Ibanez JS10TH Chrome Boy

1998 10th anniversary edition. Japan made. Satriani aerofoil strat body shape, chrome finish all over the body and the headstock. The body is made of Luthite a special kind of synthetic material specifically designed by Ibanez for musical instruments. Neck is maple and fingerboard is a slab board. Wood are quite consistent very good. Passive electronics: Two controls, a tone and a volume both incorporating a push pull each. Volume has a high filter that allows you to maintain a good tone even if you decrease the volume (a rarity whatever guitar you may play). The tone control incorporate a splitting device for the pick up you are using. The selector is a three way switch. More than enough. If you combine all these controls you can count on a limitless amount of sounds . The bridge is a common Ibanez bridge, LoProdge, the best of them all among the floating bridge. Gotoh no locking tuners. The case is a marvel. Enormous, wonderful on the inside, full of gadget, all chromed. Stap, cable, picks, all chromed. Gorgeous.

This guitar is a dream come true. It's so good and so beautiful it's ridicolous. It's one of the best instruments I have owned, past and present, period. You can trust me, it's fantaaaaastic. I use this guitar in a rock fusion context, well you have to hear to believe how good this guitar sounds. I use it through a Soldano Decatone head and cab or through my Pod Xt (sometimes through my 1965 Fender Twin reissue). Each sound emerges with a distinctive personality. Being a wood maniac I was afraid about the Luthite body. I can't explain "how" good this body sounds. It's full, bright, present, responding, it's incredible. I can't be critical here. Ibanez really did a fantastic job with this instrument. It really eats all the others rock guitar, no matter the exotic woods they are sporting!! I own some of them. The Chromeboy eats the all ina bite. You can't even compare them. Chromeboy is too superior. Steve Blutcher at Di Marzio did a fantastic job designing the perfect pickups for this guitar. They are simply marvellous. They don't have a single weak point. Great output, distinctive personality, incredible feeling! The guitar can go from full shred rock sound to strat fenderish clean, to Gibson full round jazz clean simply by moving the rich controls. Really. This guitar is perfect. I can't say more than this. Moreover it is a truly inspiring instrument. I really can put it down. Once you start playing it you can't do nothing but continue to play! If all the Ibanez guitars would be like this one, times were becoming very hard for american guitars manufacturers. You can trust me.

When I bought this guitar (2003) it was in the shop since it came out in 1998. Of course they didn't pay too much attention to her. So you can understand that I can't say how the guitar came from the factory. But I trust it came perfectly settled, because Ibanez do things right when they are sending in the world such a prestigious instrument. We are talking about a top of the line instruments comparable to a custom shop american made instruments. Ibanez do things properly in these cases.

This guitar is a special guitar. Its finish is delicate sure, but not more than any oher guitar finish. Its chromed skin can be easily ruined if you are not a skilled player and if you play it like you would play a beaten tele. It is delicate and so must be treated gently. My Gibsons are delicate too. Anyway if you look at the old Chromeboy that Joe shows in his concerts it is ruined by time, and usage, but it is still an extraordinary good looking instrument. So I don't worry too much. It will be great in 2013 too.
I would definitly use it without a back up. It is a professional instrument. The only worrying could be for its finish. Apart from this the guitar is a totally loyal instrument. You can trust on it for sure.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing since I was 17 years old, now I'm 35. I owned every beautiful guitar you can think of, more than 60. This guitar is a fantastic value sure. For a lot of reasons. It is a dream to play, to look at and a great joy to own. Consider that only 500 Chromeboy were made. Its value will increase with time, you can swear it. But I don't plan to sell it. I want to enjoy this guitar for years and years. It is incredibly beautiful. I'm so happy I did buy this instrument. If someone will stole his guitar he better be a great runner. Anyway I couldn't replace it even if I would (and sure I would). No one ever will sell me his Chromeboy and they are all gone. Once you own this wonderful guitar, this magnet, you can't let her go.

Mine is number 442 of the 500.

Excellent. Pickup selection, pickup splitting, volume, tone & switchable capacitor bypass to protect the tone as the volume rolls off. You can vary the tone greatly with the controls, they all have a smooth and positive action; there's no clicks or scratches as they're adjusted.

The bridge is great but... setting up the guitar isn't fun if you'd like to change string gauge. Despite the bridge being superb for stability, setting the intonation up looks as if it'll be nothing short of a knightmate. I mean, you have to spend #30 on a bent peice of metal before you can even start thinking about it! This will be normal to anyone who's spent the last couple of years using a locking tremolo, but despite it's poor reliability with lots of whammy bar usage, I really miss the idea of just being able to drop a set of strings in and twist them into tune on a non-locking tremolo.

I'd give this 10 if it had the Speed Loader bridge on it from Floyd Rose, purely just because I hate changing strings.

