Electric Guitars Brief Review of the Jem 777 BFP

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
I picked up a used Jem 777 BFP over the holidays. I had the guitar for two weeks and did not pick up another guitar during that time. The action was dropped to the floor and the last guy had replaced the Gravity Storm bridge pickup, with the Evo in the Japanese Jems. His complaint was the GS was a little micro-phonic. Here is the good and the bad IMO

Good

The Neck The easiest guitar I ever played, albeit with 9's I've played guitars with skinny necks before, but this was just effortless. The fret edges were mushroomed but you didn't even notice unless you looked at them I cannot say enough about the neck. Skinnier than Twiggy and just melted in your hands. 24 frets with easy access. On a scale of 10 I give the neck an 11.

Edge II Tremelo
Up down, I wanged the wankers out of this thing, and it stayed in tine. I give it a 8.


Distorted tones
Very cool, a little dark but not overshadowing and I am partial to a slightly overdriven dirty tone, even for a lot of rhythms. Who am I kidding? I am a dirty white boy and mix in a little dirt in almost all my playing unless I can get that punchy in your face mid range to spank you. I give them a 7.5

Sustain
For such a light guitar I was surprised of the amount of sustain I got out of it. I would give it a 7.5 for sustain

Jack on the middle of the tailpiece not the bottom of guitar.
30 degree angled downward, Great for sitting and you will never pull your cord out with your foot. Convinced all guitar jacks should be there. I give this a 10.

Monkey Grip
Thought it was hokey at first, but very easy to pick up, carry and put down your guitar.. I give it a 7.

Now the Bad

Clean Tones
May be just me, or my amps but it was far too much work to clean this guitar up. Rolling back the volume wouldn't do it, although 4 other guitars I tried with the same amps no problem. In fairness 3 of those guitars were single coil, but I did adjust the amps for buckers. I would roll the neck or bridge back and would get muddy from the D string down. I found the only way to do it was to change 5 way to middle postilion. I found it far too much work to be constantly honking the 5 way, the volume and the tone to clean up, and then all 3 again to ge some grit. And even middle position tone on 10, was not bright and crisp enough for me. I give it a 2.5, not cause of the sound but all the fiddling.

Woman Tone
Sweet, especially above the 12th fret, but do not roll the tone below 2 and if you plan on going any lower, be prepared to roll the tone up or you're gonna get some mud D sting and below.

Tonal Variety
I expected a lot more. OK I get it, it's 24 frets so the pickups are closer together, but with 2 buckers and a single coil with a 5 way switch, I din't get the tonal variety I was a-lookin fo.

Appearance
Blue floral pattern is nice. Maple fretboard with TOL inlay nice, but maple is a pain in the ass to keep clean. I think a re-fret would cost as much as a used guitar and no one sells OE replacement necks for artsy fartsy TOL inlays. Clear plastic pick guard IMO looks cheap.

Craftsmanship
Good. Ibanez sent Japanese luthiers over to Indonesia to train them for quality sake.

Price
IMO As with all artist models not enough bang for the buck Before the 20% please match my coupon discount, IMO this guitar should be in the $1000- $1200 range. At $1600 new, it is overpriced, even with a nice hard case. At $400-$600 used I would have kept it but at $950 used, unless reworked it could only be used for limited jam situations, not what I would consider a very versatile, gig-able guitar,. What I don't need is another guitar to sit on the rack, I am looking to replace my main player.

Overall
Great playing guitar. Would be a great guitar to learn on, because it is so easy to play. Di I say the neck was great? The warm and distorted tones awesome, so if you an find a way to clean it up, or can live with the tones I would highly recommend it.

Here are the specs

https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/detail/jem77p_1p_04.html
 
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Cleotis

Boiled Eggs Rock
Sweet! Plus, it's basswood body and maple neck... the best way to cut through the mix when all hell is breaking loose at 115dB.
 

DannyB

2 miles from Jim Beam. Oh! Pleasent Hope!
For most folks on this forum, an Ibanez with Joes or Mo' Joes, pickups in that area, would be more appreciated.
Some here would love an RG Premium, as long as you get along with Floyds.
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
For most folks on this forum, an Ibanez with Joes or Mo' Joes, pickups in that areamore appreciated.
Some here would love an RG Premium, as long as you get along with Floyds.
I have an Ibanez s570, floyd actually gives me no heartaches luckily
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
A friend of mine lent me one for a weekend, and I have been lusting ever since. The cleans on my marshall sucked I agree, on my 1990 infinium, they were sweet
 

deejaid

Blues Junior
That thing is sweet! I’m digging that it has a 16” radius fretboard.

I wonder if Stevie Ray Vaughn were still alive if he’d being playing something like this, match is Kimonos :D
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
I walked into a local GC the other day to get some spare sets of strings, and while looking at the wall of guitars, I was struck by how beautiful the section of Ibanez guitars were compared to the more popular product offerings. Many of them were just stunning.
My $90 used beater RG470 is not that pretty, but with a set of Carvin Allan Holdsworth PUPs in it (HSH configuration), it is a fantastic guitar and the wide / flat / bound neck with medium jumbos is simply superb.
More people should at least give Ibanez a try - you might find you like it.
They make great semi hollow and hollow body instruments as well, especially in the middle tier price range.
 

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
So I couldn't deal with the low end I got from the Gravity Storms (too muddy) so I returned it and bought a Schecter. I love the Fishmans and Sustainiac on the Schecter but alas I missed the BFP neck.
So I looked for something similar with Evo pickups and settled on a 70V SFG. They are being discontinued, and are selling new @ $1499.

I got a good deal on a barely used ( 2 weeks) on Reverb and then AMS dropped their blem price on the one they had, but someone snatched it up in a day.
MF was willing to give me a 2%? discount on one of the ones they have remaining if I bought 3 other items WTF? Hah! But that's a whole nother story.

The necks specs on the SFG were the same on the Ibanez site, but this neck feels a little wider and beefier radius, not too much of a difference. With the Evos and original Edge tremelo, and I feel the build quality was superior to the BFP that I had.

So if you have been interested in a Jem either of these two models may suit you. They are also releasing a Jem 7VP which will list for about $1800.
There are also a lot of Ibanez guitars that don't have the artist endorsement that you can get a better deal on.

Be wary, once you wrap you're hands around it's little neck, and start to choke he life out of it, you may get hooked.

 

snarf

making guitars wish they were still trees
I never seriously considered any of the solid body Ibanez axes until the Nita Strauss signature one came out. Now I want one of those and a JEM. I Imagine that the JIVA would have that same problem you mentioned with the JEM...trouble getting it to clean up.
 

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
It was only the Gravity Storm on the BFG in the neck that wouldn't clean up, when rolling back the volume. The Evos in the middle and bridge as well as the SFG work fine.

That JIVA 10 looks nice.

Not to fuel your GAS but
This dude is getting nice cleans out of the bridge and neck, though he doesn't say if he's just rolling back the volume.


 

aleclee

Tribe of One
One trick I use on guitars with 5-way switches that don't clean up as well as I'd like is to use the in-between (2 & 4) positions. It won't get you anything like SRV but it does tend to add some chime. Never tried it on a JEM, though.
 
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