Any Ibanez Know-it-alls?

[surfreak]

Steve Vai's guitars are built by Carruthers Guitars, which are branded Ibanez so as to maintain appearances with respect to his endorsement deal.

I doubt it.

John Carruthers is one of the very best guitar builders around and he does do high level guitar maintenance for many top acts (Fleetwood Mac), but as for Steve's Jems, I'm pretty sure they are made by Ibanez.

Perhaps they are not off the shelf guitars though, maybe they are built or tweaked by their in house custom shop.

[Hellbat]

My guess would be that Ibanez builds the guitars in large batches for whomever Steve has do all the final assembly/prep and they cherry pick them for special ones. I find it ironic that none of the JEM models come with sustainers (that I know of) considering the huge amount of use that Steve gives the sustainers in his guitars.

[QuantumRider]

I should have added "I've heard that" in front of my previous post.

[SixstringKing]

My guess would be that Ibanez builds the guitars in large batches for whomever Steve has do all the final assembly/prep and they cherry pick them for special ones. I find it ironic that none of the JEM models come with sustainers (that I know of) considering the huge amount of use that Steve gives the sustainers in his guitars.

With them already in the $2800 dollar range, how much more do you think that will add to the overall price. Then the young kids will really be griping that the JEM that they all want is now $3500 or possibly more!

[SixstringKing]

And "From what I heard" Steve's guitars are done at the LA Custom Shop.

[Musician78]

I haven't received it yet... was supposed to on Friday but something came up with him... I thought he was dicking me around but he sent an email last night asking when we could meet to do the trade.

[Axegrinder87]

Have you gotten a serial yet? Do you have a gun to bring with you, just in case?