Ibanez Nita Strauss Signature JIVAJR - Deep Sea Blonde Reviews

Do not be fooled by the Jr name, This is no toy. With most of the same specs as the Jiva 10 this model is a shredder's Dream. The Deep sea blonde Color is a feast for the eyes with the Matching headstock to finish off the look. The Edge Zero II Tremolo stays in tune after the craziest dive-bombs and whammy bar tricks that you throw at it. The Beaten Path inlay almost steals the show with its unique pattern and EKG concept.
While the Jr. Model has the Ibanez Quantum pickups, they still can handle their own with crunchy, Brighter sounds from the bridge pickups, with warmer clean tones from the neck pickup. If that's still not enough for you, just drop in the Nita Strauss signature Pandemonium set and DiMarzio True Velvet single coil for the complete package.
With the Ibanez S Series body, The light-weight is perfect for long gigs without leaving you uncomfortable while playing.
I am totally Satisfied with my purchase. Just a heads up order yours quickly because the sell out very quickly after coming in stock!!!

This guitar immediately caught my eye on here and I had to have it. It arrived today, and it's perfect. I almost squealed like a 5-year-old on christmas morning. I love the single-coil split with the bridge humbucker and the heartbeat fretboard inlay is just super eye-catching. I can't put it down. This is definitely my favorite axe in my collection.

I just bought this a day ago and I absolutely love it. It plays great and sounds great. Would get another if this went missing. Love the single coil pickup. See no reason to change the pickups.

So beautiful in person, pictures don't do it justice.

I've had this guitar for a couple months now and it's so comfortable to play on and no upgrades required as the pickups are great as well

This guitar is fantastic. I love that it has binding and the quilted veneer is wonderful too.

Plays like a dream and sounds fantastic. I usually prefer my necks to be bound as well but this guitar gets by fine without it. Came setup perfectly out of the box.

Of all my S guitars this one ranks near the top. Great value for what you pay (especially with the way guitar prices have gone since COVID hit).

This is my 4th Ibanez guitar and has just moved up to my daily player. It's light, balanced and feels great. I love guitars with fancy/different fretboards and this one is pretty sweet.

Beautiful guitar, heartbeat inlay looks like pearl, really pops in person. The dots on the top glow in the dark and Ebony fretboard "WOW". Great tuners and tremolo, sliding cover over truss rod. Beautiful binding around the body, incredibly well balanced. Pickups sound great could play any type of music but it will scream and is incredibly fast too. Sum of it all this guitar is a functional work of art. Way to go Nita highly recommend.

This guitar is everything I've come to expect from Ibanez.

Even their "bottom line" guitars (I have an old SA260) are high quality builds and easy to play.

The neck is smooth and fast and it stays in tune, even after some serious dives.

If you're looking for a "super Strat", Ibanez is the way to go!

This is a nice, intermediate level guitar that plays as well as guitars in the next price bracket. My guitar collection is extensive. I own or have owned or played every guitar brand from 1959 to present. The JivaJr holds its own. It is NOT a beginner's guitar. Ibanez puts out a very good product, but, just like any high performance product, it is as much about an artist's technique as it is about technology and quality of the instrument.

The JivaJr's voicing is pretty good. The pickups are what you would expect from an intermediate level instrument, meaning they are not stunning but neither are they plain vanilla. They can be tamed and coaxed to do what you want most likely if you are patient and have a good ear and command of your signal chain.

The neck and fretwork is good. The Wizard III neck is thin and flat. It will likely need a truss rod adjustment after you get it if you want to go super-low on the action. It plays fine at factory action settings. The frets aren't prestige level quality, but you aren't paying for a prestige level guitar. Fret ends are very good to my hands; typical Ibanez. This guitar would really benefit from locking tuners and should be standard at this price point.

The body is very thin and overall comfortable in the lap or on the strap. The finish is very good overall and very eye-catching. The styling and finish choices lend themselves more toward the rock and jazz vibe than country or blues. That's just going on looks, not tonality of the instrument. You can play what you want with it, though it is geared toward shredding. It's a signature guitar for Nita Strauss and reflects her style. Enough said.

The Edge Zero II tremolo system. I'm still of two minds on this system and the one place I had issues out of the box. It works flawlessly at keeping tune, but the quality control was lacking on the one I purchased. It was missing the lock bar that holds the tremolo springs into the main block. Sweetwater took care of it immediately after I found the problem, but come on Ibanez! It comes from the factory set up close to their recommended specifications for a full floating system, but not 100%. Some adjustment will be needed if you want it to perform to it's full potential. It's not a big deal. Some tuning, some turns on the claw screws, some more tuning and you can level it right out. Move the spring tension screws in small increments! A small tweak goes a long way on this system.

Aside from the single issue I had, this guitar is an excellent choice to fill that unique "Ibanez" sound in your guitar stable.

I wanted the Ibanez S670 but they were so back ordered I thought I'd splurge a little and go with this one instead. I am an intermediate player and a few years ago I might not have appreciated just how good this guitar is. With the locking nut, it was in tune right out of the box. The slender neck takes a little getting used to, but when you do it seems perfect. The most remarkable feature is the tremolo. It's so responsive and smoith. Like a floyd rose on steroids. It's light, beautiful and plays like a dream with buttery creamy tones from all the pickups and unbelievable sustain. Get one for yourself!!!!

Ibanez could have done a much better job with a set up on this guitar. It would not stay in tune (even without dive-bombing the tremolo) until a proper set up was done.

I've been an Ibanez customer for many years and I've come to expect more.

Other than that, the pick-ups are pretty decent sounding and the playability ... well ... It's a Wizard neck so, spot on.

The blonde on this particular instrument REALLY pops. It's a great looking guitar.

All that said, as usual, the team at Sweetwater and my sales engineer in particular (Will Newbill) were phenomenal, right along the line.

I'll be hunting the JEM Jr. again, though.

Just picked one of these up from Sweetwater. I've been looking for a light Floyd equipped guitar due to back issues, and at 6.5 pounds this one fit the bill.

Playability:

Plays fine, neck is great, Zero Edge II stays in tune even with aggressive playing, pickups are just OK (a little harsh sounding). I'll probably replace the pickups ……….if I keep it.


Fit & Finish:

Sadly there are big issues with fit and finish. Body is nicely done other than rough spots and rubbing compound in the input jack hole. There are spots all over the neck and headstock that are rough (poorly sanded). Additionally the neck on mine had big black grease spots all over it. I got most of it off with some mineral spirits and a rag, but there are still spots there. I can see that at some point my OCD will. Require me to pull the neck and sand it properly. All in all, I'm disappointed with the QC on this guitar. I'll probably keep it because it plays well (if a little dull sounding unplugged).

With better craftsmanship this would have been a beauty. Not up to my standards though. Surprised Nita would put her name on these.