View other reviews for this product:
tjon901 « Old Satriani signature Ibanez »
Published on 07/17/11 at 21:29Joe Satriani is one of Steve Vai's contemporaries. He is well known in the guitar industry but slightly less known than Vai outside of it. Nowadays he is mostly known as the founder of the G3 tour which takes him and 2 other virtuoso guitar players on tour around the world. This Ibanez was Satrianis first model with Ibanez. The current model is not much different than this one. It has a much simpler finish than the new versions. The guitar features a basswood body in the smooth liquidy JS body shape. The neck is 22 frets with a rosewood fretboard and his own neck profile. Early models had the original Edge tremolo but this was changed later as Ibanez advanced in their tremolo designs. This guitar has two humbuckers and a master volume and tone knob with a 3 way for switching. It has a PAF pro in the neck and a FRED in the bridge. The FRED is one of Satrianis signature pickups.
UTILIZATION
The JS body shape is super confortable. It gets very thin up at the top so its fits well against your body and arm. The smooth contours along the cutaways help with upper fret access because you do not have any hard edges around anywhere. This model being so old has the old style Ibanez neck join which is similar to what you would find on a Fender guitar. While the body is thin at the top it gets nice and thick towards the bottom so the guitar has a thick tone and nice weight to it. It does not feel flimsy like some Ibanez guitars tend to feel.
SOUNDS
With the Satriani designed FRED in the bridge this guitar has a crazy sound that only Satriani can really take advantage of. I am not a huge fan of the Fred pickup. The FRED works well for him though. You can really get crazy harmonics from it and it is super clear. It is kinda like Steve Vais EVO pickups cousin or something. The PAF pro in the neck is a classic tone. With this guitar only having 22 frets you get a classic neck position tone. Satriani only gave this guitar 22 frets for that reason. With the neck pickup that much farther out you get even fatter tones from the position. The further away a pickup is from the bridge the more beefy it sounds and this is as far as you can get it. This beefy sound with the basswood really give the PAF pro a nice even tone that you want for smooth leads in the neck position.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are pretty much collectors items now. Like old JEM guitars you can find newer models for much cheaper nowadays. And unlike the JEM the Satriani model have not changed very much over the years. I like the pickups in the new ones better and I think most other people do to. The pickup they replaced the FRED with is called the Mo' Jo and it has a more usable tone to it. If you are looking for a Satriani guitar you are better off getting a newer model unless you get a really good deal on one of these old ones.
UTILIZATION
The JS body shape is super confortable. It gets very thin up at the top so its fits well against your body and arm. The smooth contours along the cutaways help with upper fret access because you do not have any hard edges around anywhere. This model being so old has the old style Ibanez neck join which is similar to what you would find on a Fender guitar. While the body is thin at the top it gets nice and thick towards the bottom so the guitar has a thick tone and nice weight to it. It does not feel flimsy like some Ibanez guitars tend to feel.
SOUNDS
With the Satriani designed FRED in the bridge this guitar has a crazy sound that only Satriani can really take advantage of. I am not a huge fan of the Fred pickup. The FRED works well for him though. You can really get crazy harmonics from it and it is super clear. It is kinda like Steve Vais EVO pickups cousin or something. The PAF pro in the neck is a classic tone. With this guitar only having 22 frets you get a classic neck position tone. Satriani only gave this guitar 22 frets for that reason. With the neck pickup that much farther out you get even fatter tones from the position. The further away a pickup is from the bridge the more beefy it sounds and this is as far as you can get it. This beefy sound with the basswood really give the PAF pro a nice even tone that you want for smooth leads in the neck position.
OVERALL OPINION
These guitars are pretty much collectors items now. Like old JEM guitars you can find newer models for much cheaper nowadays. And unlike the JEM the Satriani model have not changed very much over the years. I like the pickups in the new ones better and I think most other people do to. The pickup they replaced the FRED with is called the Mo' Jo and it has a more usable tone to it. If you are looking for a Satriani guitar you are better off getting a newer model unless you get a really good deal on one of these old ones.