(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Well, I am going to buy another of these guitars for my daughter. She wants the pink. I have the yellow already. I bought the yellow one as a trial run to see if I would get along with the thin neck, then I might risk the money for a premium Jem. Well, I liked it enough and I have a premium Jem now too.If you are a beginner, or don’t do repair/ set up work, be prepared to have a full set up done by a pro. This is a must on any new guitar, as far as I’m concerned, until you reach a certain price threshold. I had to do a full set up, including leveling and polishing the frets, as there were some uneven frets and the frets were rough and gritty feeling when bending the strings. The five way switch, and the volume and tone pots were noisy, but a little De-Oxit took care of that.I was expecting to have to replace the pickups, but they were actually quite good sounding through my tube and solid state amps. The rest of the parts were great as well, from the tuners to the bridge. Yes, the bridge that so many have claimed to be unable to keep in tune works perfectly on mine. And yes I too had trouble at first.The way that the trem came from the factory was all wrong. There were three springs in it that were stretched to the max, with the trem claw almost touching the wood inside the cavity. I backed the trem claw off from the wood about an inch, and added another spring for a total of four. You have to find the sweet spot where you can still dive easily, and to where the springs won’t pop off when doing a pull up on the bar.Plays like butte now! I am going to pick up a pink one for my daughter, and maybe another one for me.

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Got this for my daughter as her first real Guitar. Unlike the $2000.00 Jem, the inlays are plastic and not the mother of pearl, the Pups are basic stock pups and the bridge leaves something to be desired but with that said this is a base model guitar and therefore will not have the best of everything. With that said its a good entry level with the ability to upgrade as she gets better at playing. Overall the guitar is a good buy for the money and if she decides she doesn't want to play well then daddy got a highly upgradeable guitar to add to the other 2 Ibanez's he already has ;-)

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

If you’ve ever dreamed of owning an Ibanez JEM but, like me, couldn’t afford one or trust that it was authentic, your dream has come true and you will NOT be disappointed. I can not believe what Ibanez has pulled off here for $500.Visually, pictures can’t do it justice. There’s neon pink. And then there’s this...beautiful glowing pink. It will steal all the attention in any room. Ebony would have been better as the jatoba fretboard looks a little odd with the pink and black color scheme. But that is merely an aesthetic preference. Mine did have the usual thin or missing paint in the neck joint holes as well as some messy Routing around the lion claw bridge area. Nothing perfect about it but doesn’t detract from playability and you really have to look to find these defects. As for playability, the neck is brilliant! The pickups with the 5-way selector provide an incredible variation in tonality. You can get smooth jazz, country twang, crystal clear clean tones and a very shred-tastic overdriven lead tone. The pickups do seem to lack a bit of note articulation when playing low/mids with heavy distortion but the high notes sing loud and clear.Out of the box, this guitar provided some challenges and this would be why I wouldn’t recommend it for a newer guitarist. I found myself quickly losing patience with the Ibanez tremolo system as the tuning stability is not on par with another well known floating trem system out there. Tuning and retuning this guitar has garnered more than its fair share of foul language and insults from me. I have 4 other instruments with branded floating systems and have never had this much challenge. I also had to add quite a bit of relief and raise the action higher than I’d prefer to overcome an obnoxious fret buzz. Intonation is fine so no change to setup there. Low marks for ease of use. As an experienced player and moderately skilled tech, I was frustrated with the guitar. You will need to put in some work or pay for professional setup to enjoy this guitar right away.Overall, once you overcome the out of the box struggles, this is a fantastic guitar. It’s every bit as awesome as I had dreamed owning a JEM would be. This instrument is quite literally, inspiration in a box. There’s so much mystique and history in the design of this guitar and hopefully the super affordable JEM JR brings that inspiration to so many more guitarists out there!

