Ibanez JBM10FX Jake Bowen Review
My Verdict and Review Summary
For those who don't know, Jake Bowen plays guitar for Periphery, a very technical, progressive metal band. Bowen's guitar fits this profile with a Wizard III neck and DiMarzio Titan humbuckers, combining for a unique blend of speed and heavy low-end. It's an aggressive, modern guitar, for high-gain fans and anyone wanting to combine speed with heavy power-chord chunk. Also, the clean tone is surprisingly really good.
BEST FOR: High gain, heavy power chords, speed, technical playing styles, modern rock and metal.
TONE
95
CONTROL
85
FLEXIBILITY
88
PRICE/VALUE
85
- Sustain just rings forever on mid to high levels of distortion.
- DiMarzio Titan humbuckers are equally good handling distortion and clean tones.
- I love the white and gold look.
- A surprising amount of variety with the 5-way pickup selector and clean tones.
- Stays in tune come hell or high water.
- Really hard for me to get used to having the tuners on the down-facing side of the headstock.
- White will be hard to keep clean.
Jake Bowen's Ibanez will give you balance in a couple categories. First, lead vs rhythm:
- Heavy power chords and chunky gain
- Higher register presence and some "sparkle" from higher frequencies
In other words, it's both a lead and rhythm guitar, that you could employ for a hybrid playing style in a modern rock and metal situation. The second note:
- Very strong clean tones (crystal-like and distinct)
- Very strong distortion and heavy tones
So it'll be strong on both clean and dirty channels. I was especially surprised by how good this guitar sounded clean, particularly in the middle pickup position. I'll get into all the details in the review below, along with the demo video.
The gold and white are a great combo. I'm a fan of gold and black too.
The JBM10FX's Balanced Tone Profile
Oddly, what impressed me most about the JBM10FX was the clean tones mostly because I expected to be focused on the high gain levels. And of course, it is most at home in that style, but the cleans added a lot of flexibility. It almost reminded me of the Fishman Fluence pickup cleans. I also got a lot of variety from the five different pickup selector positions. Some actually seemed louder, which I'm assuming is by design? Perhaps a handy feature if you need a gain boost.
Note the direction of the tuning pegs. Takes awhile to get used to.
Control and Style Flexibility
The variety comes from that five-way pickup selector, which is paired with just a volume knob. Bowen keeps things simple, which I can appreciate. Besides, there's so much versatility from the pickups themselves that you don't really need anything else. As far as playability, the guitar feels pretty sturdy, but also lighter. This makes sense given that Nyatoh tonewood (used in the guitar's body) is lighter than Mahogany. The neck plays fast, like you would expect from an Ibanez Wizard III, while sporting the single moon inlay at the 12th fret.
All brand stuff: DiMarzio, Gotoh, and Gibraltar.
Value Assessment
A lot of Ibanez guitars fall in the $1000 to $1500 price range, like the JBM10FX. It ran at roughly $1200 retail at the time of my review, in line with the Power Series, Nita Strauss's mid-line signature, and some of the lower-tier Prestige models. Since it's more of an advanced player's guitar with brand pickups (DiMarzio), tuners (Gotoh), and hardware (Gibraltar), I'm surprised it doesn't retail a little higher. Good job on this one, Ibanez.
Current JBM10FX Pricing from Sweetwater (includes multiple versions)
Prices updated from Sweetwater in real-time.
Review Summary
So I'd recommend this for players that are more balanced between lead and rhythm, and for those using lots of distortion and clean tones. A lot of modern metal guitars struggle with cleans, but the Jake Bowen Signature breaks that mold pretty handily. It's a great metal guitar with some unsuspected flexibility.
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Written by Bobby Kittleberger on Electrics & Reviews
Written by Bobby Kittleberger on Electrics & Reviews
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