Ibanez Universe

[etaeniura]

Re: Ibanez Universe

Keep in mind, vai plays through a crazy rack system and carvin amps, and most likely has the best of absolutely everything in his arsenal. You could probably play a squier strat through his rig and it would sound good.

[pro-fusion]

Re: Ibanez Universe

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Keep in mind, vai plays through a crazy rack system and carvin amps, and most likely has the best of absolutely everything in his arsenal. You could probably play a squier strat through his rig and it would sound good.

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It might, but it wouldn't sound like Vai. The JEM/RG/Universe tends to have a very expressive, "Vai-like" sound no matter what rig you run it through. But not as heavy or solid a sound as you get from most J/C's. They are very different animals.

Frankly, most metal-oriented guitars (including J/C) don't sound all that great through a minimalist setup, such as an old clean Fender amp. You really notice how much sound the Floyd kills on a traditional clean setup. Even though I'm no traditionalist, I will admit that classic Gibsons and Fenders have more 'sparkle' through a clean tube amp.

But how many Ibanez owners are really playing through an old-fashioned setup, anyway?

[jazzman]

Re: Ibanez Universe

It's strange how a huge rack can make something like an Ibanez sound great, yet totally ruin the sound of an old strat. Those sound best through a bare bones setup. Or maybe it's just me.

[pro-fusion]

Re: Ibanez Universe

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It's strange how a huge rack can make something like an Ibanez sound great, yet totally ruin the sound of an old strat. Those sound best through a bare bones setup. Or maybe it's just me.

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No, I think you've got a good point. Part of that might be that an old Strat isn't putting out a hot-enough signal to push a rack preamp the way you need to. I found that when I was using a Rocktron Chameleon preamp that good distorted sounds were only possible with a hot input signal. Somehow, the added "natural" gain at the input op-amp stage negated some of the harshness of the all-digital signal path that followed the input stage.

Obviously, the reverse is true when using a rack system to get a good clean sound, since the gain overloads everything and gives you a harsh, muddy mess, where throwing a little more signal at a tube-drive clean amp mostly gives you more body or bite.

[Robotechnology]

Re: Ibanez Universe

I just got a custom made 7 string with Bartolinis. I LOVE them!!

[jazzman]

Re: Ibanez Universe

I thought about trying Bartolinis.

[shredmonster]

Re: Ibanez Universe

I reiterate: Ibanez's sound best heavily processed IMO.

[Enigma]

Re: Ibanez Universe

Other than tweaking the setup, I have made 2 changes to UV. I bypassed the tone control for pure treble cut, which is a highly worthy mod. I love slice for 7 strings and can't stand hearing people playing them with a sludgy, crappy tone, yuck! I also put a Blaze Custom at the bridge, huge improvement, although I still liked the Blaze, it just needed a powerful, mid heavy amp such as a Boogie, but it still sounded great. The Blaze Custom takes it to another level though and REALLY improved the Low B clarity and the lead tone.

I love my UV. BTW, the stock Blaze Neck pup is still my favorite, I can nail the "For the Love of God" sound, no need to change it. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[fuel0707]

Re: Ibanez Universe

I used to have the white one, I think the model is the UV7PW. I think Ibanez did a good job with it. The neck was pretty comfy and I think it was fairly easy to transition to the 7th string on it. The pickups weren't bad but when I got mine, there weren't really any options other than the stock pickups. I got rid of mine because I wanted a PRS. Though I still love PRS's, I wouldn't mind having my old Universe back.