Review : Ibanez Nita Strauss JIVA JR
Hey folks. This time I am reviewing the Ibanez JIVA Jr, the less expensive version of the Nita Strauss signature JIVA. Coming in at around $1119.99 CAD MAP it is a substantial step up from the RG 470DX that I recently reviewed and there are plenty of visual clues that it is built on Ibanez’s S model structure, which means smoother curves, fewer sharp edges and, for me at least, a more comfortable neck.
Before we dive into the guitar, I want to address something that I overheard while waiting at The Arts Music Store. As Cody was going through what they could arrange an eval for, I overheard some schmuck making a comment that the JIVA is a “chick’s guitar” Fortunately for me, I learned to control my reactions a long time ago, and I did not respond to the misogynisitic piece of trash. I don’t care about gender, colour, or species when it comes to guitar playing. Nita “Hurricane” Strauss is an amazing player having toured with Alice Cooper and with Demi Lovato demonstrating a skill for many different musical styles while maintaining her own signature playing. She is a great player and people who would denigrate her because she is a “girl guitarist” are in my opinion, well I won’t use that kind of language.
JIVA Jr
The JIVA is Nita’s signature guitar, putting her in the same signature league as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Pat Metheny. Unlike a lot of “signature” guitars which are the same old with a signature silkscreen and a new shot of rattle can, the JIVA, and the JIVA Jr are the result of Nita Strauss working with Ibanez for a long time. It is built on Ibanez’s stunningly comfortable S framework. This model has Ibanez’ own floating vibrato and uses the newest design called the Edge Zero II bridge which places the micro tuners in a lower position so as less likely to get in the way of your hand. It uses a locking nut with three separate plates. There is a 5 way switch controlling an HSH set of Ibanez Quantum pickups that are managed by a single volume and single tone control. There are no push pulls, so this is a very easy guitar to play with no usability learning curve.
Specifications
Ibanez makes specs easy to get to.
We see again a Meranti body but now with a Quilted Maple cap. The neck is maple with the headstock leaning backwards and affixed with a scarf joint. The fingerboard is ebony. I like Ebony as a fingerboard wood as it can have more spark than rosewood due to its incredible hardness. There are 24 jumbo frets, which to my delight are not overly tall. This is a good thing for fast playing, tapping and those who prefer a lighter fretting hand touch. The guitar comes strung with very good D’Addario EXL 120 9s and they are quite playable, although I might drop down to 8.5s myself. The guitar weighed in at a very comfortable 7 pounds 6 ounces.
The Quantum H pickups in the neck and bridge have a really nice tonal response, very smooth and not bitey when clean and thicken up nicely when wound full up into a cooking amplifier. The Quantum S single coil has a really smooth single coil response, with a bit of floor noise but the expected middle Strat brightness.
For my initial play tests, I used a variety of amps in my Kemper stage including a Bogner Supersonic, and ENGL Fireball and a 5150 Model III in the blue channel for the dirt sounds. For clean, I tried a variety of amps including a Fender 5E3, a Two Rock Classic and a Roland JC-120.
Given that those who know of Nita Strauss tend to think of her as heavy metal playing, do not be disabused into thinking that the JIVA Jr does not do clean very well. It does it very well indeed.
Out of the Box
I always recommend buying your gear from a great guitar shop where they check every instrument that goes out the door. I have been able to convince the team at The Arts Music Store, that I prefer review equipment exactly as it arrived. The JIVA Jr ships in a cardboard box.
The neck was excellent as was the action right out of the box. There was a bit of fret sprout on both the bass and treble sides and I found that the ebony board was a bit dry so I used some Taylor fretboard conditioner on it to bring it up to snuff. I’m really snarky about fret sprout so with permission, I used my fret tools to fix all the sprout issues. The intonation was very good and I made no adjustments to it. The bridge plate was parallel to the top as desired. The tuners were smooth and I loosed off the locking nut plates to give the factory strings a good stretch and give myself some more range on the micro tuners. As always with a Floyd Rose style bridge, I now do all my string stretching with the locking nut disengaged, then tune to pitch as best possible with a floating bridge, lock the nut down and bring the strings to tune with the micro tuners. String stretching is critical, but particularly important with floating bridges like this Ibanez one.
In this image you see that I have used a tool to hold back the strings while conditioning the fretboard. This is the second coat of Taylor Fretboard conditioner before buffing out. Also note the use of painters tape whenever working on frets, whether addressing fret sprout or polishing.
A quick image of the Shredneck TremBlock, a critical tool for me when working with fully floating bridges like the Floyd Rose design. If you own a Floyd or clone and change your own strings, this is, as far as I am concerned, a must have.
Samples
I have made a few short samples for you. The first sample is the JIVA Jr direct into my Kemper Stage using the 5150 III Blue Channel. There is a Tube Screamer in front of the amp but with the drive turned down to deliver a clean boost. The amp is the 50w 5150 Model III in the blue channel going into a 5150 2x12 cabinet loaded with a pair of Celestion G12H30 speakers. This was recorded with a Shure SM7B on axis. After the preamp is a studio equalizer with a slight boost at 150Hz, a slight cut at 427 Hz, a slight cut at 3320 Hz and a slight boost at 3292 Hz. This subtle EQing would be done to achieve a balance in the recording studio. The final effect is an analog ¼ note delay at 46% mix to give some space and some subtle modulation on the delays.
