Kevan Posted October 5, 2002 Report Share Posted October 5, 2002 Hey folks! Brian's been cool enough to put up some (early) shots of my JEM77FP-DN and a few from Jemfest 2002. I'll toss out as many specs on this guitar as I can. Here we go: - Body was cut at the Chesbro Custom Shop by one of their employees. For those that don't know, Chesbro is the West Coast distributor for Ibanez. Anyway, the guy wanted to do a JEM-DN, but never got around to finishing it. I picked it up off EvilBay for a song. :-) - The guitar came with two (2) JEM77FP necks. Both were 6-string. The original owners plan was to do one with a trem and one hardtail. Did that sit well with Kev? Nope. :-) - The finish on the body is NOT perfect. There are only a few coats of clear on here, and many dimples are visible. I don't think the guy ever sanded the coats. The fabric on this guitar is NOT a perfect match to that on real FP's, but it's damn close. - I found (after MAJOR searching) an Ibanez S-540-TN 12-string neck. Just what I was looking for! You do NOT want to know the price. LOL - As you can see in the Tutorials section on this site, I swapped the fretboards from the JEM neck to the 540 neck, and vice versa (Brian got the 22-fret JEM neck. LOL). Now I have a 12-string, tilt-back headstock, vine-inlay neck. Perfect! The nut on the 540 neck is graphite, and had not been cut when I purchased it. I'd like to thank Woody Phifer (www.phiferdesigns.com) for helping me with getting that thing cut. - Neck was mounted, and fit perfectly. Top neck is the 12-string (hardtail) and the bottom neck is 100% JEM with a LoPro trem. The heel joints for both necks are original JEM style. - Pickups used are DiMarzio (of course. LOL). Here's the layout: 12-string: Air Classic ( and Fast Track 2 (N) 6-string: PAF-PRO (, HS-2 (M), PAF-PRO (N). That's as close to 'real' JEM pickups as I could get. The pickups were ordered with the custom color combinations. The "all pink" on the original FP's was a bit much for me, so I added a touch of green to the guitar. I think it works well. Notice how the pink and green are staggered? Yeah...I like that look too. The wiring for the JEM neck is regular JEM wiring. The 12-string side currently has the Air Classic and the Fast Track 2 combined. I might split them up later. There is a neck selector switch. You can switch between the two necks, or run the both at the same time (for those Stanley Jordan types out there). The two (2) Volume and two (2) tone pots are standard 500K. - Knobs and switch tips are from Rich Harris' Ibanez Rules.com. I'm not sure if he has anymore; we found one of these under a dresser. LOL The knob colors are also staggered like the pickups. - Bridges. The 12-string is a regular Tune-O-Matic style bridge. It's been sanded and refinished in black to match the other bridge. The 6-string side is an Ibanez LoPro Edge trem. This thing had about 2 hours of play time on it when I picked it up from a friend. Great trem...right price. :-) - Tuners are about 90% finished. The 6-string side is done, but the 12-string side isn't complete. I have tuners, but I'm still searching for 6 LEFTY, pre-owned/slightly worn cosmo black tuners. If you guys see any around, feel free to email me. As of today, I have 2 lefty tuners and 4 righty tuners on the lower part of the 12-string neck. It works, but it looks like poo. :-) - Cavity covers. As you can see from the first pics, there aren't any. :-) Currently, I have some thin cardboard (from a Pepsi 12-pack case) covering the cavities. Pickguard material is on the way. They'll be cut as soon as it arrives. Note: the current covers are cut to fit perfectly. When the p/g material arrives, I can simply use them as templates and get to cutting. Pretty slick, eh? - The case is courtesy of some guy who didn't want the case for his Danelectro double neck. LOL I picked it up from a local guitar store for less than $30 (brand new!). With some minor Demel work, the guitar fits right in there. No- I would not ship it in this case alone. I'd need some extra covering. But, for taking to local gigs, or driving down to FL in June, it works just fine. Hmmm...might have to paint that yellow though. Maybe some purple elephant tolex.... So, with a few steps left to go, I have a very sweet, and fully-playable double neck JEM. I'll try to take some other pics of it this weekend (if the sun ever comes out). Questions or comments are welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerealk Posted October 8, 2002 Report Share Posted October 8, 2002 Here: http://www.projectguitar.com/gal/2b.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevan Posted October 9, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2002 Thanks for the link Simon. I forgot to include it in my original post. :-) The first five pics in the gallery were not taken by me. They were shot by the original owner at his house (nice extension cord in the shot. LOL). The two new ones (#6 and #7) were taken at Jemfest 2002 in Orlando. I'll get some new pics to Brian as soon as I'm awake when the sun is out. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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