OMFG 



I just wish they'd have done them as Premiums so people who actually play them could afford one, MSRP on these is like $4,700

Well those are Ibanez. I never remember them being the best looking things out there.

Lol.

$4700 for an Ibanez. Maybe $470 in materials. I worked for them for a spurt. Fucking junk. They appeal to shredders with the thin flat necks and pointy shit. And the guitars they give Vai and JS are not what you buy off the shelf at GC. They are meticulously hand selected and then completely torn down and rebuilt.

But to each his own.

The MIJ Ibanez guitars out of the Fujigen factory are perfectly usable instruments, and I'd take one any day over a similarly priced guitar from another manufacturer. These anniversary models are so much more expensive because they're limited editions and a signature guitar, that's double the mark-up potential. Nobody's claiming the artist's guitars are off the shelf the big-name endorsees get guitars from the J Custom guys at Fujigen, who hand select all the materials and assemble the guitars. Lesser known endorsees get hand selected/assembled guitars from the LACS in Los Angeles.

Just because you didn't like a $300 Ibanez at Guitar Center that's never been given a proper set-up and has been finger-fucked 100 times a day by 12 year olds trying to play Enter Sandman doesn't mean that's all they sell

I bet they look purty darn kool hanging on the wall with a bunch of black light posters . 

Had a SV model.  That was when I learned pointy, flat neck, Floyd Rose and I don't get along.  

$3500 street price. I doubt they'll have a problem selling them.

Umm. I didn't work at GC. I worked at Ibanez. Or their American distributor Hoshino USA. It's in SE PA.  Like I said, to each his own. To me their guitars are cheap and cheesy.  They are built cheaply.  The production Jems were treated the same as the 200$ RGs on the floor. And they shared much the same hardware. After you've torn down or set up a few hundred of them you find that they are just fancier versions of the junk in the 200$ beginner boxes.

JMO based on my experience.

What Hoshino does with them once they get here has exactly zero to do with how they're built. I don't know how anyone can try to argue that a guitar from one of the most well-respected factories in the world staffed by actual lutheirs is the same as what comes out of the 3rd world sweatshops in Indonesia. There is nothing "cheaply made" about the stuff coming out of Fujigen and to imply otherwise is asinine. Also, since they share the same hardware please point out which $200 Ibanez guitars come with Edge bridges, DiMarzio pickups, CTS electronics and some kind of name-brand tuning machine..........

If you don't like like the style of the guitars that's fine, but you just sound like a jagoff making shit up by saying a Prestige-level or higher Ibanez is just a fancier version of the cheap ones

Wow ugly then and ugly/expensive now.

Agree completely. Guys who collect Vai stuff have deeeeeeep pockets.

Not my intent to sound like that. Sorry.

I worked there in the late 90s. Artists guitars were pulled right from the trucks with the rest of the stuff. They were sorted through and the best ones, meaning ones without a neck twist, popped frets, shitty paint, etc. (and there were many from Japan with shit QC) were stripped down of the hardware and electronics.  IIRC they were absent pickups from the factory. After the guitar(s) was picked the guys in the back installed all the upgraded parts and pickups.  And from what I understand the guitar was further reworked by the artists tech, not unlike any other.  But the base guitars didn't seem and were not, in my experience, any better than the run of the mill Korean RG.

Ibanez has a nice little niche carved out for itself in a very full market. I just don't see their guitars as anything more than what I see them as.   When a good example is set up they play like butter. But so will a $200 Samick or any guitar as long as the design lends to that purpose.  To me, they have no mojo, no vibe.  To each his own, I don't like them, I've handled more of their guitars from all strata than I care to remember and I don't remember any of them being very special. Especially $4k special.

Cool story, I scratched my initials into a guitar that was sent to Steve Vai for a promotional gig. Under the pick guard of course.