# 2019 JBM10FX Jake Bowen Signature



## Albake21 (Sep 20, 2018)

Jake unofficially announced his new 2019 signature. It's basically the JBM20 but in white and with a fixed bridge. Looks to be an Indonesian made model. Looks pretty cool to me, what do you guys think? Source goes to @ibanezlacs on instagram.


----------



## KnightBrolaire (Sep 20, 2018)

meh. I prefer his black jbm. I hope they come out with that version as a hardtail.


----------



## Tree (Sep 20, 2018)

I dig it. I would probably have one of his sigs by now if the pickups weren’t so damn fugly. 
I’ll probably nab one at some point and swap em though.


----------



## FitRocker33 (Sep 20, 2018)

Will never buy an indo guitar so it’s a m00t offering to me


----------



## FitRocker33 (Sep 20, 2018)

Will never buy an indo guitar so it’s a m00t offering to me


----------



## Kaura (Sep 20, 2018)

Gold hardware... 

But since it's MII, no thanks.

Edit: Also, I wonder if the neck is glossy or satin? I'm not too picky about glossy necks but satin is always more comfortable.


----------



## scrub (Sep 20, 2018)

never liked those gaudy pickups. They sound good, but look cheesy to me.


----------



## Metropolis (Sep 20, 2018)

Still rosewood fretboard, why. It probably feels and plays like any other indonesian manufactured Ibanez.


----------



## Sogradde (Sep 20, 2018)

On a second glance, it might even be Jatoba, which is an even worse crime.


----------



## AkiraSpectrum (Sep 20, 2018)

Really like the white myself, and I think putting in a hard tail allows for a more stable/consistent bridge in this price range.


----------



## Albake21 (Sep 20, 2018)

As someone who absolutely hates MII guitars, I played a JBM27 last week and I was absolutely blown away. It was the first time I was floored by an Indonesian guitar, especially an Ibanez. If I had the money, I would have bought it on the spot. It was a very good price too .


----------



## 77zark77 (Sep 20, 2018)

It's TITANium white, that makes sense


----------



## MaxAidingAres (Sep 20, 2018)

Looks sick, I don’t want to be that sso member but it would look so much classier if it had a maple fretboard. With the natural binding and gold hardware


----------



## kevdes93 (Sep 20, 2018)

The diarrhea brown fretboard ruins the entire guitar IMO


----------



## Ordacleaphobia (Sep 20, 2018)

Albake21 said:


> As someone who absolutely hates MII guitars, I played a JBM27 last week and I was absolutely blown away. It was the first time I was floored by an Indonesian guitar, especially an Ibanez. If I had the money, I would have bought it on the spot. It was a very good price too .



Yeah I played one of the MiI models of his sig at a GC a few months ago and was actually really impressed with how good it felt. Still though, it's hard for me to justify that kind of cost for a MiI instrument when I can easily pick up a used (sometimes even new!) MiJ or new MiK instrument easily for that price. I just need _one_ little boost to push me into purchase territory...an ebony board, a bit lower price, a nicer bridge....just...something.

I dig this new one, though. I'm all about that hardtail life, and the (presumably) stock locking tuners is big plus to me; although I don't think the gold pickup covers look as good on the white as they did on the black finish. If the price is right I can see myself owning one of these.


----------



## bnzboy (Sep 20, 2018)

FitRocker33 said:


> Will never buy an indo guitar so it’s a m00t offering to me



Yup same I have had some good expeirence with Indo-Jacksons but not so much with Indo-Ibanez


----------



## secretpizza (Sep 20, 2018)

I love the white finish, but I wish they'd at least dye the rosewood darker if that's what they're going to use. Rosewood is fine to play but offsets the look here. I own a JBM100 and I think when you're going with a super minimal color scheme, it's got to be consistent - the black finish with black fretboard ties it together. If they weren't going to do ebony here, blank maple would've been a cool choice. Rosewood just looks odd to me.


----------



## Seabeast2000 (Sep 20, 2018)

That guitar is destined to show up in a pop/rap video.


----------



## gujukal (Sep 20, 2018)

Looks nice but would look much better with either a maple or ebony fretboard.


----------



## goobaba (Sep 20, 2018)

I think this would look great with uncovered Titans and black tuners


----------



## NeglectedField (Sep 20, 2018)

Interesting that there's an extra large string ferrule on the low E. I suppose to accommodate for the low tunings I think Periphery sometimes use?


----------



## Metropolis (Sep 20, 2018)

NeglectedField said:


> Interesting that there's an extra large string ferrule on the low E. I suppose to accommodate for the low tunings I think Periphery sometimes use?



It must be, they have AGCFAD and BbGCFAD tunings in some songs.