For this next set of samples, I wanted to put the JIVA Jr through a variety of different amplifiers and cabinets, without effects and without any post processing at all. I used a series of different production profiles from my Neural Quad Cortex to record these samples. The amplifiers used in order are:
Marshall 2203 100w with a Marshall 4x12 Cabinet
Fender Blackface Twin Reverb 2x12 Combo
Two Rock Bloomfield Clean Channel with Two Rock 2x12 Cabinet
Soldano SLO-100 with Soldano 4x12
Mesa Boogie Mark V Combo
Matchless DC30 Combo
Good To Go Kit
When getting started or even upgrading, there is often more to the success than just the guitar, so I have decided to include a Good To Go recommendation kit. For this guitar, here’s my kit list.
Ibanez JIVA Jr.
Spark Amp OR BOSS Katana 50 Mk II for home use - if the player does not have an amp, or is not happy with what they have. If you are a gigging musician, you could take Nita’s route and go with a modeler or a profiler or try this alternative. Get an Ibanez Pentatone Preamp. It contains a true preamp, a parametric EQ and a very effective noise gate. You can plug the guitar into it, and it direct into an FRFR or a PA. It is very flexible and ideal for a variety of tones, but especially hard rock. See my review on the Pentatone Preamp here.
High quality guitar cable - 20ft or less. Good cables last and are quiet. Cheap cables are a horror show. Consult your sales professional for their recommendation but I like cables from Pig Hog, Ernie Ball, Digiflex and D’Addario. Avoid coiled cables, they look cool to some but are noise factories.
Gig Bag - Hard cases are terrific until you actually want to take them anywhere. Unless you are in a band on the road, in which case a regular hard case won’t do the job, a well padded gig bag is ideal. In my experience, the Profile or house name bags are better built with more functionality than the guitar maker’s bag. Many guitars these days do not include a gig bag. Make sure that there are pockets for your tuner, any tools that came with the guitar, like the truss rod wrench, space for the whammy if the guitar has it, and a set of spare strings, and a string winder / trimmer.
Guitar Stand - Hercules make the best stands but you can often get a house brand that will hold the guitar when it is not in its case and you are not holding it
Guitar Strap - Every guitar needs a strap and every player, even sitting should use a strap. Gravity always works and a strap will save your guitar at some point. Lots of choices. Avoid fabric straps where the edges are sharp which hurts, Seat belt material is cheap, but the edges can be rough. I recommend real leather that has suede on the inside, which helps rein in instruments that are neck heavy. I do not like the fake leather or “vegan” straps as they are hot and sticky vinyl and develop an “interesting” aroma. My favourite straps come from Walker and Williams, but Levy’s and D’Addario do some decent products, although I find that they can be overpriced in my opinion.
Tuner - No guitar is complete without a tuner that goes with it all the time. Pedal tuners are great, but every player needs an in case tuner, and the Snark tuners are hard to beat. I prefer the cheaper models that take clock batteries as for the difference in price to the rechargeable unit, you can order a sheet of batteries from Amazon, or you may find a card of them in the shop from D’Addario priced very low.
String Changing Tool - The D’Addario tools are great. One tool has a string winder, a string cutter and a bridge pin puller. Every guitarist needs this as every guitarist should learn to change his or her own strings. It’s not hard, and that quality guitar shop might even offer a free session on how to do string changes efficiently that you can attend live. Also, there will be about a zillion YouTube videos on the subject.
Floyd Rose Block - Changing strings on Floyd Rose style bridges is to be honest, a serious pain in the butt. I heartily recommend getting a Shredneck TremBlock from Solo Guitars at this link
Wrap Up
Once I addressed the issue of fret sprout, I really fell in love with the JIVA Jr. It is a blast to play and incredibly comfortable. I find the S body to be preferable for me to the harder edged RG body style. While the guitar does hard rock very well, the pickups have good tone clean and are multiple options because of the HSH configuration. I prefer gloss finishes over matte every time. The work on this finish is superb, rich and deep without looking like plastic. The poly coating will also protect the guitar well. The top is beautiful and the incredibly light weight makes this guitar a player’s choice. If you were to spend a fair bit more money for the Signature JIVA, you will see different hardware and DiMarzio pickups instead of the Ibanez Quantums, but I would have trouble justifying the cost increase given how great this guitar is. As with any guitar purchase, you want to buy from a credible guitar shop who will check the guitar fully and fix any issues prior to delivery to you, and not try to charge you for stuff that they should be doing as a matter of course. If you are in Canada, I recommend The Arts Music Store, not because they support the channel by arranging for review product but because they don’t let guitars leave that aren’t ready for the player. In addition to the store in Newmarket, they ship Canada wide. If you are in the United States and want a JIVA Jr, please call my buddy James Ridings at Sweetwater.
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