Joe Satriani Demos and Discusses His Signature Ibanez JS25ART Limited Edition Guitars — Video
Although we've already reported on Joe Satriani's new limited-edition JS25ART guitars from Ibanez, we have an update!
In this brand-new video—posted this month by DiMarzio—Satch demos and discusses the JS25ART guitars, which happen to feature DiMarzio Satch Track and Mo' Joe pickups.
You can check it out below.
“Ibanez approached me and asked if I’d do something special for the 25th anniversary,” Satriani told Guitar World.
“They didn’t know what I was going to do, but I decided to illustrate some guitars myself. The idea took a lot of setup, because I had to figure out, ‘Am I going to paint them or use pens? What would the process be? Could I erase?’ So I wound up using these color pens. I spent about a week down in L.A. late in 2014 doing the illustrations and it was a lot of fun. But it was intense. With the pens, you can’t really put color on color. Nor can you erase. Some of the ones I did are more detailed; others are just line drawings. They’re all signed.”
Technically speaking, the JS25ART embodies all the design refinements distilled over Satriani’s quarter century of collaboration with Ibanez. Besides his signature DiMarzio pickups, this includes a maple, JS Prestige neck with hand-rolled fret edges, a hi-pass filter on the volume pot, a coil tap on the tone pot and a low-profile Edge tremolo bridge.
Longtime fans of Satriani’s visual art many recognize some of the bizarre faces and characters depicted on some of the guitars. Many of these characters are soon to come to life in an animated sci-series, tentatively titled Crystal Planet, that Satch is working on with fretless guitarist and digital animator Ned Evett.
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Satriani's new album, Shockawave Supernova, is out now.
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
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