Ibanez JS1000 Joe Satriani Model

I'm not sure of the year it was made. This is supposed to be a simple guitar, but these features make it the most versital I've had the pleasure of playing. It has a Basswood body, 22 frets, 2 humbuckers FRED and PAF pro, 2 push pull pots (one is a coil tap, the other is a high-pass filter--great feature!!), Floyd Rose style lo-pro edge tremolo, and a fantastic 9" radius neck!!! This neck is incredible, it is very comfortable for playing both chords and leads . . . quite a departure from what I'm used to: flat wide Jackson necks. This works perfectly with my smaller hands.

How can you describe perfection??? The versatility of this guitar has unlocked my creativity; I've been playing mostly Jackson style guitars, flat thin neck with screaming humbuckers, thinking what I needed was more gain. This guitar has medium output pickups, but it has wonderful singing sustain and a wide open tone. I can get everything from singing leads to the sound of a tender kiss on this guitar. I bought a JMP-1 to be able to dial in any sound, but I find that I just use a couple of different settings on the amp and control the tone changes mostly from the guitar knobs. The high-pass filter allows the high frequencies to come through as you roll down the volume on the guitar . . . For clean or slightly dirty I like using the neck pickup in single coil mode. That is a piece of heaven.

I bought this guitar used, so I can't really say how it came from the factory, but there other things I can comment on. What had me disappointed were the shims used . . . other people have commented on the shims under the nut, but I found something rather disturbing . . . in an attempt to reduce the string buzzing I was getting, I took the neck off and found another shim. A guitar of this calibur should be cut precisely, not so-so and then made to work. But then, again, the sustain and tone are still great, and isn't that what counts? Anyway, after some work, I got the action set up really well; very low and even across the fretboard.

One thing to keep in mind is that this guitar is made for a very light touch . . . If you pick too hard, the strings will buzz.

I don't play in a band, but if I were to buy a back up . . . I think I would get a black JS 1000

I've been playing for about 10 years now and have gone through several guitars. This one is a keeper. It has the most versital tone of any guitar I've ever played and I love that I can control the tone from the guitar and not messing too much with different amp settings. Another of my favorite features is the neck; it fits like a glove. And I do plan on getting another one anyway, but I do hope this one is never stolen.

The only thing is I cannot give it a 10 because of the shortcuts taken in making the guitar.

This is a 2000 model in Black Pearl. Lots of features too many to list here. Can be read at the Ibanez site. My favorite features however are the compound radius neck, the high pass filter and the coil tap.

I play many styles and have a guitar or two for each sound. I bought this for mostly hard rock(Van-Halen, Dokken, Satch etc.) as I thought it would compliment my Les Pauls and and Strats nicely. It certainly does that. It drives my Marshall's lead channel better than any other guitar I own(I own 12 in all) and sounds like heaven on my Fender tweed Blues Deluxe. The high-pass filter when engaged provides killer clean tone when backing off the volume to clean up the sound for jazz or blues in either humbucking or single coil mode! This guitar has the widest palette of sounds I have ever heard from one instrument. Every sound it makes is pleasing to the ear. Outside of my Gibsons, I couldn't say that about the other guitars.

Factory set-up sucked big time!!!There was almost 5/64" relief in the neck at the 8th fret with the guitar capoed at the 1st fret and fretted at the body. It bowed so much you could've shot an arrow off of it. If you bent ANY string more than half a step at the octave, it would begin to choke. Relief should have been no more than.008-.014"... The harmonics were way off. I don't honestly think anyone at the factory check intonation, if they did they sure as hell didn't strobe it! The spring tension on the Floyd Rose was way off as well. When the guitar was tuned to pitch the bridge would pull forward about15-20 degrees with .009-.042 strings(factory recommended). Fit and finish of the guitar was otherwise superb. I think they just let the NEW GUY do the set up. The string height was 5/64" at the octave on the high E and 6/64" at the low E and as high as that is, it STILL CHOKED with the lousy factory setup. Pickups were a little low. I raised them up a bit.