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

If you are picky about finishes being perfect? Then this may not be for you? If you put that aside. It is a Great Playing and sounding Guitar. The finish imperfections are around the screw holes and pickup jack. But really when you are playing who would even get close enough to see them? If you receive yours like mine? You will have to setup the tremolo(Floyd Rose Style). It will take about 20 mins. But when it is locked down! Amazing as it should be. Mine was missing the allen key for the locking nut. Probably just a packing error because the other ones were there and I have many of them, so no big deal. I`ve been playing for 40 yrs. And I use Dimarzios unless I am playing one of my Strats. These pickups sound about identical to a good Dimarzio. When tuned and locked. She stays in tune no matter what you do with the Tremolo. I mean, I really put it thru the ringer last night for over an hour and didn`t even have to fine tune it. And I play lead, so I Play fast and do major bends, especially with a floyd style bridge and I could not make this bridge fail. Down the road it may need a real floyd or similar? But this design and parts even of a lesser quality work and work Perfect! Definitely a Great Platform to upgrade in the future if you want. I also bought the off color green fender style knobs to put on it. So if you don`t mind setting up the tremolo? This is a really good Guitar for the money. Also whatever wood this is for the fretboard? It seems to be a hard wood with nice grain. So that too is another plus. Great Guitar for Leads and stunt playing! Highly Recommended! I am giving it only 4 stars because of have to setup the bridge, But really and floyd style bridge you have to do the same.

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I have the white one. I bought it used cause I just didn't think the vine inlays, monkey grip and lion claw was worth the 150-200 dollar mark up. Since essentially this is just a RG 450DX. However, what I love is this guitar is so easy to customize. Real Floyd fits perfectly. So installed a real floyd, installed a full set of Dimarzio pups and now the thing looks and sounds like a 2k-3k Jem. But if you don't want to upgrade or can't do your work, this is still a great guitar. I don't care to much for the "DL" trems these lower priced Ibanez guitars have gone to. The pups are decent for stock. I plan on buying the full collection, just hoping they release the lochness green w/ the pyramid inlays on maple fretboard this next year.

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

this guitar is great - sounds like a killer rock guitar should - its striking - i ditched the tone and vol black knobs for slime green ones like steves - that really makes it pop - but yea its incredible - thx zz for the payment plan too -

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Great looking but plays kinda rough. Had to send it back due to defective issues. Not sure I want it replaced? The strings grind when you bend a note. A little polishing of the frets would be a nice touch. I guess you get what you paid for...

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

zZounds is great and shipped this guitar timely as always. This is a review about the guitar and not the retailer. This guitar is something you buy for the looks, but for 500 dollars I was hoping it would be at least like a similarly priced RG in terms of electronics and hardware.The pickups leave a lot to be desired. Of course most of us are going to swap them out with evolutions anyway, but the inf1 and inf2 are just lifeless. You will want to change them out if you want any sustain at all.The bridge was also a disappointment, its just silly cheap, has a wildly thin block, and the tremolo arm is so far off the body its ridiculous, and the arms height is not adjustable so youre just stuck with this goofy trem arm that you could fly an airplane under.Heres my biggest gripe though - i bought it knowing id probably want to swap out the pickups and bridge because it looked like a jem and has the vine inlay and whatnot - well the fretboard is such a LIGHT brown that you honestly can hardly see the vine inlay unless you're in the right lighting because the contrast between the white and light brown isnt very much. I have two other guitars that have of these "jatoba" fretboards and man this thing is practically maple compared to them. So what you get even if you plan on hot rodding it and sinking 300 dollars in pickups and hardware into it.. is a guitar that still doesnt actually look like a Jem.

Musical Background:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Bought the pink 8/19' paint job around the trem (claw) cavity was a little rough but, played awesome. Till, early 22'. I hadn't played it for about a month. Took it out of its gig bag and the neck had warped backwards at the 5th fret. It was completely unplayable. Got ahold of Ibanez to see if I could buy a new neck and have it shipped to me. They wouldn't. But, I could send the whole guitar back and the would install a new neck for cost of neck plus labor. By the time I paid shipping I might as well just buy a whole new guitar. It's been a wall hanger ever since. I did heat the neck up, clamped it, and got it playable but, not enough to get the action to where it used to be. Well, I did some digging and found out the Indonesian models have necks where they used wood that wasn't fully cured, yet, on some of the because of time crunch getting these guitars out. People would have them a couple of years then out of the blue, the neck would twist or warp. Won't be buying another.