777 Heaven

[quiksilver]

Beautiful collection, 777.

[skorb]

what is the story with the monkey grip?

[Robert Burns]

Yep, i love them too... (plain black doesnt do much for me..but i love the
yellows, and Pinks for sure.. Here is my only entry to that ancient time
of REAL MEN! LOL 1990 FP Dead mint

[metalchurch79]

what is the story with the monkey grip?

Vai had Ibanez put the Monkey Grip on there when he was working on the prototype of the very first JEM guitars. Vai always thought it would be cool to have a handle on a guitar to whip it around, and to use as a handle to carry.
He said it was "Me just being me" and wanted something different.
So in that respect, I guess it is functional, but I never cared for it.

I know that he originally had the Green Meanie guitar back then, and when he got the gig with Roth and alot of companies wanted to have him endorse their guitars.
Ibanez built him a guitar that was basically an updated Roadstar painted "Day-Glo Green" with a Basswood body,and had it delivered during the Christmas of 1986, and that guitar was the one that initially sealed the deal, because Vai liked it so much.

He worked with Ibanez to produce what we now know as the JEM's.
He had them add a Lion's Claw in the spring cavity, an H-S-H pup configuration, 5 way switch, 24 frets with a floral inlay(his Green Meanie, and the Roadstar were 22 frets) and deeper cutaways, to reach the upper frets better. He did a mod similar to his Charvel "GM" where he cut a big section out of the lower horn.

I can't remember when he had Ibanez add the upper fret scallops though?

[Grandturk]

I always thought the monkey grip was to help with bending the neck - as in a place to grab the body and push it in the opposite direction your pushing the neck.

[metalchurch79]

Possibly, but not according to Vai's story in the January 2006 issue of Guitar World.
It has an article on the history on Ibanez guitars with the little stroy about how Vai entered on as an endorsee and his first guitar's built by them.
That would make sense to me, but I've only ever saw him use the floyd when doing dives.

[Ayrton]

People sometimes forget how evolutionary the original JEMs were. There wasn't really anything like it on the market at the time.

[metalchurch79]

People sometimes forget how evolutionary the original JEMs were. There wasn't really anything like it on the market at the time.

Yeah that they were man! I would like them even more if they were Alder and not (b)asswood. I've never had much luck gettin a good sound with that body wood for some reason.
I've heard some guys' setups that just rock however.

JEM's dont get the respect they deserve sometimes I guess.

[Newc]

I dunno what the issue is with basswood. Yeah it's easy to dent, just like porous woods like....oh, I dunno....MAHOGANY!?

I loved the tone of my basswood RG350. It sounded great. No it didn't shout at you from across the room when it was unplugged, but then again my Les Paul Standard doesn't either. In fact, for such a "manly wood" guitar, it's nothing but plinky highs.

Granted I bag on Ibenhad a lot, but I bag on the company, not the product. By shunning the product, I shun the company, just like they did me.

However, that won't stop me from owning a real JEM one day - preferably the Shocking Pink one.

[Rupe]

They only came on a few of the LNG's, no other models

Actually, they came on a small number of yellow and pink ones as well. I have a pic of yellow one somewhere...I'll post it if I can find it.

The reason the palm rest was disconinued so quickly was that it was a copyright infringement (I can't remember the other party) and they were forced to stop using it.

I find it interesting that Vai had essentially reached a "gentleman's agreement" with Tom Anderson to endorse his guitars literally days before announcing his deal with Ibanez. I suspect Ibanez threw some big money at him...which didn't stop him from using his Anderson prototype all over the Skyscraper album .

As for Jem's, I like them a lot but I've found the older ones to be somewhat inconsistant. I currently own my two favorite versions, LNG and BFP, but even though they have the same pickups and hardware the BFP sounds much better to me.

Some Jem eye candy from my line-up:

[Hellbat]

Those are nice JEM's but if you lined them up next to the bullseye, I would grab that guitar every time...

[sixx_ gunner]

They only came on a few of the LNG's, no other models..............(Love my jems though)

those are SWEET!!
gonna swirl my chibanez after the holidays...been practicing on about everything in my garage!
Thanks for the eye candy!

[777]

Yeah that they were man! I would like them even more if they were Alder and not (b)asswood. I've never had much luck gettin a good sound with that body wood for some reason.
I've heard some guys' setups that just rock however.

JEM's dont get the respect they deserve sometimes I guess.

The Jem7vWH DOES have an Alder body.................

[triplehold]

Rupe- Those certainly are some absolutely beautiful musical instruments you have there. That half stack is "sick".

Hellbat- Rupe's bullseye sure as heck does say "grab me". Awesome!

[Axewielder]

Those LNG's have been good investments, they just seem to have been going up up and away over the past few years.