I straightened out the neck to .008" relief, reset the spring tension on the FLOYD ROSE, lowered the action to 2/64"on the high E(very impressive for an IBEENHAD*ibanez* to get that low. Only my Jem7vh was able to do that successfully, the other Ibanezs I've owned would never usually get down past 3-3.5/64" at the octave before it would choke on a bend. The bass side I took down to 4.25-4.5/64". Once the intonation was set, I had killer harmonics, and one of the most awesome guitars I've ever played.

I am rating this category low for the extremely poor factory setup. The quality of the materials used was excellent, they just didn't know how to put those materials together to make them work properly:)It could've been a 10 if they did it right.

All quality parts as far as I can see. Wouldn't use it without a backup only because of the Floyd Rose:)

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I've been playing for 20 years(gawd I'm feelin' old as I write this) and this is one of the finer guitars I've played. Certainly the most versatile. A nice surprise from Ibanez. They haven't impressed me much in the last 7-8 years. I suppose that's because of all the KOREAN crap with their name on it. There are only a couple of IBEENHADS still made in JAPAN. The top shelf Jem, and this one. Funny how we look at JAP guitars as top shelf nowadays! It's a keeper. I'll have it 20 years from now.

All the tech specs for this guitar can be found at: http://www.ibanez.com/99SPECS/99JS1000SPEC.HTML No sense in me repeating stuff and making a mistake :) Man, this guitar's got everything I need and more.

I play blues, rock, and a bit of metal. The JS1000 handles blues and rock just fine through my Fender DeVille 410. It doesn't take well to enormous amounts of distortion, but that's not a problem because it's got plenty of great tone by itself. If you're looking for a metal axe, I recommend you look elsewhere. Something that I was suprised about was how much bass this guitar has. Lows are warm, rich and full and the highs are still bright. By fiddling with the push-pull knobs, the tone knob, and the EQ on your amp you can get a wide variety of tones. Each pickup setting has it's own flavor, too, and each pulls it's own weight - i.e., none of this, "I only use the bridge pickup because the rest sound like s**t" stuff. They all sound good. My only dislike is that this guitar generates more string noise than any other I have used. That may just be my technique (or lack thereof)

The action came fairly low - maybe 3/8" - though I'd prefer lower. It was a little higher after the 12th fret than near the nut. I really like the tapering and width of the neck. All 22 frets are accessible. The neck is a big part of what drew me to this guitar because it seems like so many floating bridge/locking nut guitars have a flat, paper-thin neck (which I don't like at all!). If course, it really needed a new set of strings because it was a floor model, and I couldn't find the smallest flaw in the finish. It seems like a very well put together guitar.

Everyone seems to complain that they wouldn't rely on a guitar with a floating bridge guitar because if you break a string, the whole thing goes out of tune. I tend to agree, though I have not broken a string on it yet, so I don't know how much punishment it can take. Restringing this guitar REQUIRES allen wrenches and wire cutters, so don't think that you can get a new string on it anytime soon. Bring a backup to gigs. The hardware seems durable enough to withstand most normal punishment - maybe not as tough as a Les Paul (those things are tanks!)

Don't know/didn't ask.

I own an Epiphone Les Paul, a Fender DeVille 410 and a Fender Champ 12 and I've been playing for about 6 years. You simply can't beat the neck on the JS1000 and the tone is phenominal (though smooth - not overly crunchy). If you're going to do a lot of soloing, this is a guitar you should check out - especially if you're fed up with crummy neck design on other floating bridge guitars. I chose this over several other Ibanez, Fender, and Jackson floyd-rose guitars. The necks on the other Ibanez ones were too thin, the Fender's too narrow a width and too chunky, and I tried the Kelly (with which I was very disappointed in general). I would probably buy another if this one was stolen.

I have a 1999 Japanese-made JS1000, and will never part with it. It has 22 frets and a volume and tone knob. Has two Dimarzio pickups, FRED (bridge) and PAF Pro (neck). Passive Electronics and Basswood Body. This guitar has some great features, which was partly why I bought it. The coil tap is awesome, you can get some nice tones from it. The high pass filter is pretty cool too, but I rarely use it. The locking nut keeps it from going out of tune. The Floyd Rose tremolo is really good as well. Great Neck!!!