I use a JCM 800 2210 and a Lexicon MPX-G2 with this guitar along with other stuff like a Boss DD-2, Cry Baby and the original Whammy. I've heard a lot of people say you can't classify a guitar as a lead or rhythm instrument but I would say that this guitar seems to lean towards wanting to be used on leads. There is a very obvious mid to high end presence in it's sound. The low is there for sure, it's exceptionally clear and each note of a chord is well defined. But it doesn't seem to have a low end resonant type noise to it.

It's bass response is perfectly usable, don't get me wrong. However, if you're after a heavy progressive guitar for playing a rhythm section I think there would be a better choice. The guitar is brighter than it is satanically dark.

The pickups are very diverse. The FRED provides the slightly warmer, heavier sounds. On the other end of the scale is the PAF Pro, and with the tone all the way forward you WILL make people's ears bleed. If anything it may be a touch too treble harsh. I often end up turning the tone back a lot with the PAF Pro. For the things I play, I find it waaaaay to piercing for anything that isn't a solo. In fact, I often use the FRED for solos. You can roll the tone all the way back and still get a smooth Comfortably Numb type feel.

The variety is a cool feature of this guitar. It will go from the ear bleeding treble heavy to a smooth creamy type tone. RATM to Satriani to Pink Floyd. The coil splitting helps with achieving the slightly thinner single coil sound. Knock the tap in and the thickness returns.

With no gain the PAF Pro comes into use and helps create a crisp, sharper, acoustic like sound. The FRED here is again the warmer and softer pickup. With the acoustic program running on the Lexicon this sounds almost identical to the beginning of Enter Sandman by Metallica.

This guitar obviously IS the Satraini sound if you're into that. I think the only thing you need to be careful of is letting the mid response let you get lost in band situation. Sometimes if you listen to Vai, Satriani and Petrucci playing live you'll notice Joe's sound seems to drop into the tune and become hidden a lot easier than Vai and Petrucci. This is what I'm talking about, try to either go for lows or highs, lows and highs... but not just mids. It's common guitar sense anyway.

I got this guitar in "Played for 10 minutes" condition. It had been played only to check it was functioning before buying; and not a lemon. The bridge was angled out of the body and it was set up with high gauge strings, 10's or 11's. I much prefer playing on low gauge strings, like 8's and 9's, so I reset the guitar with a new gauge. I have been told to keep the bridge level with the body but if you watch Satriani do the screaming note trick with the whammy bar there is no way his is level with the body. With it level you can just about manage a two half step bend. If you want to do the whammy stuff then angle the tremolo. With it level you can drop the strings onto the pickups before the bar is even close to the body. You can sacrifice some of this dead movement space and apply to to the reserve motion.

With the string change made I reset the tremolo set screws and the A string is slightly out of intonation. I rarely use it past the 12 fret so I'm okay for now, but will have the guitar set up by someone else when I have the money because I don't want the headache of intonation tools and the likes. After changing gauge the guitar no longer responded properly after the 14th fret. So the bridge was raised a small amount and it works fine now. I do think the entire guitar needs to spend some quality time with a tech though getting it all tweaked into playing properly. Inital factory setup was, for me at least, almost unusable. Once it's setup though you're off! The radius of the fretboard and the frets make playing a lot easier.

The finish....! It's simply indescribably beautiful in first person. In it's red velvet case there isn't anyone alive who can keep their eyes off it. After buying it we stopped off at a bar with a couple of people in it before getting the train back and opened the case to look at it. Within two minutes people were coming up to look at it, talk to us about it, or just pretending they weren't looking from behind things. It looks like it's dripping liquid metal, mainly due to the incredibly ergonomic shape of it's body; which morphs to you when you pick it up. If only that were the end of it!!!!

Mechanically there is no real way you could majorly imporve on the guitar, except (as I've said) having the Speed Loader bridge from Floyd Rose in it. I would use this guitar to play live but it's a locking tremolo.... however reliable it is, strings snap, and setting it up will take you a life time if it's in a live situation. The question becomes, how reliable are the brand of strings you use?

I heard guys on here saying the finish scratches easy and I figured, "These dudes must be morons scratching it so much!". WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Because of the way I hold my pick, it's virtually impossible for me to scratch it while picking; I only use the tip fo the pick and rest the remainer behind my fingertips. I take beyond good care for this thing, I've seen parents who take much worse care of their kids! I bought two 100% cotton Planet Waves clothes and their guitar polish / condishoner. One cloth I use to apply it, the other to clean it off. Neither leaves their polyethene bag other than to wipe the guitar, NOTHING else. Already I can see very faint scratches. The scratches aren't through the chrome! They're just in the chrome. Finish wise it's just stupidly tempremental. There is no way on Earth you'll ever keep it like new if you play it. The degredation is not from playing, so long as you're careful, it's from cleaning muck off it.

