Awesome looking evh gigbag for my Wolfgang. Can’t beat it, and safehaven music rocks!
My Jackson Virtuoso has practically an identical neck shape as my old Charvel, which has the best (= fastest and most comfortable to play) guitar neck I’ve ever played! This is the main reason why I gave it 5 stars. Perhaps with the exception of the necks of my EBMM JP16 and Custom Shop Jackson (CSJ), none of the guitar necks I’ve ever played were very similar to the favorite and a couple of times refretted neck of my old Charvel. [Of course, the neck shape’s preference is a very subjective entity and some players may hate this neck shape. :)]
For succinctly describing various Virtuoso’s good, bad and ugly features (from my standpoint), I will compare 3 very similar guitars, i.e., my CSJ, Virtuoso and Charvel (see the first picture). BTW, all 3 guitars have the same SD JB TB-4 (bridge) and ’59 SH-1N (neck) pickups.
The good:
1) The Virtuoso neck’s shape is very exceptional as if being designed to be a copy of my Charvel’s neck, and it plays with an extremely low action without buzzing (perhaps being factory-PLEK’d?).
2) Its Gotoh locking tuners are one of the best tuners around (my CSJ and Charvel do not have locking tuners).
3) Its Luminlay side markers provide good guidance even on the darkest stages – see the first picture. My CSJ and Charvel do not have Luminlay inlays.
4) The classic tried and true combo of JB & ’59 pickups and a 5-way pickup selector generate both great humbucking and believable single-coil sounds. My CSJ and Charvel have 3-way toggle switches and can produce only humbucking sounds.
The bad:
In contrast to the original Floyd Rose with fat brass tremolo sustain blocks present in my CSJ and Charvel, the Virtuoso has a cheaper and inferior Floyd Rose 1500, with a relatively thin metal tremolo block (see the left side in the second picture), and a push-in tremolo arm (in the middle of the right side in the second picture, showing also the CSJ and Charvel tremolo arms), “controlled” with a plastic inner ring and a tension screw (not very easy to set it up so that it would be neither too loose nor too tight).
The ugly:
While my CSJ and Charvel have strong and well-protective factory hardshell cases, the Virtuoso sells with a flimsy, nasty, inadequate, soft and ridiculous case (see the third picture), with a strange insert (polystyrene wrapped in a plastic foil – see the right side in the third picture) obviously meant to prevent the guitar hopelessly free-floating in the case (and getting damaged) during any transport. Without this ghastly, feeble insert, the provided Jackson case is completely useless.
Succinctly, this black Ibanez PIA3761XB is one of only about 5 guitars (from well over 100 guitars I’ve owned over the years), where I did not have to change ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, while still being 100% happy with their performance! Its flawless workmanship, effortless playability (with an extremely low action without buzzing) and superb sonic qualities (including lots of sustain) are second to none. Another guitar, which I like almost as much as the Pia is my Schecter C-1 FR SLS Elite. However, unlike my Pia, the Schecter C-1 required one minor modification – painting the bright white dots on the fretboard to facilitate quick and accurate moves to different fret positions, since the Schecter’s little abalone dots are pretty, but practically invisible on darker stages. In contrast, the Pia’s Luminlay side dots emit plenty of light, providing good guidance even on the darkest stages – see the picture. The Pia comes with an Ibanez Multi Tool (which is extremely useful), 2 tremolo bars and a great, strong and well-protective hardshell case. What a pleasant contrast to various “gig bags” that come with Suhr, US-made PRS and many other very expensive guitars! These thin, soft and cheap-looking “gig bags” provide only a very minimal and absolutely inadequate protection for these expensive instruments and are truly ridiculous!
In summary, my guess is that probably nobody looking for a great playing and sounding guitar with stainless steel frets, which are slick (vibrato and bends are much easier) and last practically forever, will be disappointed when playing a PIA3761XB.
Arrived at my door in perfect shape! After a little tweaking, the thing is a monster!! Love it. Thanks Safehaven!
This a very nice love it. And the price is great.