This guitar has a ton of sounds. The PAF Pro helps all of the effects it goes through (great w/wah). I play mostly rock/heavy metal (Satch, Van Halen, Randy Rhoads...), among other styles, and this guitar is great. The FRED has a really screaming distorted sound, which has grown on me. It is great for solos. I like the sounds from this great guitar, but sometimes wish it had a little more Les Paul sounding clean tone. Great Sound!

I bought this from Guitar Center, and it was perfect out of the box. I didn't change anything in five months!! The pickups were well placed. Great finish. The action was perfect, but I may eventually change the trem a little bit. The tremolo bar doesn't reach over the coil tap, which pisses me off.
THIS GUITAR HAS THE BEST NECK I HAVE EVER FELT!!!!!! IT IS EXTREMELY EASY TO PLAY, AND GREAT FOR SOLOS. I DON'T THINK A BETTER NECK COULD BE MADE BETTER!!! EASY ACCESS TO HIGH FRETS!!!

I haven't played this guitar live yet...I am not a pro. The hardware seems pretty solid, and the finish is perfect (not one scratch). The strap buttons are nice too. I could probably depend on it.

I honestly don't really like Ibanez, but this guitar is great.

I have been only playing for a little over two years, and am 13, but I am better than you might expect. This is one of the best guitars overall I have ever seen. It is as pretty as it is easy to play. If I had the money I would buy it again in an instant. Compared it to PRS, MusicMan, Strat, and Gibson and like this guitar better! Great Sound, Great Feel/Neck, Great Durability, Great Value!!! BUY THIS GUITAR!!!!!!!

I just bought a new 1998 model JS1000 with Black Pearl finish. This guitar has a three way pickup selector a push pull tone control witch coil taps the pickups. Also a push pull volume knob that activates a highpass filter. It also has the lo- pro edge trem which in my opinion is the best floyd type bridge there is. The body shape is the most comfortable I have ever used.

This guitar totaly suits my needs for what I expect out of it. The type of music I like to play with it is of course Satriani, Vai, and blues. I have several different amp configurations and it sounds great through them all. I run it through a Marshall JCM 800, 5150 head, and also a Carvin X100b head. It is a very warm sounding guitar very fluid sounding. Just the right amount of depth without being muddy sounding.

I had to lower the action on the guitar but that was to be expected I think that was due to the setup at the store. Other than that it was great

Well I just got this guitar but I think it will hold up very well. I own a couple other Ibanez guitars with some of the same hardware and they have never let me down. The strap buttons are very large so you will not have to worry about it slipping off. I would use it live with out a backup if it were not for the floyd bridge but I think anyone would agree with that.

I have never had to call the support staff on any of my Ibanez guitars I just never had a problem with any of them.

Have been playing for 15 years and with all the guitars I have played this is one of the finest yet. If it were stolen I would for sure buy another. I love the tone the tone is so smooth not harsh at all just great.

I have a 1999 black pearl, made in Japan. It has 22 Jumbo frets, and 2 humbucker pickups (Dimarzio PAF pro and FRED). The body's made of basswood, the neck is multi-radius, a feature that I personly like a lot. It makes it easier to play higher on the neck. It also has a maple neck (with a satin finish I think) and a rosewood fretboard.
The bridge is a Floyd Rose Lo-pro. This is a very impressive bridge! The lo-pro hasn't gone out of tune even when I do that "horse" effect thing with it (push it all the way down, hit a high pitch harmonic, pull it all the way up and jiggle the bejeebers out of it!).
The bridge is locking, of course, the nut is locking too, and the gotoh tuners are not. There is a locking nut. It is 25.4 scale.
The controls are very handy. Between the 2 knobs and a 3-way switch, you do all the normal things like switch pickups, both pickups, volume, and tone. BUT, by pulling the volume knob you get high pass filtering, which keeps all the treble when you turn down the volume. The tone knob can also be pulled up to tap the humbuckers. This gives me very nice clean tones!
The neck is "a digitized version of Joe's Favourite neck" according to Ibanez's page. I don't really know what this means, but I do know that it feels like a warm apple pie. Soft and oh so tasty! It's not thin like the wizard necks. Those are too thin for me, they are for people with small hands. I have big hands. Wizard necks + me = uncomfy. This "digitized" neck + me = perfect.
However, there are no individual pickup volumes, and you can't tap only one humbucker at once, you must do both. But when I bought this guitar, I didn't want a giant gizmo, I wanted a nice sounding guitar and thats what I got.
And there also isn't a cup holder darnit.

