Ibanez guitars with Diezel?

[Rob Tahan]

So ive always loved ibanez guitars.. The Look, the feel, the players, etc..
Recently ive been gassing for one that would sound good through my diezel Herbert. I used to have a jem, and now i have 3 Ibanez prestige guitars. My PROBLEM is that they are too bright..! Have any of you had any good experiences at all with any high end models like one of their neck throughs,..or, Art1, or a specific wood body, or pickups that sound full and warm through a diezel.?

 

[Ventura]

Yo, RT...

If you love everything but the BRIGHTNESS of the Ibbie's through your Diezel, might I suggest simply swapping out the pups for something browner and more syrupy? Again, I'll default to Bareknuckle Pups of the UK. At least this way you'll be fine with the ax's already owned, and a calibrated set of pups with shipping ought to be around $300 max.

Just my thoughts.

V.

 

[Hartmut]

I have a Ibanez USA C3. And it´s not too bright. Perhaps I can do a few recordings with it tomorrow And like Ventura says: If you don´t like the brightness, change the PUs.

 

[Rob Tahan]

I will definitely consider that. I love the early petrucci (images and words) tone, and vai's sound too.
Anyone satisfied with any particular model?
So far i saw an ibanez usa mentioned..

 

[darkhorse]

Well, when it comes down to the nity gritty, sound and tone is sooo presonal. But I tried the einstein with my J custom and I was in Tonal Bliss. That is, my J custom is mahogany with a maple top (most J c's are), and mahogany darkens stuff up quite a bit (love it) - just for the record i have the Tone Zone-Blue Velvet- Air Norton PUP configuration. As oppossed to most of the prestige series that use Basswood, and i find they bring out the Mids alot more (like my '91 RG750). That said if i had 3 prestiges, i would sell 2 of them and invest in a J custom -sooo worth it. I dont know if you have ever tried a J custom but the craftsmanship on them is really up there, no comparison with any of the prestige, they really are in a league of their own. BTW if you have the stock PUPs in the prestiges chances are it doesnt help either. Hope this helps.

 

[Ventura]

You know Braddah, you're looking outside of already what's at hand... I totally get it too, man. I GAS for new gear constantly, but I've come to realize the 'pop' only lasts a day or so, no matter what git I find myself GAS'in for, if I get it, I'm still the same player... Now, having SAID that, you've got some seriously HOT gear already - so - all I can say is, talk to Tim Mills at tim@bareknucklepickups.co.uk and you'll be completely jazzed as to the variety, quality and absolute makeover it'll give any of your 4 guitars - seriously. Considering you've already become accustomed to these 6 bangers, keep 'em and upgrade. I've done this to a couple of mine and man, it truly is like having a BRAND new ax, only one I'm already super familiar with playing....

As for tones - Petrucci and Vai will sound awesome no matter what they're playing IMHO. It's the fact that they're bloody excellent virtuosos that make their "tone" so palatable to the 'lesser masses' I've rarely seen anyone go off about wanting to sound like that $5 entertainer at the pub..."man, that cats got TONE!!" but it's there, in front of us, all the time. Check Jack White - sure, now he's pretty famous but that cat was ALL about lettin' the music and tone do the talking. And old, old bluesmen - crappy little 5W amps pumping a beat-to-shit Telecaster....and Jimmy Page comes along and wants the same tone. Clapton wanted BB King, Jimi Hendrix wanted Mississippi Delta tone, Page wanted the pub tone on steroids... It's all there, right in front of us.

Sorry for the rant... Just in a philosophical mood.

V.

 

[darkhorse]

I will have to agry with V, the primary factor of tone is our fingers and creativity.

 

[Rob Tahan]

Well, when it comes down to the nity gritty, sound and tone is sooo presonal. But I tried the einstein with my J custom and I was in Tonal Bliss. That is, my J custom is mahogany with a maple top (most J c's are), and mahogany darkens stuff up quite a bit (love it) - just for the record i have the Tone Zone-Blue Velvet- Air Norton PUP configuration. As oppossed to most of the prestige series that use Basswood, and i find they bring out the Mids alot more (like my '91 RG750). That said if i had 3 prestiges, i would sell 2 of them and invest in a J custom -sooo worth it. I dont know if you have ever tried a J custom but the craftsmanship on them is really up there, no comparison with any of the prestige, they really are in a league of their own. BTW if you have the stock PUPs in the prestiges chances are it doesnt help either. Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone.
And Darkhorse.. I will definitely look into the j-customs. Hopefully they arent too bright. It sounds like something i want!

 

[Ventura]

I will have to agry with V, the primary factor of tone is our fingers and creativity.

100% AGREED!!!!! But setting the baseline to 'start from' isn't such a bad thing. Like I said before, some family saw Clapton in Chicago a couple years back at one of Buddy Guy's bars... He just got up on stage after some nagging, picked up one of the ax's laying around, plugged it directly into a stage amp (lil' combo) and INSTANT PRESTO!!!! It was CLAPTON-GOD-TONE just like that. I agree, totally...but pretty well MOST of us here, ain't Clapton So at least getting the foundation of sound sorted with "gear focus" is, IMHO, a good start.

PS - I kind of alluded to this in saying Vai and Petrucci would sound mint no matter what gear they were running through I'm not sayin'...I'm just sayin'....you know what I'm sayin'??

V.

 

[Rob Tahan]

True.. But i TRULY can tell a difference in the tone of a guitar ESPECIALLY when recording.
This i my primary concern. I love that ibanez tone. I can hear it. Just like i can hear a diezel, marshall or a strat etc..

