Ibanez JSM100 and strings try out

[jazzfrog]

Strings are a very personal thing, also highly dependent on the music you play and how you play it
However I read lots of good advice here that helped me decide among the many choices of... everything.
So I thought I'd add a bit of my trials, in case it would help anyone.

Quick background
- I play straight ahead jazz, for around 5 years now, I like a clean, round sound (think Wes Montgomery to Joe Pass to Pat Metheny)
- I was a 335 fan (due to my liking of Larry Carlton mainly), but I gave up on 335s (this will be a different thread at one point)
- I play mostly home at the moment, not much time to go out. So having a full bassy sound is important to me (and being a bass player by training doesn't help that need)

So here we go.

That guitar, that amp
An Ibanez JSM100 (2001) came to me as an alternate 335/semi-hollow choice.
It has the 1/2 brass nut.
I was exploring an older Ibanez AS200 but decided against, mostly for cost reason.
Pickup used is neck, tone is 0, volume varies.
As far as picks, I use the jazz III 1.35mm
The amp am using for this is a late-60s Fender Vibrolux Reverb with two EV Force10s in there.


String stories
The JSM100's specs mentions 13s as factory set.
My guitars (mostly hollow bodies) are setup with 12s usually, flats mostly and always wound 3rds.

However I wanted to see what this guitar would do with different strings.


D'Addario EPN21 (pure nickel)
Those are my go to strings on semi-hollows.
That guitar made those strings sound very twangy and very bright. Only an EQ pedal allowed me to tame the twang...
Is the JSM100's pickup setup that bright?

D'Addario NYXL 13s
Very nice string set, slick and smooth, especially since it has a wound 3rd.
While the feel was mostly there on that guitar, the twang was unbearable for what I wanted to play (again, on my own, no band situation)
And the tension was pretty high on that guitar even after a setup (relief and action change).
Kinda hard to play (I have no problem bending a full whole tone on 12s)
Is this confirming that the JSM100 is a very bright guitar?

D'Addario NYXL 12s
I liked how smooth the 13s were, confirming a bit the marketing shtick from D'Addario
So there goes the 13s, in for the 12s.
Much better feel on that guitar (readjusted relief and action from the 13s trial above).
Is it the guitar or it's me? I am used to 12s...
But still, very twangy... those pickups are bright!

Defaulting to flats... TI JS112
Yes... this did it... there goes the twang and here comes the round tone.
A bit of tone (~2) on that neck pickup helped define the notes a little bit better.
But otherwise, this is it... so far!


In the past, using several different actual Gibson 335, the EPN21 set worked out pretty well.
But, at this point, I do feel like the JSM100 is a very bright guitar.
Test: using a Strymon Iridium on Vox setting (Chime) with both pickups on, some chorus and light pitch shifting did lead to a nice Scofield-esque sound.
(Sco did mention that the Vox AC30 was his amp of choice)
So that is the sound that guitar is made for.

If you need to use that guitar for a round jazz sound, flats are really the way to go.
Or use plenty of tone-changing effects like eq to round things out.


What's next?
TI flats are not the cheapest set, I started to explore La Bellas flats and like them a lot.
There is always the ECG series from D'Addario but I have found those to be a bit on the bright side... I need to try them at one point though.
Also, the 13s vs 12s on that guitar need to be explored a bit more IMHO.


Hoping this will be useful for someone
Cheers!

[Gladders]

That's interesting. I have the little brother to your guitar - the JSM10. The website says they have the same pickups. I suspect they don't. There seem to be many versions of that particular pickup all with the same name. I have always used TI Jazz Swing 12s on it.

My guitar has always tended towards a slightly trebly sound that I just couldn't dial in the way I wanted. What I realised after a while is that the pickups are unusually sensitive to how and where you pick. Picking 5mm closer to the neck takes away more twang than any eq setting I could fine. I nice thick pick and paying attention to your dynamics will probably get you where you want to go.

I also found that turning the tone right down made single note lines easier to get sounding right, but it made anything else a bit too indistinct. With the tone at about 5 and a very deliberate approach to technique, I got on better.




Sent from my Pixel 8 using Tapatalk

[capnrory]

I just got a JSM100VT about two months ago and it was set up for D'addario .11 to .49. At the first string change I went to Gibson Classic Nickel wound .11 to .50. The feel seemed to "stiffen up" a little, and I will return to the D'addarios next change. I find the guitar to be on the bright side of semi-hollows, and I also own an '82 Gibson 335 and a Collings SoCo deluxe to compare it with. I am used to TI flat wounds on other jazz guitars, so I may try those as well.
The JSM100VT is a superb instrument with out any discernible flaws and it has really impressed me, the brightness I perceive is likely due to the eq on the various amps I use and volume and tone settings I have used so far.

[gitman]

When you're going for the CLASSIC semi-hollowbody sound made popular by Carlton et al then heavy strings will not get you there. Carlton started out using 010's with a rather high action and his contemporaries
like Ritenour, Dean Parks, Graydon, Carlos Rios, Dennis Budimir etc. pretty much went the same way, most switching to 09's eventually. These were not "shredder"-guitars as that type of playing style was not really called for in the day so a medium gauge string with high action afforded them a clean, balanced and sustaining sound (compression pedals were almost always in the signal chain !) They used small amps in the studio and when playing live the popular choices were either modded Fender Deluxes, early Mesa Boogie models and starting in the early 80's the fabled Dumble Overdrive Special (a souped up Twin).
With a closed cab the bass content will increase, an open back spreads the sound around much more. An outside EQ pedal can work wonders and really "bend" the sound of any guitar in radical ways. Used with taste and caution it can enhance your tone and make up for lows that at lower volume levels might be a little weak and at the same time tame excessive highs in a way that the guitar's tone pots cannot do.

I got my first ES-345 in 1976 and have owned and played similar models all through the years, I still own a 1963 ES-345 and have played an early (2008) Ibanez JSM 100 for quite a while. These are superb guitars in every way and totally capable of delivering that classic Gibson Semi-hollowbody sound. My personal ES-345 has a warmer sound than many if not most other models I played and I like it that way. The JSM leaned a little more towards the "Rock 'n' Roll" side of things, excelled at Funk/Soul/modern/contemporary Jazz type of sounds but I could dial in whatever I needed with the help of an MXR 10-band eq pedal.

[Gitfiddler]

If I recall correctly Sco preferred heavier strings (12's or 13's). That's factory spec.

I use 11's on my JSM100 for my tone, but I did notice it sounded much better than the 10's that it came with.

[John A.]

I’ve been using GJS Nickel Rockers with my D’Angelico semi (which is very similar to an AS200), as well as my Les Paul and Strat. They’re roller-wound with nickel windings. They a little warmer than round wounds and have a lot less finger squeak, but don’t have that dead flatwound sound that TI JS’s do. If you’re looking for something that roughly splits the difference between rounds and flats, they pretty much do the trick.

[Average Joe]

Used to have one of those. It was on the brghter side, but also bold if that makes sense, whereas my current semi is more mellow. But I thought it was good and bright - no excessive bass to fight. It was incredibly plinky if I used anything less than 11s on it though and it really came into its own with 12s. I didn't like either at the time which is one reason I sold it.

A tech later told that the pots on there are oversized somehow letting more treble though than a tyoical gibson. Dunno if that's true