Well, I was leary about buying this because I didn't want to sound exactly like Joe Satriani. But then I thought, "Hey, I like his tone. It is nice. And besides, there's a million strat players who sound different." And so I bought it. And so I found that I really like the tones this guitar brings out.
One of the first things I noticed when I brought it home was there is LOTS of bass. I had my amp (80s fender twin) set up for a cheapo guitar with no bass. And so, by turning the bass down, and the treble WAY up, and the mids up a bit, tweaking a bit, I found VERY nice clean tones using the coil tap.
As you may know, fender isn't exactly known for it's distortion, so I'm not going to blame the guitar for not sounding perfect on dirty tones. But I will say it sounded a LOT better then my old guitar, regardless. The most that amp will ever do is maybe an early zeppelin distortion, or brit pop crap. I still like it, but this combo of JS1000 thru Fender twin will not appease the heavy metalheads.
The high notes aren't shrill, and the low notes are punchy, and I like how this guitar sounds a lot.

Ibanez is well known for setting up guitars poorly at the factory. Not mine though! Mine was great, the intonation was right, the action was low and even. It does need a truss rod adjustment, which I have to do yet... There is absolutly NO relief, and this is causing a little buzzing at frets 3-5. The buzz isn't coming up throught the amp though, and I have learned to have a light touch.
The finish was, well, perfect. No chips, flaws, or horribly disfigured parts! The abalone fret markers are pretty, like a lava lamp...very relaxing to look at...almost...hypnotizing...

Well, I've only had it a few weeks, but I play quite a lot each day, so I know what it will take more or less. With good care and by wiping down the strings, it should last a long time.
Can I depend on it? Well, it has a floating bridge, so if a string breaks, there goes your tuning. I would have a backup, but the only place I play it in public so far is at church, and there isn't a lot of whammy action going on there. Yet, anyways!
I don't run around, or spin it around my neck so strap buttons aren't a concern for me. I can't see them letting the strap off though...

Do they even have an email address? I don't know. I don't know about any warrenty. I was never told about one, and I was so happy that it had finally arrived (after waiting 3 months for it to come from japan) I forgot to ask about one. It probably has a 1 year one, I'm assuming.

Well, It feels great. It sounds great. And it REALLY looks great. It's like an RG, but exactly the opposite. Instead of really sharp pointy sides, it has rounded sides. I can't really say how good it looks. You'd have to see one. It's kind of like the Ibanez S series, but not so thin!
It is also really quiet. Even with the coils tapped, there is minimal buzz.

1998 Model with new JS neck made in Japan. 22 frets solid basswood body w/ rosewood fingerboard. Two Dimarzios, Fred and PAF Pro, both can be split via coil tap and high pass filter. The neck has a nice satin finish like the music man necks! Lo-pro edge tremelo system w/ locking tuners!

The clean tones are really nice, MUCH better than I expected out of a dual humbucker guitar! The bridge pickup (FRED)is very interesting, kind of a unique tone and very satch like but very nice. The neck pickup is pretty average ( The MM EVH neck pickup is my favorite!!)when used with distortion but again it sounds wonderful clean and split. I play a bogner ecstacy and this guitar sounds pretty damn good through it along with my echoplex! The overall tone of the guitar is very round and warm in my opinion.

The set-up was horrible, which I kind of expected! One of the locking nut screws was too short! The guitar also has an uneven high fret(18th I think!) which makes it tough to setup with the action as low as I would like! I had to adjust the truss rod as well. The materials and finish were very good and I was very surprised how well the guitar was put together, but again the set-up down right sucked!!!