 

[Ventura]

I will definitely consider that. I love the early petrucci (images and words) tone, and vai's sound too.
Anyone satisfied with any particular model?
So far i saw an ibanez usa mentioned..

One thing I DID do in my search for 'initial gear' was stayed away from maple necks and/or maple fingerboards. These tend to go bright right off the mark... I've found, with my variety of Les Pauls and ESPs that the mahogany body with EITHER mahogany and/or maple top, coupled with a mahogany neck with ebony and/or rosewood fingerboard has given me the richest, deep, syrupy tones (with the maple capped guitars offering just that hint of sparkle!). I really looked hard at the Ibanez line up, and just couldn't cope with the bolt on necks. I wanted neck-thru or neck-tenon-glued construction from a strictly 'sustain' point of view. ESP offered me this at the same pricepoint as Ibanez, and I haven't looked back.

V.

 

[nbarts]

I will have to agry with V, the primary factor of tone is our fingers and creativity.

100% AGREED!!!!! But setting the baseline to 'start from' isn't such a bad thing. Like I said before, some family saw Clapton in Chicago a couple years back at one of Buddy Guy's bars... He just got up on stage after some nagging, picked up one of the ax's laying around, plugged it directly into a stage amp (lil' combo) and INSTANT PRESTO!!!! It was CLAPTON-GOD-TONE just like that. I agree, totally...but pretty well MOST of us here, ain't Clapton So at least getting the foundation of sound sorted with "gear focus" is, IMHO, a good start.

PS - I kind of alluded to this in saying Vai and Petrucci would sound mint no matter what gear they were running through I'm not sayin'...I'm just sayin'....you know what I'm sayin'??

V.

Next time let him pick one of my guitars up, let's see how he's gonna sound. I'm guessing not so good.

 

[nbarts]

I will definitely consider that. I love the early petrucci (images and words) tone, and vai's sound too.
Anyone satisfied with any particular model?
So far i saw an ibanez usa mentioned..

One thing I DID do in my search for 'initial gear' was stayed away from maple necks and/or maple fingerboards. These tend to go bright right off the mark... I've found, with my variety of Les Pauls and ESPs that the mahogany body with EITHER mahogany and/or maple top, coupled with a mahogany neck with ebony and/or rosewood fingerboard has given me the richest, deep, syrupy tones (with the maple capped guitars offering just that hint of sparkle!). I really looked hard at the Ibanez line up, and just couldn't cope with the bolt on necks. I wanted nech-thru or neck-tenon-glued construction from a strictly 'sustain' point of view. ESP offered me this at the same pricepoint as Ibanez, and I haven't looked back.

V.

FYI Horizons & Ms have maple necks.

 

[Oz Hofstatter]

I will definitely consider that. I love the early petrucci (images and words) tone, and vai's sound too.
Anyone satisfied with any particular model?
So far i saw an ibanez usa mentioned..

One thing I DID do in my search for 'initial gear' was stayed away from maple necks and/or maple fingerboards. These tend to go bright right off the mark... I've found, with my variety of Les Pauls and ESPs that the mahogany body with EITHER mahogany and/or maple top, coupled with a mahogany neck with ebony and/or rosewood fingerboard has given me the richest, deep, syrupy tones (with the maple capped guitars offering just that hint of sparkle!). I really looked hard at the Ibanez line up, and just couldn't cope with the bolt on necks. I wanted nech-thru or neck-tenon-glued construction from a strictly 'sustain' point of view. ESP offered me this at the same pricepoint as Ibanez, and I haven't looked back.

V.

FYI Horizons & Ms have maple necks.

Too expensive (and rare to find....) a neck-thru-body mahogany neck.......but sounds awesome!!!
Keep rockin'
Oz

 

[Ventura]

DAMN!!! You're on me like a hen on a june bug this morning Bro...!!

All good - I'm in the "hasn't slept yet" category for the day. I apologize in advance for my lunatic rants.

Only question I have is, who were you referring to when saying 'he wouldn't sound so good on one of [my] guitars'??

Namaste,
V.

PS - FINE!! Maple neck, but NOT a maple fingerboard....

 

[nbarts]

DAMN!!! You're on me like a hen on a june bug this morning Bro...!!

I was referring to Clapton.

 

[Serviani]

Rob Tahan i totally agree with the forumites,you don't need another guitar mate,experimenting with various pickups is a good way to go,to my experience Duncans don't really compliment Ibanez guitars,especially the bolt on ones,the choice is yours of course.

 

[nbarts]

I just pictured him trying to play my FRII in CGCGCD# with Warpgs.

 

[Ventura]

I just pictured him trying to play my FRII in CGCGCD# with Warpgs.

Fair enough, I think his days of being clean and sober might take a turn for the worse... Nice tuning concept. I've been playing around with Eastern inspired tunings and it just right f*cks with my head after playing it for any length of time. I feel like I oughta become Ravi Shankar and call John MacLaughlin up to see if he wants to hang out, smoke hash and drop some acid

V.

 

[PBGas]

Rob,

I have no less than 4 J Customs and there is a reason I keep them. They are absolutely phenomenal guitars. Completely different in sound and build from the regular Prestige stuff. The necks are amazing. The combination mahog body and maple top do tone them down a bit to be less bright. They work great. I've changed all of the stock Dimarzio Tone Zone and Norton pickups out of mine because I really don't like them. I have the CrunchLab/Liquifier setup in one, a pair of Evolutions in another, a Super 3 and Evo in another and a couple of Seymour Duncans (left them stock as they came that way) with my purple J Custom.

All 4 axes sound beautiful with the Diezel.....or any amp for that matter!