The scratches you will see as you turn it so the light hits it in a particular way. I can even see a very faint sort of blurry streak about 1cm wide and 2cm long in the right light. If it's your guitar the scratches will seem to be screaming at you. But don't worry about it! You step back two foot from it and they're completely invisible. You will only see the scratches when they're as bad as the one's on Joe's. To put it into perspective, playing live, finger prints show up many, many times better than the scratches.

ALL the Chrome Boys are unique, they all come with their own special inclusions in the chroming. By this I mean, there are 2 or 3 tiny specs of dust or muck under the chrome on the front surface. They show through just like a piece of dust is stuck under it. But again, step back and they just vanish.

What's such a shame is all this could have been fixed easily by Ibanez. The chroming looks as if it's been done by a somewhat cheap platers. Plating, especially chrome, is an art form... and I mean that. There are so many variables and considerations in creating a grade A+** finish. Along with the surface finish, durability is also a factor, chrome does not need to be as delicate as it is on the JS10th. Triple chroming (Three layer plating with a copper layer) or hard chroming could have made this finish so much better. I have really had to question why Ibanez didn't consider having the Chrome at least lacquered so it wouldn't scratch.

But, no matter how much I complain and bitch on about it, the finish will remain perfectly good if you take care with it. And from a short distance no one will be able to tell it been used. This guitar just defines the: -
"Oooooo it's sooooo beautiful!"
Factor. No other guitar can approach it. Anyone and everyone will want to look at, touch or try and play with this guitar if you buy it; even people who can't play a guitar. It's literally like a human magnet! Please believe me, this is no under-estimation.

Ibanez took a moderate amount of time in replying to me but when they did I got someone who appreciated the expense of this guitar and understood it's finish problems. He even advised me NOT to buy any of their gig bags for it because none of them would be able to protect it correctly. If they could reply a bit quicker it'd be a 10.

Okay.... a momumentally beautiful guitar, with a huge selection of tones available from it; everything except Earth shaking bass. An ultimate for lead guitar work.

The finish... yes, it's the last word in being a whore to maintain. I can safely say, if you don't take care with it, you will rapidly destroy the finish. But realistically, unless your audience is closer than 6ft in front of you, when a light hits it they won't know the difference between it and a brand new one.

Which brings me to the final, and very important, point I have to make if you're considering buying one! There are two owners of these guitars. They are: -
1.) Those who buy the guitar, lock it's case and NEVER pick it up. Sometimes they may buy two copies and play one, keeping the other locked away. And...
2.) People who play the guitar.

This is because if you pick the guitar up, you will need to wipe your finger smudges off it to stop them leaving marks on the finish while it's in storage. In this process you will, without any doubt, leave these hairline scratches we're all talking about which people will notice in ten years when they're buying it for five times what you bought it for. The scratches may be invisible at a step away, but they won't care because they no longer know if it's un-used or not.

I belong to the second group, I play this guitar. I am 18 now and plan to own the guitar for the rest of my playing life. Therefore it's resale value is now #0, so the scratches matter only to me. I see NO point in buying such a beautiful and sweet sounding guitar to keep it in a cupboard. If this is a finicial gain plan, lock it away. Otherwise, keep it, play it and enjoy it. What good is a mint condition JS10th to you while you're being nailed into your cofin? You can only have both worlds if you have enough money for two of them.

#3000 is a lot to you guys in the US, but after importation I'd need to pay VAT, Duty and insurance on having such a guitar shipped from the US. A LOT of it. I then also have the risk of being fucked over bad style by some dumbass. With this deal, I could get on the train and go and visit the guy selling it, and speak to him face to face. I could check it was genuine and try it out before I handed over the money... something very important when paying this much. The guitar never left my hand until it reached our house, so it was never at risk of being damaged by a clumsy delivery man. #3000 isn't anything extreme for about 50 or 60 years worth of fun! Like others have said, the guitar is very inspirational and makes playing very enjoyable.

If you can find one of these, and can afford to do so, buy it right then and there. Please feel free to mail me any questions you have about the guitar and I'll be very happy to answer them for you.

My JS10th was made the same year every other JS10th was made. My serial number is 385 and it's got 22 frets, with a rosewood fretboard and a maple neck. Prestige as well i think, not like the new JS guitars, which are designed exactly the way Joe wants it to be. It's got the push pull knob for both tone and volume, for the high pass filter on the volume and the coil split effect for the tone knob. And yes, it does work wonders. On low volume with the filter at 3/4 full, you will still get the full tone of the guitar, searing through your amp like a banshee out of hell. Well not that loud. But pretty close. It comes stock with Dimarzio's which i think are pretty good, but I think joe uses Seymour Duncan's on his chromeboy(s). So i'm pretty confused there. The electronics of this pick up is passive, so no battery is needed, but that doesn't mean you can leave the jack in and just turn on the amp the next time you want to play it. It will leave some form of mark on the guitar's finish. The Lo Pro Trem is brilliant, it doesn't go out of tune easily and after extensive satch tests, it stayed pretty much 90 percent in tune. The accessories which came with this guitar was amazing, you get everything: chrome straps (DiMarzio), chrome lead cables, chrome pick and a limited edition guitar case with the Anniversary plaque indented into the front of the case, near the locks.