----------



## _MonSTeR_ (Sep 20, 2018)

Will probably acquire... need to see if the black bridge can be swapped out for gold though! I’ve always loved the overall look of the JBM but have always been put off by the mismatched hardware


----------



## Crash Dandicoot (Sep 20, 2018)

Should've done the blue one with the angled single coil in the neck






with a Lo-Pro


----------



## Soya (Sep 20, 2018)

Big fan. Though honestly I think a maple fretboard would look better


----------



## A-Branger (Sep 20, 2018)

agree with the light brown FB ruining the whole thing. Why its such an stigma to dye the FB?

ok dont use ebony, people (specialy at this price) wont care, they jsut wanna see a "black" board, its a monochromatic guitar, black everything(white) with mapple binding and gold, a light brown board doesnt fit!!!

use richlite, or any other compound who cares. Yesterday I saw an acoustic guitar at 350$ which had the blackest board Ive seen, I was like "wut", then went to the website only to see they call that "eboncore", who would actually know what kind of cheap composite material it would be, and honestly at this price I wont care, if not Im GASing about the guitar because of it.

get some cheap black stuff in there and use your marketing team for something..... "uummm yeeah, we....mmm.... are saving the environment using sustainable stuff!!!!!.....yeah"


----------



## Shoeless_jose (Sep 20, 2018)

A-Branger said:


> agree with the light brown FB ruining the whole thing. Why its such an stigma to dye the FB?
> 
> ok dont use ebony, people (specialy at this price) wont care, they jsut wanna see a "black" board, its a monochromatic guitar, black everything(white) with mapple binding and gold, a light brown board doesnt fit!!!
> 
> ...




Exactly, also not nuts about the natural "binding??" stripe, but that I could live with, but yeah maple or "something black" board is needed, and I woud swap in a gold bridge if I was to buy one of these.


----------



## BTS (Sep 20, 2018)

100% agree on comments about the fretboard. Needs to be a baked maple or black. 

I like the look of these otherwise, though id have preferred the blue one! Having said all that, no prestige no buy for mine . 

Still holding out hope theyll do his black one or the blue one in a prestige line.


----------



## A-Branger (Sep 20, 2018)

BTS said:


> Still holding out hope theyll do his* black one *or the blue one in *a prestige line*.



mmmm eemmm... JB100...? that was the first one they made...? the one that comes with ebony


----------



## Albake21 (Sep 20, 2018)

A-Branger said:


> mmmm eemmm... JB100...? that was the first one they made...? the one that comes with ebony


Ssshhhhh.... just let this one go.


----------



## A-Branger (Sep 20, 2018)




----------



## BTS (Sep 20, 2018)

A-Branger said:


> mmmm eemmm... JB100...? that was the first one they made...? the one that comes with ebony



...and i should have added, to make it clear.... with the non-floyd fixed bridge and normal nut.


----------



## odibrom (Sep 20, 2018)

... same old SSO...


----------



## narad (Sep 20, 2018)

A-Branger said:


> agree with the light brown FB ruining the whole thing. Why its such an stigma to dye the FB?
> 
> ok dont use ebony, people (specialy at this price) wont care, they jsut wanna see a "black" board, its a monochromatic guitar, black everything(white) with mapple binding and gold, a light brown board doesnt fit!!!



I agree but then guys would be sending them back with stain running and all sorts of maintenance stuff to deal with at Ibanez beyond the usual amount of QC and dealer returns. Better to just release this hideous one and let customers do their own dying, which is cheap and easy, and deal with the consequences on their own.


----------



## Albake21 (Sep 20, 2018)

narad said:


> I agree but then guys would be sending them back with stain running and all sorts of maintenance stuff to deal with at Ibanez beyond the usual amount of QC and dealer returns. Better to just release this hideous one and let customers do their own dying, which is cheap and easy, and deal with the consequences on their own.


Agreed, if you guys want a black board so badly just dye the damn thing. It's super easy.


----------



## A-Branger (Sep 20, 2018)

narad said:


> I agree but then guys would be sending them back with stain running and all sorts of maintenance stuff to deal with at Ibanez beyond the usual amount of QC and dealer returns. Better to just release this hideous one and let customers do their own dying, which is cheap and easy, and deal with the consequences on their own.



yeah true that, specially with the maple binding on the neck. They would have to dye the board before gets cut into a freatboard.

best option is to find a cheap composite alternative




BTS said:


> ...and i should have added, to make it clear.... with the non-floyd fixed bridge and normal nut.



aaaahhh that makes sense. But he doesnt have a black one with fixed bridge. And his sig is a floating bridge too, which is something I always find it weird, and funny since when they did needed a flaoting bridge for Motormouth, he played his old S hahaha


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Sep 20, 2018)

A-Branger said:


> yeah true that, specially with the maple binding on the neck. They would have to dye the board before gets cut into a freatboard.



Not really.

