Ibanez JS1200

JS1200CA Made 2005 in Japan, Candy Apple Red. Essentially a JS1000 except the headstick is colour co-ordinated & the neck pickup is a Dimarzio PAF JOE (not a PRO as in the 1000). Passive electronics - volume & tone - pull volume for coil tap, pull tone for hi pass filter to let the trebles through at low gain. Body basswood, neck maple, fretboard rosewood. Gotoh tuners and the lovliest case I've ever seen. A perfect fit & finished in plush candy apple red velour!

I've played a 1987 USA strat since I bought it in 87. It was thin sounding & weak so I upgraded the PUPs to Lace Sensor Hot Gold's. Better.... but not enough. I needed humbuckers. The JS1200 is the answer - Ibanez's Super Strat. Playing clean, it has a beautiful deep and warm tone. Almost verging on acoustic tones at times. I play through a Marshall AVT50 by the way. It doesn't need much in the way pf pedals as the Marshall has a killer OD channel. I use a Boss Blues Driver in line for a solo boost. Also use a Boss DS1 which nails that Satriani sound via the clean channel. Boss Digital Metalliser for my Van Halen attempts!

2 humbuckers: The neck PU (PAF JOE) is meaty to say the least. Strong with a rich thump. The bridge uses a PAF FRED. Its's sharper but lets all the tones through - not at all 'tinny'.

Pull the volume & the coil tap kicks in to make the guitar run in single coil mode - a la Strat. Works well. 1 gripe - pull the coil tap out & the whammy bar can't pass the volume knob. I guess they've assume you won't be doing any dive bombs unless you're humbucking.

Pull the tone & it activates the hi pass filter - brightens up the tone when at low volumes. Works well.

This guitar is my perfect match. Like a strat - but oh so much better. It does it all from clean deep sound to screaming leads. Listen to a few Satriani albums & you'll hear the range. Also, its not been one of those guitars that gets the signature but doesnt come close. This puts out Joe's tones to perfection. Haven't lifted my Strat since I bought this.

Giving a 9 for the lack of attention to detail with the whammy bar hitting the volume. Maybe thats fussy..... as I dont use it that much. The bridge by the way is a work of art - its the Edge Pro (Flloyd Rose lisenced). You can fit strings with or without the ends on this one. One the strings got broke in, its kept perfect tune.

Loads of talk about rubbish action from the factory - and yes its true! 6th string buzzed badly on 4th & 5th fret. Just needed to lift the bridge a bit once I worked out how! Intonation was spot on all round. Neck is perfect - fast and has a real quality feel about it. Its a digitized copy of Joe's favourite so feels worn in.

The bridge & electrics areas are well routed & nicely painted inside. Good attention to detail indeed. The Chrome hardware is lovely. Only allowing 7 here - cant forgive the bad setup on this level of a guitar.

Only had it 2 months - no issues at all. Feels solid & dependable. Not yet sure enough to gig without the Strat for backup - if a string goes, it'll be a 10 minute job. Strap buttons are massive - no locks needed. Paint finish is deep and beautiful. The Korean JS100 shows its grain though the translucent paint, but the JS1200 is a solid candy apple red with a thick gloss.

No idea! Bought from a friend who runs a music shop so I won't be worrying as I get the best of treatment.

I've been playing on & off for over 20 years now. Mostly at home & in a worship band. Started to take my playing more seriously this past few years, trying to push my skills on (catching up on my Van Halen years & learning stuff using PowerTabs software). Without doubt, for me, this is my perfect match. The fretboard is just gorgeous. If you've played strats (good ones!) you'll lift this guitar & feel right at home. It cant give the Strat quack, but its got everything else and then some. I did go with the intention of buying an Ibanez JS1200, but did keep my mind open & try everything on the rack, from RG's to S's to the top of the range JEM... but at the end of trying them all, none had the lovely mellow sound of this guitar on clean, yet the ability to sing (scream!) on high gains. Awesome.

I have played for 25 years, teach, write, record and play in bands so hopfully this review counts for something. It's 22 frets so the "sweet spot" is over the neck pickup. That another reason for switching from a 24 fret guitar. The body is bass wood with a maple neck and rosewood finger board. I can't say enough about the finish. The candy apple red is so rich that it seems to change in different light. When you open the case the first thing that hits you is the color (in a good way) with the chrome hardware. I love it. The bridge is also the best trem i've ever used in the flyod rose style. The tuners are grovers and everything seems to be locked down tight. I have to say that I got my guitar from Rich at Ibanez Rules. He is a great guy who listens to you and cares about his products. I got the full blown set-up and the guitar played perfect. I would recomend him to anyone.
The neck is a cross between modern and vintage. Its a compound radius and gets fatter (front to back) as you go up towards the head stock. I have medium-sized hands so this neck is perfect for me. Fast runs are fast thanks to the radius and yet chords are comfortable to play over an extended peroid of time because of the shape of the back of the neck. The frets are medium sized in height and width.
The shape is VERY comfortable. If you think that just because this guitar is missing wood(it is very thin and aerodynamic)or that it being made out of bass wood in some way detracts from the tone, you are wrong (more on that later).
The volume pull/pushes with a high pass filter. This is makes clean soft tones shimmer. The tone push/pulles with coil taps and sounds good, not quite strat sounding, but still better then having none.