If you like Satch, this guitar is for you. If you like Vai, this guitar is for you. If you like Van Halen, you might get close to his sound, but if you can afford this guitar, you most definately would be able to afford a Wolfgang, so why bother emulate Eddie's sound on Joe's guitar? This guitar is NOT noisy, unlike my Wolfgang which kinda makes this buzzing noise at high gain. What do i like about the sound? The screaming harmonics. This guitar squeals like a pig on ecstasy. It's beautiful. It creates a sort of musical inspiration when you play, strange beautiful music.

I didn't buy the guitar brand new, so i wouldn't know how it was set up at the factory. The guy i bought it from set it up just the way i like it. Tight, low and fast. The pickups were properly aligned, but i'm not that nit picky in this area. The finish, Now that's a whole different story. The chrome is SO sensitive i hate it. I mean i love the way it looks, but it scratches just by rubbing it the wrong way with your finger. I've get tiny little hairline scratches all over the guitar. But hey, i'm tired of taking good care of this guitar. I love the way it sounds, the way it looks? well i'm just going to live with the bad finish work. Besides, i've got too many showcase guitars anyway.

Will this guitar withstand live playing? dunno haven't tried, i guess the durability depends largely on whether the FINISH will withstand the rough rigours of live playing not the guitar itself. The strap buttons are great, it comes with strap locks straight away so thumbs up to Ibanez for doing this for us.

never dealt with ibanez. no qualms.

The most amazing guitar i've ever played in my life. I love Satriani and i love his music and i love this guitar. I wanted it ever since i saw him play this guitar live on G3 and on the cover of the Extremist a decade ago. I would recommend this guitar to anyone who loves a guitar which looks as loud as it sounds! If you can find anyone selling it online or anywhere, don't second guess it. Buy it on the spot, think the exorbitant money you spent later at home after you've played it. You won't regret it. Not one bit.

Limited Edition 10th anniversary Ibanez Chrome Boy. Lots of speculation on how many were made but I believe it was less than 500. The body is made of Luthite (an acrylic material). 1 tone 1 volume with push/pull coil split and high pass filter on each knob.

Pickups are the PAF PRO and the FRED pickup. Neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. The finish is the most beautiful yet simple finish in the world "CHROME"..... just beautiful.

The limited edition guitar comes with a special case, special chrome Dimarzio clip lock strap, allen wrench set, and a cool chrome guitar cable.

I am a Satriani fanatic and have 7 of his guitars at present. I run this guitar through a Marshall 9200 power amp, Digitech 2101LE processor, Rocktron Super C Hush, Ensoniq DP/4 processor, DMS switching system with a Ground Control controller, Marshall 1960 AV cab with greenback speakers, Ernie Ball volume pedal, Bad Horsie Wah, and a WH-1 whammy.

The tone sounds identicle to my Ibanez JEMVWH and I believe it is due to the luthite body. It is more of a bright tone but still very full. My JS1 and JS1000's have more low end in them however.

The guitar is perfect for heavy sounds but also has a GREAT clean tone!!

The action is superb, the pickups and trem were set up correctly with no problems and there are no flaws.

The chrome finish is about 1 mm thick and scratches if you look at it wrong. The ugly yellow luthite can be seen if any chrome comes off (mine is in perfect shape but I have seen others like this). A good idea was developed by some folks at the JEMSITE to use some clear window cling platic (non stick and non oiled) to put over the guitar while you play (instead of the nasty looking permanent clear sticker that Satriani uses) then you can take it off after a show and not have to worry about scratching it while you play it!!

Ibanez is GREAT!! :-)

I have been playing for 13 years. I own 16 guitars total (7 of them are Ibanez Satriani guitars). I also own a 32 track recording studio called "Excaliber Studio" which can be seen at: www.excaliberstudio.com

Ibanez JS10th
Serial#: 498
Frets: 22

Twin Dimarzio Humbuckers(Bridge: FRED, Neck: PAF-Pro) with single coil tap on the tone pot, and High Pass Filter on the Vol pot.

Made from Luthite with a maple neck. Finish is the imfamous "chrome-mirror" finish os Joe Satriani's Chrome-boy.

Has Ibanez's Edge tremelo system.

Comes complete with "chrome" case, strap, lead and a host of allen keys.

Ever since my friend introduced me to satch's music, I loved it. I owned an Epiphone G400 (SG-copy) and used to play satch all the time (minus the whammy bar bits, of course...). So gettin ghis sig. guitar, was a dream come true. I do believe that I also got the last on in the UK.