Look at guitars with "natural binding" like PRS core models. You can do clean lines with stains, you just have to prep them properly (oil/wax and mask) and then clean any spill over quickly (sand or razor).


----------



## A-Branger (Sep 21, 2018)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Not really.
> 
> Look at guitars with "natural binding" like PRS core models. You can do clean lines with stains, you just have to prep them properly (oil/wax and mask) and then clean any spill over quickly (sand or razor).



oh yeah for sure, Im aware of it. But it was mostly talking about at a lower QC mass production factory, also thinking it would be more difficult to stain a FB avoiding/prepping the natural binding than to do a top... Plus the extra $ require to prep and do the job


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Sep 21, 2018)

A-Branger said:


> oh yeah for sure, Im aware of it. But it was mostly talking about at a lower QC mass production factory, also thinking it would be more difficult to stain a FB avoiding/prepping the natural binding than to do a top... Plus the extra $ require to prep and do the job



Six of one, half dozen of the other.

There are complications with staining the raw board as well.


----------



## Lorcan Ward (Sep 21, 2018)

It's strange that companies aren't looking ahead with the inevitable CITES restrictions and going with composite fretboards. They could have jet black boards then.


----------



## p0ke (Sep 21, 2018)

Lorcan Ward said:


> It's strange that companies aren't looking ahead with the inevitable CITES restrictions and going with composite fretboards. They could have jet black boards then.



Yeah, I'm wondering why whole guitars aren't made of composite / carbon fiber / glass fiber / whatever - you'd think they could artificially imitate any wood in terms of density and all that. Is there any real reason why guitars have to be made of wood, apart from the fact that they've always been made of wood?


----------



## lurè (Sep 21, 2018)

Don't like the gold hardware, but that white finish looks pretty dope.


----------



## lurè (Sep 21, 2018)

p0ke said:


> Yeah, I'm wondering why whole guitars aren't made of composite / carbon fiber / glass fiber / whatever - you'd think they could artificially imitate any wood in terms of density and all that. Is there any real reason why guitars have to be made of wood, apart from the fact that they've always been made of wood?



There's still a good chunk of people that believe the sound that comes from their instruments Is due to a precise alchemy between certain species of wood.
They will never play an instrument made of plastic and you'll never see a purist playing an Aristides.


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Sep 21, 2018)

Lorcan Ward said:


> It's strange that companies aren't looking ahead with the inevitable CITES restrictions and going with composite fretboards. They could have jet black boards then.



As long as wood is dirt cheap they'll continue to use it. 

What we're seeing now is a shift towards using more sustainable options. Trees that mature faster, are available in more regions and are better traced.


----------



## odibrom (Sep 21, 2018)

p0ke said:


> Yeah, I'm wondering why whole guitars aren't made of composite / carbon fiber / glass fiber / whatever - you'd think they could artificially imitate any wood in terms of density and all that. Is there any real reason why guitars have to be made of wood, apart from the fact that they've always been made of wood?



Ibanez has already been there, remember the ERGODYNE series? The basses outlived the guitars, but still none still lives at the moment... maybe their designs weren't that "hot"... that should have been thought a little deeper... this one is kind of cool...


----------



## A-Branger (Sep 21, 2018)

odibrom said:


> still none still lives at the moment



I still got my EDA905 bass


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Sep 21, 2018)

odibrom said:


> maybe their designs weren't that "hot"...



There seems to be this rule that if someone is going to build a guitar out of composites it has to be ugly/super non-traditional.

Ibanez, Aristides, Switch, Basslab, Flaxwood, etc. all managed to make them ugly.


----------



## p0ke (Sep 21, 2018)

Sorry for hijacking this thread a bit, but if you think of it, wouldn't making composite guitars be cheaper in the long run even if wood is cheap? They could just have an RG-mold and a bunch of different neck molds, toss the composite mixtures in those and boom


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Sep 21, 2018)

p0ke said:


> Sorry for hijacking this thread a bit, but if you think of it, wouldn't making composite guitars be cheaper in the long run even if wood is cheap? They could just have an RG-mold and a bunch of different neck molds, toss the composite mixtures in those and boom



Retooling and retraining entire supply chains is expensive.


----------



## p0ke (Sep 21, 2018)

MaxOfMetal said:


> Retooling and retraining entire supply chains is expensive.



Yeah, true. It'd definitely take a very long time before it starts paying itself back. I guess wood would just have to get much more expensive before anyone will do this.


----------



## Ordacleaphobia (Sep 21, 2018)

odibrom said:


> ... same old SSO...



sevenstring gunna sevenstring



Lorcan Ward said:


> It's strange that companies aren't looking ahead with the inevitable CITES restrictions and going with composite fretboards. They could have jet black boards then.



