So how are the Ibanez J Customs compared to...

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espquade

espquade

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I was hoping those in the know could chime in as I have always been curious about the Ibanez J Customs and I own a few Suhr moderns and Anderson Drop tops so how does the J Customs stack up and are they on the same level?

I have also had a few Vigier guitars over the years mainly the Shawn Lane model/ Excalibur's and while they were built just as well as the Suhr/Anderson's they just didn't get played much as I always preferred the vibe and tone of the Suhr's and Andersons more but the Vigier's were fantastic but I just never kept any of them very long.

So what's your take on the Ibanez J Customs and even possibly the prestige line?
 
Following. There has been a few that have caught my eye
 
J Customs are on par with ESP Japan from my experience. ESP will always get the edge for my taste but the J Custom I had was an amazing guitar and by far better than any Prestige model. Prestige models sometimes require serious setups and fret jobs which seems unacceptable to me at that price point.
 
J customs are the cream of the crop from Ibanez, but I would stay away from anything newer than 2018. I am friends with an Ibanez dealer and they are seeing a lot of fret issues with the newer ones.. I've owned 2 J Custom 7 strings from the 2012 era and I wish I had kept as least one of them :(
Both were outstanding instruments. Prestige's are nice as well I just posted a thread on my RG3727, it feels and looks very similar to the 8527 J Customs I used to own.
 
I've had J Customs and Andersons (and custom ESPs etc). And I've played several Suhrs.

J Custom is basically right there with Suhr and Anderson. The fretwork is killer. Fit and finish is ok, though the finish work at Suhr and Anderson is almost unnaturally flawless. I'd put them in the same league.

As for Vigiers, I've not played one, but I'm picky about my setups and a lack of any adjustable neck relief is an absolute no-go for me.
 
I owned a J Custom for a bit and thought it was a great guitar. That being said, I own a Suhr Modern and a PRS CU 24 and I'd say that they are superior guitars in a general, qualitative way. (How do you really quantify something like that?) I also have a regular MIJ Prestige and didn't feel that the J Custom was that much superior to it.

If you love Ibanez Prestige type guitars and want something that is a bit superior in quality to them and top of the line, you can't go wrong with a J Custom. If you want it to hold up to an Anderson (don't have, never played, just from others opinions) or Suhr or even CU 24, you might be disappointed. Obviously, at this level of price and quality we are at the point of diminishing returns and picking nits really. They are all fantastic guitars.
 
I had J custom ('04) , Anderson Drop Top ('92) and Suhr Modern ('15). All with Floyds (Edge, Kahler, OFR) They are on the same level in level of craftsmanship and materials. They are really comparable and no clear winner here.
J Custom - honduran mahagony body, maple top and unusual 4-knob layout. Beautiful guitar. The neck was slightly thicker Wizard with amazing finish and hemispherical fret ends. It has fat low mid but still singing sound due quality mahagony. What wasn't good were pickups...Tone Zone is pure mud city and easily kill the sound of that guitar. I replaced it with BKP Rebel Yells, much clearer, tighter and cutting sound.
Anderson Drop top - basswood/maple body, all maple neck...king of hot-rodded strats. Fat, responsive, piano-like tone. Great neck (even taper), HSS pickups with NH2+ in the bridge. Tom Anderson knows how select wood and put it together!
Suhr Modern - I had satin but played few other Suhrs. Lightweight, resonant flawlessly executed. The neck and stainless frets makes it excelent player and very gig-friendly guitar. I like it for clean and higain sounds, for crunch it was little too thin in mids, but for this purpose are Gibsons, right ? :)
Sound goes to Anderson, playability to Suhr and look with sentimental Ibanez fan reasons goes to Ibanez :)
 
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I had a J Custom years ago. Probably '07 or '08. It was definitely a high quality guitar. Nice fretwork, super stable neck, and overall great fit and finish. I ultimately sold because the neck was too flat for my tastes. I had a Suhr Modern not long after that. It's hard to say why, but the Suhr felt like a higher quality guitar. It just had a solid feel to it in the hands that the Ibanez didn't have and I preferred the neck shape as well. However, the Ibanez was the better sounding guitar, so there's that lol. The Suhr always sounded thin and plinky even with the Aldrich pickups, so it didn't stick around either.
 