I run the guitar through an ART SGX2000 Express into a Marshall JCM2000 TSL602 with a Zoom 1201 in the amps effects loop.

The sound is incredible. Sounds like satch all the time. Also, after tweaking the amp, the guitar can easily cope with metal stuff. I play Dream Theater songs and the guiat (although not always the guitarist...) cope excellently.

Put on the HPF (High pass filter), role back the volume and the sound is amazing: pickups are as clear as crystal. DEFINATELY good for some smoochy blues :).

The Single coil switch makes the guitar sound more like a tele than a strat. In effect, it doubles the pickup options available to you. Setting it to the neck pickup with the single coil tap on can give you a very Rage Against The Machine sound.

The FRED pickup is amazing. Getting just about any harmonic is not a problem: each note is clear.

The Luthite body is, if I am not mistake, basically a plastic. Therefore it's sound is more nasal that wood-based models. This is especially notable when using the single-coil tap and a clean sound. For me, this is not a problem, but some people have said to me that it just doesn't sound "right".

The Shop that I purchased the guitar in said that Ibanezes usually need setting up after they come out of the factory and they were happy to get the setup just correct for me, not matter how long it took. I have had the guitar for over 1.5 years now and the action and intonation are still spot on.

The Finish is amazing but is not one for those who are afraid of scratchs! Plectrum makes are inevitable, any major scratchs do make the body look much worse. However, when any stage lights shine on it, it still looks amazing :)

The Neck is quite round in comparison with other Ibanez models so it seems more natural to just start blues-ing away.

I've been playing live basically since I got the guitar and the bodywork has stood up better than I thought. A work of advice would be to clean it after each gig though: the sweat from the forearm stays on the body for ages otherwise.

I have had tremelo problems: the socket came VERY loose at one point but nothing that required it to be serviced.

I have used this guitar in a gig without a backup for over a year now and have had no troubles. If I snap a string, being able to unlock the nut, loosen the string, plug it back in, tune it and lock it again in about 3 minutes is fantastic.

Bought it in soundsGreatMusic in the UK. The staff there were excellent and very helpful to answer any of my questions, even after the purchase.

I have been playing guitar for 12 years now, 7 of which have been on electric. This guitar was absolutely everything that I hoped it would be.

The only other guitar that I would consider now would be John Petrucci's Ernie Ball 7-String: even then, only for the 7th String and the Piezo pickup system.

Although #2300 is still #2300, being the last on ein the UK and there being only 500 of them, I think that this was pretty good value.

If you come across one in good nic, buy it!! not only will you have a crowd pulling guitar (both on stage and in the music shop...) but the sounds from it and the feel of it will make you want to improove your playing!

Some guitars unarguably differ from the rest of the pack. Among those, and in an extremely brief period, the Joe Satriani?s ?Chrome Boy? became a rock'n'roll icon. Joe Satriani became Ibanez' endorser in mid 1987 and his contribution as designer of the JS Series was substantial. Many models JS did hit the market, but when the time came for Joe to design his ?main? guitar, the call became tougher. Reduced to the basics, what Joe Satriani wanted from Ibanez was pretty simple: a guitar with a vintage feel and modern features. In addition, he wanted a guitar capable of making a statement cosmeticallywise, like Vai?s Jems or Bettencourt's N4. Notwithstanding, when you consider how exacting Joe is in getting just the right tone, it's no surprise that the "simple concept" went on to be one of the longest design projects in Ibanez history; indeed Joe's Chrome Boy Limited Edition was the longest project of them all. Being a collector of ?cool? guitars, I was firmly decided to get one of the coolest guitars ever.

Chrome Boys do not grow on trees and are anything but cheap, but from the moment I had the chance to check one out, my soul was sold.

Features of this guitar are anything but classic, even when the basic frame is still familiar: 1 piece maple neck (with rosewood skunk stripe in the middle), with a thickness of 20.0*22.3 AT1F*12Fmm, regular tilt heel. The feel of this neck is particular, and could be found in most JS guitars. Play one to see if it fits you, but to me is one of the most comfortable necks ever made by Ibanez. Fingerboard is of dark American rosewood (my only choice!) with 42.0*56.0 AT0F*21Fmm of width, 240mmRmm of radius and a scale of 648. With 22 Warmoth #6105 frets (might have 24, though), you still have plenty of room for your chops (frankly speaking, if there?s room for Joe?s chops, you shouldn?t have problems here?). The JS shape body is comfortably contoured, being an axe that shall feel right at home as from the very first strums. Body material is, unfortunately, not basswood (as most of Joe?s guitars), something I regret since this is my tonewood of choice. Obviously though, wood is not something able to be chrome-plated, so the manmade material used here (Luthite) is still welcomed. The tone achievable from this guitar is still above standard tonewoods, so there?s no reason to back up so far. The issue had been stressed by past reviewers, but it wouldn?t be fair to avoid a strong remark on the fact that this baby is all chrome! If Joe?s idea was to show off, this baby did the task with honors. All hardware plating is also chrome (including string retainer, trem block, knob metal domes, screws, joint plate, strap buttons, backplates, mounting ring, tuners, jack? etcetera). Pickup configuration is standard (double humbuckers, more on this below), conforming a pack for a spectacular axe. Accessories include a terrific silver Ibanez case, set of strings, allen keys, extra arm and 1 set of springs, along with abundant brochure? If the above doesn?t qualify as ?tons of features?, I dunno what will?

