Ibanez JS1000 Joe Satriani Model

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.