I've had (from what I recall) about 10 or so J Customs over the past 12 years. I love these guitars but as I got older, I found the necks a bit too skinny to be comfortable for me when playing live pre-covid. The 7 string version that I had, I should have NEVER sold. It was an ash body with spalted maple top. That a mistake on my part.

Things I love about them:
-beautiful veneer tops on them
-amazing feeling neck
-amazing fretwork and ball ends
-very beautiful inlay details
-cool flame maple bindings
-nice metal control and trem covers
-countersunk volume and tone knobs
-reverse input jack
-included Gotoh strap locks
-edge Pro or loPro bridge
-flame maple neck binding - very cool looking!
-no truss rod cover
-nice COA

Things I dislike about them:
-anything with an Edge Zero trem - I hate this bridge like no other. It is very cheaply made period. After taking one apart, it was more than obvious. I have had several over the years.
-pickup choices - the majority of J Customs have a Tone Zone and Air norton in a heavy mahog body. It just isn't the right fit. Thankfully, they are changing that up in some models.
-thinner neck profile isn't for everyone - it is very flat and thin
-very few with stainless fret option - at the price they sell for it should be standard. I find the stock frets pretty soft on them in general.

With all that said, the majority of them were great instruments but I had a couple of them that had issues. One had the wenge strip collapse about 10mm on the back of the neck and had to be refinished. The other had about 10 dead spots in the upper fret areas. Never was able to resolve that one so it sold right away.

I've had both an Anderson (years back) and a Suhr (a few years ago) and the J Customs were right up there with those.
 
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Having owned Suhr Moderns and Standards, Tom Anderson and J Custom, I’d say they are on par as far as build quality. It is in the details and specs of each as far as what you may like better. I would not sweat but quality though, they’re all nice.

I couldn’t get along with the JCustom I had because of the vine inlays on the fretboard. It was a little different than the Jems inlays, it had more little leafs floating around. I’m used to the 3,5,7,9,12,etc… inlays. The extra little leaf inlays on the 2nd, 4th and 6th frets bugged me when I played. I’d hit the wrong fret sometimes. But other than that, awesome awesome guitar. I hated to sell it for that reason, but did anyway…
 
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I Customs are as good as Suhr or Anderson. Just whether you like the Ibanez neck compared to Suhr or Anderson. I have had a couple J Customs that were straight up incredible. But, I hate the tree of life fretboard design and the awesome J Customs with fretboards minus the tree of life are usually in Japan.

A little while back I had the Ibanez Jake Bowen and it was awesome. The signature Bowen dinarzio pickups are similar in feel, punch, tightness, and clarity to BKP juggernauts. They are great pickups. The neck has serious playability and it is on par with J Customs for less cash. Although, I haven’t checked the price recently, but not too far back you could find them in the 1700 range. Who knows, they are probably like $7500 now in these recent preposterous and offensively greedy price hikes.
 
I have a J. Custom and I love it. Got it in 2012 from Ibanezrules.

He's pretty picky about what he stocks, so I knew I'd get a good one from him.
 

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I like J Custom best of the 3 mentioned, but honestly for superstrats would easily choose a good custom shop Charvel over any of these 3 in both tone and playability. I’ve pretty much tried all the various boutique SS guitars except GNG and Marchione and the only ones I’ve kept have been Charvel’s and vintage Schecters. I found all the Suhr’s and Anderson’s I’ve tried to sound sterile. I’ve also tried many Vigier’s and they all sounded dead to me/not lively. Even Axe Palace admitted this to me about the Vigier’s when they were a dealer for them, but they did play very nicely
 
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