Every part of the guitar seems to be solid, but it's too early to tell if the guitar will withstand extended live playing! I am pretty confident that it will!

1 year limited warranty, never had to deal with Ibanez but I heard things!!!!!!

I have been playing for around 15 years. I tend to spend more money on amps than guitars. I own a mm evh, a strat which eric johnosn sold me and this guitar. I play through the bogner and a 67 50 watt plexi! This guitar provides me with a tremendous amount of versatility! The neck is exceptional and the tones are very good for many styles of playing. 900 new was a pretty good deal! The case was extremely nice as well.

I bought the new 1998 release of the JS1000 with the newer neck. This neck is probably the best feeling neck I have used and I own quite a few guitars. It has 2 dimarzio PU's (PAF Pro and FRED)and a selector for 3 different posistions. It has a coil tap feature which sounds really nice with clean tones. It has a floating bridge with the ibanez low pro tremelo system which works really well.

The sound is great for any rock situation. The Bridge pickup (Dimarzio FRED) is a liitle thin however. Not such a great metal guitar but for other situations it does well.

The action was a little too high for my tastes but that was easily taken care of by my favorite guitar tech. The intonation was perfect. The pickups were set up pretty close in volume, but i ended raising the bridge to get a little more volume. The guitar was withought a scratch, one of the most beautiful guitars I've seen. This was my reason for buying this guitar. Other than the action which is sort of a personal taste thing anyway the only problem i had was with one of the hex screws for the locking nut. It was too short. I don't know how that happened but i took it back and they replaced the screw.

I have gigged with this guitar and had no problems. I would never gig without a backup, especially with a floating trem system. Break a string and forget about it...

never called ibanez, dont know.

I've been playing for about 12 years and this is one of my favorite guitars. It's not the best guitar I one (a custom Caruthers!!!) but fr some reason i really dig it. Plus it looks sweet.

This is a 1998 JS1000, made after Ibanez discontinued the line and reissued it. It has two DiMarzio humbuckers: one Fred, one PAF Pro. There are two knobs: one tone, one volume. The tone knob is a push/pull switch that taps the two humbuckers, giving a really wide variety of tones. The volume knob is also a push/pull switch for a high pass filter, which lets you roll off on the volume knob without losing the highs. There is also a three-way selector switch for the pickups. The body is mahogany. The finish is called "Black Pearl," which is a metal flake black/gray/brown color, depending on what the lighting is. It's an extremely attractive, unique finish I've never seen before. The cutaway is really deep, so upper-fret access is no problem. The heel is also angled in towards the treble side to further facilitate upper-fret access. The output jack is angled up away from the floor, so running the cord through the strap isn't necessary. It has a Lo-Pro Edge tremelo, which is especially nice because it's low profile stays out of the way of your picking hand. The neck is maple, with a rosewood fingerboard. It's an extremely thin, fast neck. The dot inlays are abalone (or some abalony substitute). It has 22-frets. The nut is locking.

This guitar can put out a huge variety of sounds. I play everything on this guitar, from blues to jazz to metal. Playing clean, the pickups give a very rich sound. If you roll off the tone about halfway and use the neck pickup, you can get a really nice jazz tone from it. On the other hand, for a really bright sound, you can just tap the pickups and get a pseudo-Strat sound, although this sounds a bit too thin for my taste. I play through an old Peavy 2x12 combo and a Digitech RP-6 effects processor. With the distortion cranked all the way, I can get enough "chunk" out of the guitar to really piss off my downstairs neighbors.

This is where most of the problems with this guitar are. The guitar setup right of the wall was pretty shabby. The high e string was buzzing like crazy around the 12th through 15th frets. Also, the action was setup pretty high, especially for a Joe Satriani model. The only way I could lower the action to 1/8" (from the 12th fret to the bottom of the string) was to put shims under the nut to eliminate the buzz. Even now, there still is a hint of rattle below the forth fret on the lower 3 strings, and on the high e string at the fifteenth fret (none of which shows up through the amp). Additionally, the intonation needed slight tweaking on two of the strings. The pickup height was fine. The finish of the guitar was almost flawless, except for slight chipping inside the output jack cavity. No big deal. The fretwork was fine and the hardware was untarnished. The only other real complaint in this category is that the pickup selector is slightly loose and returns to the middle position with only a little presssure. Once again, no big deal.