If you wan to check pictures of my spectacular Chrome Boy, or any other of my 35+ guitars, get the full story at my homepage, http://electricguitar.50megs.com.

In a nutshell, what you get with a Chrome Boy is a noise-free, top-of-the-line professional guitar, with a consistent sound (it screams!) through contemporary equipment, as well as versatile with vintage equipment. Thus, no wonder why this baby earned fairly well its current place in the hearts of collectors.

To figure out how this baby sounds without being annoyingly erratic or too subjective, we should start analyzing its structure. At first glance, the Chrome Boy might look simple, with its two humbucker/tone/volume/toggle configuration, but is not. To commence with the surprises this Pandora's box reserves, be noticed that both pots (master volume and master tone) are push/pull switches. Pickup selector is a regular 3-way toggle switch, but there your possibilities are already expanded by the pots themselves, without requiring any other switches. Pots functioning when engaged provided two completely diverse features. Pulling master tone will tap (split) the coils of both humbuckers, therefore offering single coil tones. The trade off is that the ?classic? combination of the full bridge humbucker and the ?splitted? neck pickup is not achievable, since the entire guitar will be tapped at once. Furthermore, please note that the neck side bobbin will remain live when you pull tone pot on both humbuckers (all you purists might miss the ?twang? associated with the bridge side bobbin of the bridge pickup, though). The most obscure feature appears when you pull the master volume pot, since what you will obtain is high-passing, thanks to a 330pF capacitor soldered at volume pot. Regardless of volume setting, the guitar will not gain opacity as you roll off volume, some annoyance common with any electric guitar.

This guitar is nothing less than a-ma-zing, regardless of your playing style. Combined with the right amp (and eventually effects) there?s virtually no sound you can?t pull from it. The Chrome Boy?s acoustic character is not particularly bright (as some might expect) but shiny mellow and consistent instead. Once plugged to the right amp, this axe is capable of being fierce like no other, aggressive and full. Clean sounds, on the other hand, are nothing beyond a regular JS, absolutely capable of handling most situations and styles, but nothing to rave about.

The pickups deserve a chapter on themselves. Output is high to moderate, being the neck pickup roughly similar to the one of a Di Marzio PAF or FRED (250 millivolts, more or less), and the bridge pickup to the one found on a Super Distortion of the same brand. The character of these pickups, as well as its technical characteristics are way beyond any standard. Both pickups, dubbed Di Marzio JS Bridge and JS Neck respectively were painstakingly specially designed by Di Marzio?s Steve Blutcher and the results are unbelievable. Both passive pickups, they?re able to capture every nuance, every detail of your playing technique without scarifying aggressiveness. I did try other JS guitars, and there?s no point of comparison between this sound and the rest. Moreover, and always highly subjective from yours truly (how can you otherwise put ?sound? into ?words??), there?s two sounds you can easily expect from this instrument: screaming, shredding rock?n?roll ala Joe Satriani, with natural sustain to spare, and jazzy, extremely detailed clean tones. Clean sounds are ballsy, yet not aggressive, providing an extreme contrast with what you can get from your bridge pickup. Try one for a couple of minutes and you?ll be certain you?re wailing with an absolute winner.

For the record, I checked this one out with several rigs during a couple of months (not in venues, since I don?t believe this instrument deserves that). Did play this Chrome dream through many amps, from a Marshall Valvestate 80 (old model) to a Marshall 1981 full stack, including a Mesa/Boogie combo, my ADA MP2 with an ADA MicroTube 100 and ADA Cabinets; Korg PX3, an old Roland JC 120. I still did not have the chance to