The pickups are great. The Dimarzios are a perfect match with this guitar. Just listen to any Satch Song and there is the Fred and the other is new, a PAF Fred. It is thick yet still retains definition in any situation. The over-all sound is great and is a good match to my Boogie DC-3. I have got jazz, classic rock, sparkle clean and heavier sounds out of this guitar. I'm not sure what it will not do. It real sparkles!!!!! I have a 1x12 sov cab made by Earcandy and this guitar really makes that cab thump in a high gain setting.

Due to Rich, this guitar's action and set-up was perfect!! The volume knob was a little loose but that was easily fixed.

I think that the finnish will hold up ok.

NA

This is my "life guitar" as my wife calls it, because this is the last one I get, (married guys you know what I mean). I teach guitar so I had to scrap and scratch together enough money to get this. But on the other hand I am not disappointed. I love this guitar.

2004 model, made in Japan. Serial number F0428340, j-plate number 012364. Prestige Ibanez hard case was included as usual.

Same basic spec as the JS 1000 - Basswood body, 22 frets, rosewood board, abalone moon inlays, H/H configuration, JS prestige multi-radius neck, DiMarzio pickups, Gotoh tuners. The volume and tone pots are push-pull, activating high-pass filter and coil-tap respectively.
The new 1200 model number is due to the colour matched headstock and the new PAF JOE neck pickup that replaces the PAF PRO. The 1200 also has chrome hardware, whereas the current 1000's (BTB and BP) have Cosmo Black.

The finish is CA (Candy Apple). No photos I've seen of a 1200 do justice to the colour. In person, it's a gorgeous, slightly metallic and very deep red. The appearance is that of a satin finish, but it's lacquered, so no danger of it rubbing off on your sleeve! If you've ever owned/played a Jem BSB, an EDR 470 or Mex Satin Strat, you'll know how easily 'flat' finishes wear off.

As this is a 2004, it has the new Edge Pro Trem, which is actually not that bad. Ibanez downgraded the studs/inserts when they moved over to the EP, but I have actually been pleasantly suprised by the return to pitch after a little vai-esque whammy abuse. Still, if I had it my way, 1200s would all have the old Lo-Pro Edge.

I'm mainly a lead player and that includes Blues, classic rock (DC etc..) and the obligatory Satch and Vai stuff.
This baby sounds as good as it looks. It's not for everyone admittedly, but god can this thing sing if you want it to. I had to drop the PAF Joe down a little on the bass side, as things were a bit too boomy at first when switching from the FRED, but with that out of the way, a world of creamy blues tones was opened up. The JOE really is great for blues and clean chording. It has a very rounded tone. With the coil-tap engaged, you can a great sound that really works well for Dire Straits etc...
For distorted/overdriven tones, I find the JOE works best with a more crunchy, lower gain setting. For full on OD/dist, you need to switch to the FRED...
Simply put, the FRED rocks! It's not a full on shred fest and hardcore metallers will want to look elsewhere (EVOs etc..). This thing doesn't scream, it sings. The FRED is a chimey, bright sounding pickup, with very defined highs and a nice, tight bottom end. If you dial the treble down a little on the amp and crank up the gain, you can get some true Satch tones. As far as harmonics are concerned, the FRED is eager to please and sweet spots are numerous on all strings.
I've rambled on for a while, so I'll finish up.
I'm using the 1200 through a Vox Tonelab into a Peavey 5150 head and XXX cab . At home, just a Marshall 50 watt combo and no pedals. I usually steer clear of chorus, but a little delay goes a long way!

Factory action was perfect, which is a first for any new Ibanez I've purchased. I don't like a super-low action as it muffles the tone and notes don't ring out clearly. I need to be able to bend at least a minor third at the 15th fret without any choking. Also, I find low action encourages lazy technique. If you can master legato with a 3.0mm action at the 22nd fret, you can do it just as well on pretty much any other guitar. If you master it with a 1.5mm action, you might run into problems when someone hands you a 60's strat strung with 11s to solo on!
One thing I haven't mentioned is the neck - the JS neck is fantastic. Fast, but with a kind of vintage feel. The prestige process involves creating a 'played-in' feel and it works really well. Feels almost like an old tele neck. Nice small 6105 gauge frets, perfectly finished. Oh, and the neck has a 250mm radius.
As far as finish is concerned, I have examined every nook and cranny on this guitar and have not found a single flaw. The neck pocket is tight but not too tight and the trem rout is immaculate. Either I just got lucky, or the Japanese factory really is churning out some great instruments at the moment.
The tone and volume pots are a little crackly which annoys me, but that should be easy to sort. Other than that, the earthing is perfect and I've heard no buzzing on high gain settings.

The volume knob came off the pot shaft the first time I pulled on it (to engage the high-pass filter), but the screw had just come loose. I put the knob back on and tightened the screw. Problem solved. Given that this guitar has travelled a few thousand miles to get to me, I'll let them off on that one.
Every else is very solid. As I've only had it a couple of weeks, I'm treating it with kid gloves and being very careful with it in case I break my new baby! But I know from having previously owned a JS1000 that these things are strong and can take some abuse.
Strap buttons are huge and I would play standing without strap locks. Lacquer is thick and the finish will last well.
The tuners are high quality and the Gotoh made EP should hold up well, but time will tell....
It really depends on the gig as to whether or not I'd take a backup, but the chances are I would.

Never dealt directly with Ibanez. Standard 12 month warranty.

I've played for around 10 years. Other gear includes an ESP H-302 and a Maverick F1

I love the JS series, pure and simple. They are expensive, but that's what you get for buying a signature series. If you want one, you pay the price.

It would be nice to see a 24 fret JS model.