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Author Topic: Gravity Storm  (Read 3981 times)

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Zilthy

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Gravity Storm
« on: Time Format »

Making a short story long....

I bought this guitar a few years ago, but I never ended up playing it much until now.  It was my first Ibanez JEM style guitar, not a true JEM but an RG conversion.  I honestly went to check it out due to the paint job, a pink and purple swirl.  Someone in the area was doing the painting and monkey handle routing, and replacing the necks.   It was the paint job that got me.  I knew I had to have it, and the neck was very playable, even though I knew it needed some attention.  Overall, a decent guitar, but it still needed some TLC.

I bought it, played it a little bit, but then things started to fall apart.  Metal shims were used under the locking nut, they slipped out and I sliced up my fingers and thumb pretty bad on that.  The bindings on the neck peeled away.  The fret job was not smooth, and I cut up my fingers and thumb on the edges of the frets pretty bad too.  The pickups on the guitar were not great (Stock V7/V8 pickups) which are not horrible, but I knew this guitar could deliver more.  It sounded better unplugged than plugged in, so I knew it had some serious potential.

Now, nearly three years later, it is playable again.  That's a long time, but I do not really like working on guitars, but I do my own work, mostly because I have only found one other person who does the work the way I like it, and I learned from him.  Also, I got used to shorter scale LP style guitars, and this became more of a "rainy day nothing else to do and bored with Netflix" type of project for me.  But, over the course of time, I did fixed it up.

First up was fixing the bindings on the neck.  I finished peeling them off from where they were, cleaned it up, and re-glued them on.  Next up was the frets.  They did not need a full redressing, just a minor sanding and polishing to take the edge off the ends.  Then the metal shims, just a bit of affixing them correctly so they did not slide out from under the locking nut, no more sliced up fingers.

Finally, guitar fixed and playable, and on to the point of this post, the pickups. I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but this seems to happen for me.  I will play, and record something, and the pickups are not sounding and responding the way I want, but if I listen to it later, I will think "That does not sound horrible" but it feels that way while playing at the time.  The stock V7/V8s felt that way to me.  But, I do not think the sound was horrendous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-oifQKdwDg

I did not like the way they felt though.

Over the years, I have gravitated (See what I did there?  Gravity Storm?  Gravitated?  How fun is that?) towards Seymour Duncan pickups and a few models there.  This time, I decided to go with a set of Dimarzio pickups, and looked at their offerings.  I thought "Why not?"  Ibanez and Dimarzio seem to go hand in hand, and given a JEM style go with a Vai style.  The Gravity Storm were new at the time, and a bit different than the EVO pickups JEMs normally come with.  Then it took awhile of searching, ordering and waiting to get the purple/black zebra style over plain black or white versions.

They are pretty hot pickups, a good bit hotter than I am used to.  In comparison, I am more used to a medium hot pickup, like a Duncan Custom.  Not bad, just different, and still working on setting up hight, and just how much to dig in.  They sound a lot fatter/fuller than the stock V7/V8s that came with the guitar.

The low end is tight, but not overly so.  Great for VH/Ratt/etc type pedal tones.  Not sure how it would be for heavy shugga shugga type palm muting, but I don't do that much.  Not quite as fat as my Duncan Custom Customs, but a bit tighter and more articulate.

Midrange is smooth, much like my Duncan Screamin' Demons.  The high end is a bit smoother than those even.

Overall, I like them a lot.  Very well balanced and not overbearing in any range.  They are like a balance of my two favorites, the Custom Custom and Screamin Demon.

Hopefully I will get a chance to record with these soon.

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MarshallJMP

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Re: Gravity Storm
« Reply #1 on: Time Format »

It seems you did a lot of work on it. Also like the paintjob done to it, very original.
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vansinn

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Re: Gravity Storm
« Reply #2 on: Time Format »

Lovely instrument!
And good to hear from you again ;)
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Dante

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Re: Gravity Storm
« Reply #3 on: Time Format »

I can see why you liked that guitar, it's purty. I have had a couple RGs in my day and they're just not for me. I did have one with those sharp frets though, and it taught me how to round the ends. I had the v7/v8 PUs too, ended up putting something in the bridge (Evo?) and traded it for another guitar.

Like you, I prefer those medium-range PUs. That said, I have a couple older Ibanez's with some very HOT pickups, and they almost make me want to explore other really hot PUs....almost ;) One, is a semi hollow, with IBZ PUs from the mid 80s. They are a proprietary PU for Ibanez, made by Dimarzio, and they look just like EMGs (flat covers) even though they are passive. Much like you describe, the lows are very warm and round - my sound man even commented on it. If you ever see these (they are epoxy sealed on the back) grab 'em. Also, if you can get your hands on a set of 'Flying Fingers' super 80s or super 70s by Ibanez, they are pretty hot too - and not cheap.

BTW: Nice to see you back in here, Zilthy

rnolan

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Re: Gravity Storm
« Reply #4 on: Time Format »

Hey Zilthy, nice guitar  :thumb-up: , glad you got it going again.  Sharp fret edges I was familiar with (and have rectified a few myself over the years) but not the metal shims slicing up your hands  :facepalm: , that's a new one to me. On my guitars that have a middle PU, I screw them as low (out of the way) as they go as otherwise they get in the way when I pick (hurt, bleed, irritate etc).  Thus I tripped over some new sounds when I combine them with either the neck or bridge PUs, kind of a tone/vol suck that works for cleans or cleans up gainy patches.  PU heights is an interesting area, I used to adjust them as close to the strings as possible (more gain  >:D ).  When I did the squire strat upgrade (SD hot rails in bridge, lil 59 in neck) I had them as close (high) as I could.  I've since dropped them down a bit, seems to have more character.  These days I'm looking for character in a PU not so much sheer gain or whatever.  I have 2 SDs in the cupboard (JB and an Alnico) gathering dust.  I put them in my Epiphone SG years ago and found them ok but boring.  The Epiphone PUs were much more interesting (unfortunately a bit microphonic), now it has Gibson 57 re-issues in it.  Not particularly "hot" but a lovely tone.
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Harley Hexxe

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Re: Gravity Storm
« Reply #5 on: Time Format »

Nice to hear from you again Zilth!

    Not a bad guitar there. I've had my go around with Jems, and they are gone now.  While they were cool guitars, they are not for me. The only Duncan pickups I ever liked are the JB's and the Screamin Demon's. As for a good medium output DiMarzio, I've been using the Air Buckers on a couple of my guitars. The Air Norton is a great pickup in the bridge or the neck position, and I have the Air Zone in one of my guitars. It's a good choice if you want to get the best of both worlds. They have a clear articulate clean tone, with a little more warmth than the modern pickups, and can get into singing lead tones with some great sustain with an overdriven amp.

     Harley 8)
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