Yeah, I kind of agree. They have to know that's the primary allure of Ebony, is just the aesthetic. I mean they fight over the darkest pieces, so...
And on the topic of retooling, with how much product a company like Ibanez moves, I can see that break even point being sooner rather than later; but that's just as an outsider looking in, I'm not going to pretend I know much about the manufacturing industry.



MaxOfMetal said:


> Aristides managed to make them ugly.



You take that back.


----------



## MaxOfMetal (Sep 21, 2018)

Ordacleaphobia said:


> Yeah, I kind of agree. They have to know that's the primary allure of Ebony, is just the aesthetic. I mean they fight over the darkest pieces, so...
> And on the topic of retooling, with how much product a company like Ibanez moves, I can see that break even point being sooner rather than later; but that's just as an outsider looking in, I'm not going to pretend I know much about the manufacturing industry.



You have to remember, most manufacturers don't make thier own guitars, they order them from one of an every shrinking handful of giant OEMs. 

So it's not Ibanez or Schecter or ESP that would need to change, it's those OEMs.




> You take that back.



Sorry dude. 

I really tried to get into them. I figured it was just not me seeing one in a configuration I'd purchase or if I saw one in person I'd dig it, but I've seen both now and...still ugly. 

I dig everything about them (didn't love the neck, but I'm flexible and can dig on anything I get time with, mostly), but I can't throw down that kind of money for something that I think is that ugly.

I'm boring, I just like more traditional silhouette super strats.


----------



## odibrom (Sep 21, 2018)

A-Branger said:


> I still got my EDA905 bass



You know what I meant, none of these models lives as an in production series at any shops, these can only be bough in the used market.



MaxOfMetal said:


> There seems to be this rule that if someone is going to build a guitar out of composites it has to be ugly/super non-traditional.
> 
> Ibanez, Aristides, Switch, Basslab, Flaxwood, etc. all managed to make them ugly.



I agree on the first part, not so much on the second, Flaxwood has somehow a traditional approach to their guitar design... I like Flaxwood

About Aristides, I've been following them since before they had 7s and never understood their "super car air intake" indents. Those really trash the whole design...


----------



## BlackSG91 (Sep 23, 2018)

I think the guitar in the OP is very well sculpted from looking at the different angles. You could always make the fret board darker like applying ebony wood stain. I like the white but the guitar would be sicker in black.


;>)/


----------



## stathis169 (Dec 28, 2018)

I have a jbm20 and upgraded to gold lo pro edge and all hw !! Ebonize the fretboard too,, no more an indo!! Feels and plays like prestige


----------



## Velokki (Dec 28, 2018)

I don't geographically care where the guitar is made - what I do care about is the quality of fretwork. All Iron Labels I've tried and the JBM27 have had really sharp frets sticking out.

I was stunned by the JBM27 otherwise. The fretboard, tuners, inlays, finish and tones were really nice, but I'm just not gonna buy a guitar that makes me feel I'm slowly and painfully grating my fingers off. Also, the price was a bit too high.

Prestige is where it's at


----------



## Velokki (Dec 28, 2018)

stathis169 said:


> I have a jbm20 and upgraded to gold lo pro edge and all hw !! Ebonize the fretboard too,, no more an indo!! Feels and plays like prestige


Woah, that is ridiculously beautiful! What do you mean by "ebonizing" the fretboard?


----------



## A-Branger (Dec 28, 2018)

stathis169 said:


> I have a jbm20 and upgraded to gold lo pro edge and all hw !! Ebonize the fretboard too,, no more an indo!! Feels and plays like prestige


that looks siiiiiick


----------



## gunch (Dec 28, 2018)

what if you just roasted/torrified/deep fried rosewood to make it black


----------



## guitaardvark (Dec 29, 2018)

I would have rather seen his 27 fret HS config LACS go into production than another color of JBM, though I guess I understand why that didn't happen. The white is somehow too plain and too gaudy at the same time.


----------



## _MonSTeR_ (Dec 29, 2018)

stathis169 said:


> I have a jbm20 and upgraded to gold lo pro edge and all hw !! Ebonize the fretboard too,, no more an indo!! Feels and plays like prestige



Did the new trem just slot in using the existing trem posts, or did you have to have some woodwork done to fit things in there? That looks amazing! I'm a big fan of gold hardware on black guitars!


----------



## Metropolis (Dec 29, 2018)

Metropolis said:


> Still rosewood fretboard, why. It probably feels and plays like any other indonesian manufactured Ibanez.



JBM with white finish has definetly rosewood, but maybe I'll stand corrected in the future because they started replacing them with jatoba and macassar ebony.


----------



## r3tr0sp3ct1v3 (Dec 29, 2018)

The fretboard is Jatoba


----------



## Jeff (Dec 29, 2018)

odibrom said:


> You know what I meant, none of these models lives as an in production series at any shops, these can only be bough in the used market.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yeah, I think Flaxwoods are cool; nice designs and they play and sound great.


----------

