Customer Reviews

Ibanez Prestige JS1600 Joe Satriani Signature Silver Guitar w/ Case

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I've owned a JS1600 for almost 2 years now and it continues to amaze and delight. Don't get wrapped up in it being a Satriani signature model (unless that's your thing of course) - this is simply a quality players axe that will reward you in a number of ways. I was in the market for fixed bridge guitar, I wanted a two humbucker set up, mahogony body and coil splitting capability. I narrowed down the possibilities pretty quick. I already owned an Ibanez RG prestige and when I set out to buy my next guitar was determined to give another brand a shot. I like Ibanez but I also like diversity. After it was all said and done the JS1600 just came out on top, so for now it looks like I'm collecting Ibanez's. Whatever. If you are familiar with the JS line already you know this is sort of the odd ball of the range. IMO this guitar is sort of unknown and underrated. Seems most folks seeking a JS prefer one of the models with a trem, and most folks looking for a fixed bridge set up like this end up elsewhere. Here's what I know, having played it for two years now along side two other great guitars.
[] The neck: Simply amazing. Effortless, fast, comfortable and beautiful to look at with it's oiled finish. In the bolt on realm I haven't come across anything that I'd call "better", and I've looked at the USA Charvel's and picked up the signature strats. Those are great instruments as well and if you're considering purchasing one, do yourself a favor and give this a look before you decide.
[] Pick ups: Pretty much a rock set up, but it does the blues very nicely. The coil splitters work great and offer a range of tone options. They are very warm and responsive and the tone pot can dial up a lot of options. The bridge pick up is aggressive, but you can calm it down with the volume pot nicely when you need to clean things up.
[] The controls: Ibanez is pretty terrible at advertising the strength of any particular product and what you won't find described is that the pots are low friction and amazingly effective. You can roll them effortlessly with your pinky. Both the volume and tone roll on nicely and have a true and muscically useful effect on tone. More on that later.
[] The mahogany - I haven't compared mine to one of the basswood models (JS1000, 1200 OR 2400 now), but I love the weight and feel of this model. It's not heavy at all and very comfortable to play seated or standing. I've read it's "darker" in tone than the basswood - at any rate it sounds great.
[] The frets - small ones. at first I grappled with that having gotten used to the jumbos on my RG, but once I got some time with it I really started to appreciate them. They are dressed very well - and out of the box the action was low and exibited zero buzz - this is a fast neck set up.
[] The paint - I wish more colors were offered (hello surf green!!) but here's the deal on the Silver: most pictures (including the ones on the Ibanez site) fail to capture what this thing looks like. Some pictures outright give a false impression that it's a flat finish. You can find some great high rez photos online taken at the NAMM show a few years back. In fact, those photos helped me cinch the choice since I couldn't find one of these on a shelf anywhere. The finish is flawless, deep and brilliant. It's no nitro finish, so if your set on that vintage aging wood aspect.....I guess this isn't the same. The headstock is natural wood with an oiled finish and looks fabulous.
[] The tuners - they have a neat auto trim feature. At first I thought it was just a gimick, but I think it contributes to the guitars tuning stability as well. The strings are locked in to the pegs and then the extra string is cut off once you tighten it to tune it. It not only gives the pegs a really clean appearance, but seems very functional as well. Don't worry about it not having a locking nut - you won't spend a great deal of time having to retune it as it's incredibly stable even if you like to do a lot of crazy bends.
[] String thu body. I own two guitars that are set up string thru body and one with a locking trem system. You'll read a lot that it improves sustain and it probably does but lets face it - your trem system sustains just fine - if they didn't they'd have died off the evolutionary tree by now. I think the cool thing is how resonate the body becomes on these set ups. You strum one unplugged and they make a lot of noise - all of which gets really cool when plugged in. The other advantage is how easy it is to re-string. Coupled with those auto trim tuners I can drop in a new set of strings, get 'em stretched and in tune in less than 10 minutes - and I hate changing strings and therefore am not particularly good at it. With this system I can't goof it up - you could compare my set up to a pros and not see the difference thanks to the auto trim.
[] I recently purchased a Marshall Vintage Modern 50 watt combo amp and I'm convinced these two were meant for each other. That type of quality tube amp (and I'm sure others qualify) really showed me what this guitar was capable of and showcased it's range of tones. The VM is designed to work with a guitars volume pot to control the gain levels so that low friction pot demonstrated it's musical purpose right away.
Lastly yes I'm a Joe fan, but I really not a signature guitar fan and never thought I'd buy one (stigma I guess). This guitar however is just an exceptional set up at a really great price. Everything on it convinces me it's purpose built to make it easy to express my sonic voice. It's a true PRO piece of gear. If your on the fence on this model I'd say just go for it. It's a special order usually not stocked but you'll get it in 6 weeks or so if that's the case. If you can find one stocked - jump on it. If you're considering one of the other JS models I'd say go for it - 95% of what's good about this one is on those others. Hope this helps.