever guitars are so special and unique listening to clean signal that they're worth apparently what you do to get them. And holy god if you need to skimp on buying clothes because you want to afford a new guitar strap maybe you should either choose a cheaper strap or go for a hobby that doesn't leave you destitute.

Also your view on musical equipment is outdated, I don't think a view on guitars can be besides idk "gently caress floating bridges" or "gently caress electrics" or something like that

Cannot Find Server posted:

i guess it's hard to if you don't have any yourself vv

Dewgy posted:

considering you think i made this thread to stalk you your perceptiveness doesn't have a great track record

Photex posted:

Not bragging just good to see I'm ahead if the curve by 13 years.

Spanish Manlove posted:

the burden of the 'tism

Spanish Manlove posted:

you don't have to respond to every post and in detail dude. get a fuckin sense of humor dude

Xen Tricks posted:

Tee hee, "I know i'm full of poo poo so i'm just gonna tell you to go look it up yourself and hopefully you forget". Nothing you can do with the electronics of a guitar cannot be done with pedals or other effects. You can't circuit bend a guitar, you're not a wizard, stop trying to act like your basic electronics knowledge and motivation to waste your time is better than "any pedal in existence". And your guitars are prominent because you have some goddamn ugly guitars bro, like really, that seafoam poo poo is what i'd walk into guitar center with my friend and laugh at. It's ugly, and you know it probably doesn't sound too amazing either.

Cannot Find Server posted:

if you didn't make long winded posts like this responding to each and every goddamn thing anyone says about you, they'd stop making fun on you. jesus christ how do you not get this. nobody would have posted your ugly green guitar or your guitar collection if you didn't already have a track record of sperging out on people who slight you.

Xen Tricks posted:

I understand fully how they work, I know how circuits make sound, but I don't understand how you can't replicate/improve that with effects. It's like saying "Yeah I modified the oscillator and amp circuit to make sounds you can't possibly replicate" when you could just throw something in front of it in the circuit line and do the same. If you'd like to explain how your electrical magic works i'm sure we'd all be interested.

Also I went back to look at your guitar collection picture and jesus lol I didn't realize how it looked. You have like 6 guitars that look the same, a handled abortion, two first-act looking acoustics, and I guess one alright looking one. Great line up for 27 years.


Steve Vai is kind of really spergy so actually yes, maybe

Xen Tricks posted:

I understand fully how they work, I know how circuits make sound, but I don't understand how you can't replicate/improve that with effects. It's like saying "Yeah I modified the oscillator and amp circuit to make sounds you can't possibly replicate" when you could just throw something in front of it in the circuit line and do the same. If you'd like to explain how your electrical magic works i'm sure we'd all be interested.

Also I went back to look at your guitar collection picture and jesus lol I didn't realize how it looked. You have like 6 guitars that look the same, a handled abortion, two first-act looking acoustics, and I guess one alright looking one. Great line up for 27 years.


Steve Vai is kind of really spergy so actually yes, maybe

Lord Lilf posted:

Posting pics of my pen-...guitars.

My baby: an ESP Horizon tuned to C#


An LTD H1007 that I adore just as much. My first seven-string and now I'm not sure how I ever played guitars with fewer strings.
Regular ol' tuning for this one:



I'm also using a Randall RM100 head and a marshall slant cab with only a handful effects pedals. I keep poo poo minimal.