Ibanez JS90HAM Joe Satriani Signature

In honor of Ibanez's anniversary, they decided to make some really cool HAM guitars. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, John Petrucci and Paul Gilbert all had special models that came out this year. The guitar has an American basswood body with a maple neck and an ebony fretboard, 22 frets with offset dot inlays at the 12 fret and a special inlay on the 21st, an Edge bridge, two DiMarzio humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a three way toggle switch.

UTILIZATION

These guitars are just insane. First of all, this guitar has an ebony fretboard. Anybody who knows Ibanez's history will know that they rarely put ebony fretboards on models for whatever reason. It really helps make this guitar look a lot more striking than normal. The guitar also has one of the best bridges ever made by Ibanez -- the Edge tremolo. These bridges stay in tune like no tomorrow and sound awesome. The fretwork on this model was awesome, although there was a bit of wear. Considering how old it was, that was no real surprise. There were a few other small issues, but I attribute those to wear and nothing else.

SOUNDS

The guitar sounds phenomenal. I really think that these American basswood bodied guitars sound better than the normal basswood that Ibanez likes to utilize. At the very least, they're more consistent. The FRED in the bridge has some really cool harmonics that jump out at you when soloing. The ebony helped give it some extra bite that the other JS guitars don't seem to have. The PAF Pro in the neck sounded great, too. It was clear, open and delivered that great 80s lead tone that so many have grown up with. The coil split in the bridge helps give the guitar some extra versatility, too.

OVERALL OPINION

If you can find one of these, buy it immediately. These HAM guitars are some of my favorite guitars by Ibanez that aren't made by the J-Custom factory. They're crazy good looking, utilize some of Ibanez's nicest woods, have great hardware and come equipped with very good pickups. The biggest issue is that they're rare and somewhat expensive.