I'm almost afraid to play this thing live for fear of breaking it. It's so light that I can imagine the neck falling off after tapping it on the mic stand or something. This is probabaly just paranoia, though. The durability of the hardware is questionable. I can easily see it all tarnishing after a year or two. The finish seems like if a chunk gets taken out of it, the rest will just flake off eventually. I don't think just normal playing will be enough to wear it down. The strap buttons are solid and wide. I never worry about the guitar falling off like I do with my strat. The tremelo arm uses white plastic bushings to create the torque to keep the arm in place. These things wear out pretty quickly, and the guitar only comes with one extra set. If you plan on buying the guitar, I suggest you order more of these from Ibanez. The Part # is 2LE2-1-1. I would never use this on a gig without a backup, just in case I break a string.

I've e-maied Ibanez's tech support twice, and each time I've gotten a helpful response. Although it might take them around two to three weeks, they should eventually respond. I believe the warranty is for 1 year.

I've been playing for about six years or so. I own a Fender American Standard Strat and an Ovation A/E 12-string, model 1768. Despite all its flaws and high price, this guitar is a great addition to my small collection. I probably wouldn't buy this guitar again if it were stolen. I'd probably go with an RG or even a lower-end S series Ibanez. I'm just not convinced the guitar is worth the money. The main selling point me was the aesthetics of the guitar. It's really one of the most beautiful guitars I've seen. The body shape is very elegant, and the finish is just incredible. The only other thing I wish it had was the power to let me play like Joe whenever I pick it up. :)

This is a 1997 before they discontinued and re-released them. It has two Dimarzio humbuckers with a volume and tone which are push pull for a variety of tones. Basswood body and 22fret rosewood neck. It was only available in black (it has a fine sandy metallic tint, i forgot what they call it) It also has the Lo-Pro Edge tremolo. It's the top of the line Joe Satriani model.

There is such a wide range of sounds you can get with the coil tap switch (volume push pull) and bass roll off , i think, (tone push pull). the neck is a paf pro and the bridge is a fred. It's very versatile, it has to be if satriani uses the same setup. I would give it a ten accept the bridge pickup is a little too midrangy for me and it could use just a tad more bass.

This is where the guitar dissapointed me. First, i have been unable to get the action lower than 1/8 of an inch from the top of the 12th fret to the bottom of the strings, even after calling Joe's tech, he suggested that i have the frets dressed and i think for a guitar of this price it should have come with very low action the way Satriani likes. Next thing that irritates me is the whammy bar. You have to replace a plastic bushing on the arm every month or it will be too loose. Ibanez only gives you an extra set. After letting the guitar sit for a month, the volume became scratchy and the knobs became oxidized. i even stored it in its case. Ibanez puts shims under the nut and under the bridge saddles, another dissapointment.You wouldnt need a nut shim if the neck had been properly routed.

The construction of the guitar seems very solid. It would be great for playing live because is so damn light. I'm sure after a few years,the hardware will become tarnished because i've only had it a year and it already shows signs.

I've emailed ibanez twice and got one response. I even sent email asking if they could sell me a new neck because i was unsatisfied with the one it came with and they never answered.

Ive been playing for about 16 years, i might get on of the new ones if they started making it better neck/wise. It is a bit too light for my tastes. The guitar is acceptable but all my other guitars play much better (strat/mutt, les paul classic, and fender folyd rose classic). I would have sold the instrument but i went to one of the G3 shows and had Satch and Vai both sign it. So, it has sentimental value to me. The thing just sits in its case while i play my les paul and strats. I'll probably take it out sometime when i'm bored and fiddle with it. i know ibanez has re-released the guitar with a new compound radius neck. i would like to get a new neck but i don't think ibanez has time for me and i don't want to pull teeth to get it.