Let?s start saying that no adjustments (neither relevant or minor) were required in order to accommodate the axe to my own personal playing style, being the neck perfectly aligned and balanced and fitting me as a glove from scratch. Nothing was to fix or adjust. Construction details were, are and certainly will remain, neat and clean, and no action problems were found so far. The fingerboard perfectly alive, no dead spots or buzzing. Overall finishing is close to a perfect ten, all dam chrome from head to toes. It wouldn?t be fair to rate this babe less than 98%, but then again the issue was covered so many times by past reviewers that I have to slow down here for a while. This is a CHROME guitar. As many of you know by now, the JC1 (the ?older? chrome boy project) was never released to the market due to finishing problems (problems as prosaic as trying to chrome wood, impossible task under physical rules), so this might be regarded as a collectible guitar and not a battlehorse. My guitar is in perfect shape, no bubbling, flaking, cracking or flaws whatsoever, but a moderate punch (nothing you can ordinarily do without being clumsy) could harm the chrome finish. Perspiration acid in some hands could also might harm it, and the hard rubbing of granulated dust would have similar effect. Nothing happened in my case, and I don?t keep the guitar in a locked case (I display it hanged against a wall) and I do play the babe regularly. Notwithstanding, all guitars are not created equal, and finishing on your guitar might be weaker than mine but (provided you treat this baby with the care it deserves) reports on finishing flaws are vastly exaggerated.

The key issue here, already covered in part, is not the reliability or durability of the guitar (which is unarguably top of the line), but condition and durability of the chrome finish instead. If you?re worried about reliability of this guitar, you don?t have enough reason to worry: this is a rock. The chrome finish, on the other hand, is subject to the care measures mentioned above and below this paragraph and certain conditions precedent, like not using this guitar as you?ll do with any other. Further, this circumstance forbids (at least in the name of prudence) the use of this guitar as your main stage guitar, in where the environment puts circumstances out of control.

The key of keeping this baby in pristine condition, and again taking into special account that condition of guitars varies from piece to piece, is to rest it in its OHC when not playing, cleaning it prior to place it there, play the guitar with clean hands, avoid cigarette smoke and excessive humidity, dust and sunlight and please, don?t go to your rehearsal or club gig with it, just take your backup. This is a collectible piece, tagged at $3,000 at the time of release, so special care (in the same degree that with any vintage or collectible) is expected. Enjoy it responsibly then.

Good, as you might expect from Ibanez. Attention of the retailer was impeccable.

I've been playing for more than 20 years now, and own more than 35 guitars, including this one. If you?re after one of the most beautiful Ibanez guitars ever, a true collectible piece, this guitar is something to rave about. If you need a primary stage guitar, you?ll notice easily that the Chrome Boy is certainly an amazing sounding professional instrument, but the flashy chrome finish will fade out as the road imposes its presence. If you?re interested in pictures, original wiring diagrams, parts debriefing or just further details on this amazing babe, be welcomed to my homepage at HTTP://ELECTRICGUITAR.50MEGS.COM

Chrome finish, 22 frets, Ibanez whammy, 2 humbuckers, this is all you can ask for.
It came with a "special" chrome case, a chrome dimarzio strap and a chrome dimarzio cable.

It screams and sings at the same time, the distorted sound is a rich full dark brown sound, really great. I played it through my Peavey Pro-Fex at home, live and in the rehearsal studio. Altough I like the distorted sounds very much, I think it's a bit "one" dimensional guitar because the clean sounds don't really have it, but hey what I'm whining about .... It rocks !

It's playability is good but now the big drawback for me is the chrome finish ..... It looks absolutely stunning !! but ..... it wasn't quite attached to the guitar as I was, after a few gigs I think my sweat is somehow reacting to the finish causing it to let loose, for a guitar in this pricerange it is unacceptable (in any pricerange as a matter of fact) so I returned it the shop and they got me another one. Few gigs later same spot sane trouble ..... I didn't care for a third one.

I think this guitar will withstand live playing (I play Ibanez for many years now and I KNOW it will) but the chrome finish won't, so it's great appearance is its greatest drawback ....

I had no troubles at all returning it to the shop twice and they were willing to provide me a third one.

For the guitar itself I would rate it an 8, for the finish I give it a 1. I don't think anybody would spend this kind of money on a normal Joe Satriani Model Guitar so the finish must justify its price. If I continued to play it I'm pretty sure I endend up with a "normal" Satch guitar with a brown natural look and then it's highly overpriced. In the near future I will place some pics on my website, check it out .... www.wangotango.nl

Chrome plated Js series of guitars.
Floyd-rose,rosewood neck.

Sounds like a dream. You can get blusey, or heavy metal, or strat
clean!! AWESOME! The finish scratches VERY easy. I did what Joe did and put clear tape just below the high "E" so as not to scratch it!
Of course the only amp to run with it is a 6100 marshall head.
I have yet to get a ds1 pedal, But still sounds better than most
guitars run thru a marshall w/out effects!! General comments on the
Look of the guitar.... W O W....C O O L....Now thats a guitar. I paid
3 grand, But it is worth it for the tone alone! My friends think I
melted a bumper off of a 57 chevy!!!!!

If you dont own a mirror to comb your hair just hang this
on the wall in your bathroom. Seriously, Awesome finish!
Very delicate though. Strings bend like butta!! Easy to reach
high frets! Very comfortable to hold, Slightly heavy but not bad.

