Ibanez JS facts and correction

Hello,

In this tech tips we'll be looking at the Ibanez Joe Satriani Signature model(s) .Its fingerboard radius in relation to the bridge(saddles to be exact).In case you buying a new bridge to replace your old ones,bought it(the guitar) second hand,doing a refret or planning to do a set up.You need to read this.

The JS1 in this post was re-fretted by another tech. According to its owner there's was something that didn't felt right after the refret work.Upon inspection I came to agree with him.The Lo Pro Edge in it looks new and I don't know whether it was replaced during the refret process or bought long after that.


The first thing to know and understand is the JS series fingerboard featured a radius unlike the rest of the standard RG,S series(Thoroughly all models that fitted with Lo Pro Edge or Edge in the
beginning).

The JS fingerboard radius is initially from the factory 250mm = 9.8"(9.842519685" according to my converter apps), for the sake of academic we'll round it to 10".Is this fair? I think it is.

By default both of the Edge and Lo Pro Edge base plate are machined radius to 430mm = 16.9"(16.929133858") .Let's round it to 17".Mmm..where do we buy a 17" radius sanding beam for the fingerboard?.Currently Stewmac don't make them.Hopefully they will come up with one.I insist! CNC router is not what I want to own right now.Its expensive!Turn over would take years.All the the Ibanez RG I've refreted so far were sanded to 16".Am I the only one guilty doing this? It didn't bother me so I never cared anyway..I work with the tools I have furthermore my paymasters don't mind it when the frets are new.Is that fair?I don't know.I stand by my work regardless if its shit or good.Hehe..

Anyway the point is,a well setup or made guitar should both have the fingerboard and saddles radii matched.So you could see the wrong here.SR(saddles radii)metric/inch flatter than the FR(fingerboard radius)mm/inch.

To resolve the radii conflict I had to put something under there.Now honestly I never really had at chance to look at stock JS bridge but I bet there's must be some kind of thing under some of those saddles.I could be wrong on the material I'm going to use.I did consider cutting/shaping the tupperware lid as shims.Hehe.

I'm not a machinist but oddly enough I kept some brass shim. Didn't know why I bought it but glad to have it for this work.The guitar felt extremely right compared to before.Work done and I did charge him high for it,accompanied with an advice "You better not lose them shim while restringing,I'm not gonna make them again you know".Its for good intention of course.


Learned
yustech