Ibanez Jem 7VWH Setup

this Ibanez Jem was in need of a basic setup, only with a couple of extra tweaks.

The action was high for the player, so put a paper shim under the back of the neck to increase the neck angle, raised the bridge (to enable increased raising of pitch when pulled back – as it’s designed to do – with more ease). 

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I also straightened the neck a touch and checked the balance of the pickups… A Hipshot Tremsetter system had previously been installed, and since it was no longer required, the arrangement in the image was removed and replaced with a more conventional claw. I added an additional spring in the back to match the tension/balance of the strings, so it’s super sleek and more or less plays itself! Fantastic guitar!

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Assorted Jobs – Ibanez Switch Replacment, Overwater Setup, Tangelwood Fret Stone

It’s been another busy week here at Aylesbury Guitar Repair, with an interesting mixture of jobs required to be done.

The first was a rather sorry, 30yr old Tangelwood acoustic, whose frets were in appalling condition littered with dents from strings, bizarre diagonal ‘grazing’ and one or two frets with flattened edges under the high E string. Furthermore, the bridge saddle was so low that the guitar was more or less completely choking out around the 5th fret up, and as such was more or less unplayable!

The owner just wanted a basic setup, so the guitar could be played along the length of the neck – not the most demanding of requests on the face of it, although the work to get it there was fairly substantial!

I started by levelling the neck and fret-stoning and re-crowning the frets, then polished to a high shine.

Next, I set about cutting a new bridge saddle from a bone blank, only this one was about an extra third deeper than the original to get sufficient clearance, but with a friendly action to aid playing.

Once the new strings were added I checked the string spacing, action, the intonation, and once satisfied I polished the guitar to finish the job.

This is a completely different guitar from when it arrived, and was very fun to do. Delivering a like-new instrument is always a buzz for me, and I know there will be many hours of enjoyment as a result of the work that was carried out here.

The next guitar was an Ibanez whose pickup selector switch was malfunctioning – there was a spot between positions 1 & 2 where the guitar cut-out completely, and would often get stuck there mid-performance. This was clearly unideal, so a replacement was required.

The switching for this guitar is quite complex, utilising an OTAX VLX91 switch that has double the number of contacts available to create many interesting pickup combinations when using 4-conductor cable.

A a H-H equipped guitar, the sonic options for this guitar are very varied with the following…

1. Neck wired series
2. Neck wired parallel
3. Neck and bridge together
4. Inner coils
5. Bridge wired series

With this you can get some lovely warm tones, powerful ones (courtesy of the DiMarzio Evolution pickups) and single coil out-of-phase-type scooped ones.

The wiring was a little bit tricky in places – quite precise and fiddly – but the job was done first time and the owner is super happy with a more taut switch, minus the unwanted killswitch bonus!

Another job that took place today was a setup on an incredible Overwater bass. This is a custom-made instrument that needed thicker strings to accommodate the new owner’s preferences in feel. The action needed to go too, and this was helped by the increased gauge, and then the intonation needed some adjustment.

I typically find that 5-string basses are quite challenging to get perfect on the Low B, but the Hipshot bridge on this bass was fantastic and settled really well! Highly recommended.

What was interesting on this instrument was that the fretboard was so flat – there was minimal radius in the fretboard, but it was wonderfully playable!! An all-round beautiful instrument!

Ibanez RG3120, Assorted Basses and the Martin

So the Martin got finished beautifully – the action was so good that any electric guitar would be proud to bear it, and it really plays effortlessly.

I’ve since received some school basses that have a myriad of different issues, including missing jack sockets, missing pickguards and exposed wiring, and intonation issues. They need some serious love but I’m sure the results will make them a real joy to play in the end!


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Next, this Ibanez walked in. It needed a fret stone, re-crown, setup and also needs it’s switch replacing as there’s a spot on it where the signal cuts out completely!

I started with the fret stone and re-crown so that I could batch some soldering together once I get the go-ahead on the basses.

The pits that were present in the frets came out really easily, and they polished up beautifully after lots of elbow grease! Once that was all done I set about lowering the action (came down by a 3rd so is now mega-low!) and now it’s so easy to play. Unreal, and so exciting! It’s a new guitar. One tweak of the intonation on the high E string and it was good to go!


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Ibanez Set-up

Just a quick post about an ibanez guitar in need of some love!

The nut was sitting white high on top of a couple of brass shims, and upon removal the action over the lower frets was much better.

I was also able to tweak the truss rod to allow a little more bow in the neck, then take the bridge down by a fraction, and now she’s playing super-slick! Oooh yeah!


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Ibanez GMC Wiring Troubleshoot

Today I had to diagnose and correct a problem with a guitar with a circuit with a push-pull tone pot. The middle pickup only worked when the tone pot was in the raised position, and was silent when down, so this needed some investigation.

Due to the fact everything was working in theory, the solution should be relatively simple, and required only to make sure everything was attached, primarily all connections to do with the middle pickup itself. Within moments of opening the cavity it was obvious the problem was that one of the middle pickup wires had become detached, and simply needed reconnecting. Seconds later, the guitar was in full flow once more, on every setting.

The switching is quite interesting on this guitar – it operates in a similar fashion to most HHH guitars, only all of the coils are split when the tone pot is lifted, and this provides a rich set of tonal options from powerful rock to delicate and brittle single coil tones. Check out the wiring diagram below!


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