You have to treat this with much respect. Chrome finish
tends to scratch, but this is the only problem I have noticed.
Dont wear a belt when playing this guitar either, Or you will
scratch up the back. Solid as a rock cosmetically!

Never had to deal with Ibanez.

I have only been playing for a couple of months.
I have learned the munsters theme song, And it sounds
cool on the chromeboy and marshall! This guitar is awesome,
Just like the man who created it!

Hand made in Japan, 22 frets, Luthite body plated with chrome. Volume pot (push-pull for coil tap), tone pot, and a pickup selector. Two humbuckers. In the neck position, it has a, I think, DiMarzio PAF Pro, and in the Bridge position it has Joe Satriani's specially wound DiMarzio FRED Pickup. The pickups are passive, and fairly high output. The neck is Rock Maple, and the fretboard appears to be Rosewood. Jumbo frets, nice bends. The finish is CHROME!! BITCHIN! The body style is kind of unique.. No pickguard, shaped a bit like a strat but looks much more pumped, but still round.. Check Satriani.com for a picture. Floyd Rose clamping bridge, Ibanez's Lo-Pro Edge model I think.. Not sure about the tuners, but I can comment on just how good they are ;) For a guitar with clamps and trees and crap all over, I couldn't believe how well it prevented tuning hangups. I have guitars with no trees and roller nuts with more tuning hangups. 25 1/2" scale. Came with matching silver case, strap, quick release strap clips, cable, etc. I would have liked 24 frets, and a monkey handle, but it is still fantastic.

Very diverse! I can get lots of sounds out of this puppy. With the coil tap on, it does an extremely impressive Strat impersonation. Not as good as my 50th anniversary strat plus, but it is easily equal to a standard American strat.. Except the pickups have a higher output. In humbucking mode; On the neck position, it can sound exactly like a Les Paul, or a PRS, or something else yet to be named ;) In the bridge, it can sound like Steve Vai, or Petrucci, but of course, JOE!! Through my Mesa/Boogie Mark IV on the Lead-EQ channel, I can nail the motorcycle driver tone dead on. Great for speed riffs. Very high output, but still a brilliant and glassy clean tone. However, with most high output pickups, you need to twiddle with some knobs a bit when you switch between clean/dirty channels to get that tone you want.. I have a few guitars and I have the knobs on it set exactly how I like it, but the chromeboy has a brighter high end than the others.

The action is extremely low and even. The string tension is perfectly even throughout the whole fretboard, so it is fantastic for tapping, or speed riffs. The pickups are in the stock position, not moved around or anything yet, but still sound great. I heard some people whining about finish flaws, but the only one I can find on my chrome boy is a scratch on the back where the numnuts in the store bumped it into a wall :oP No flaws anywhere.. I must have an above average chromeboy ;) I just need some aluminized underwear to match it

Haven't had the chance to play it too much yet, but it feels pretty solid. It came with silver leather strap clips which I needed to install (should have come pre-installed.. grr) and when I took the screw out, I noticed the luthite body's strength there.. I am confident that the strap buttons on here are more solid than any others. With some other guitars, I've had wood splinter a tiny bit when taking strap buttons on and off... Not an issue here. Oh yeah, the guitar doesn't fit too well in the case when the strap clips are installed.

Haven't dealt with them.. I have to phone them soon though to find out if to clean it I should go to the guitar store for guitar polish or to revy for chrome polish.

It is Joe-riffic. Joe-tacular. Joe-licious. Everything Joe ;)

Coil-tapped humbuckers, chrome plated Luthite body, three-way toggle switch, silver strap and cord by DiMarzio, nice silver colored case, trem tools. Gets a 10 because in this rating system that means "Tons of Features" which it does have.

This guitar sounds very good. It has great crunch and a decent strat tone when the coil tap is engaged. Sustain was good but not nearly as good as a neck-thru guitar. Didn't care for many of the clean tones: too thin.

This guitar is very heavy. The neck joint/heel is ridiculously large and makes playing on the high frets a chore. The neck is very rounded with a very wide fretboard: good for Joe, not good for me. The finish is very shiny and cool looking, but has flaws like air bubbles (they look like zits) and flaked spots. The finish scratches easily and permanently: needs a protective coating. Ibanez blew it. The strings are very widely spaced apart: the most wide I've ever played. Not easy to play for a $2300 instrument.

The finish is B.S. This seems meant to be displayed, not played. I never used it live.

Ibanez can't answer basic questions. I asked them how many were made world-wide and they said they didn't know. They also didn't offer to get back to me.

I own several high end guitars from Jackson and B.C Rich. I will go neck-through from now on and avoid so-called "Limited Editions" that are produced in the hundreds and play terribly. The JS10TH is overpriced and overhyped and I can't wait to sell mine. There are better guitars out there for so much less it's ridiculous!