Ibanez GB10

[Jx30510]

I'm with you, a good player can play any guitar ("any" with a certain limit) and the Gb10 se is one that plays very good.
But I'm pretty sure the the hardware will be all over the place in a couple of years, you can just see it.
And man the guitar smells, should I say stinks, so strong, I find that very strange. I've many new guitars of all category and I 've never encountered such a smell of glue in any case.
I' ve left the guitar open box, and the room is filled with that smell.. It's no very reassuring.

The lid was also full of little wood chops.. I don't really like that..
All these little details side by side just don't want me to keep it.

I knew it about 5 minutes after opening the box, because I have gathered some experience with instruments thru the years, and I know where to look at.

The benchmark is my 1980 Ibanez AS50, and when you hold this guitar in your hands and play 3 notes, you just know it's a real good one, it's solid, the notes have a real consistency, they have a fundamental ring and life.
That doesn't happen with the Gb10se.
So yes, George Benson could play the shit out of this one for sure, put I'm sure he would say to himself "when I go back home I wanna play my Japanese one"

[wayne1]

i totally agree with everything big mike just said--i have a '79 sunburst that russell malone gave me and its the greatest guitar ever, fits my hands like a glove and plays like butter...

[l5ces89]

Hi Folks.6 months ago, I purchased a GB100 from from year 2000: incredible instrument, with a very acoustic, warm, articulate and distintive sound! And very comfortable too! Both body and neck!She mades me forget about my Gibson L5 from '89...Cheers!

[Room135]

Mine GB10
I try again to get a better sound...

[guavajelly]

Nice thread. I got a new GB10 in fall 2019. I always wanted one since my early 20s but never got around to buy one. I had an Artcore AG75 (the poor man's GB) for like 15 years. Nice for the price, but the the GB10 is just in a different league. I gave the AG75 to my best friend who loves it.

I just love that GB10. IMHO it sounds beautiful. I have .012 Chromes on it and that gives me the dry acoustic-electric tone I was expecting. It plays like a dream too. And it can be played loud which is a big plus in some situations. A few days after I got it I took it to a session in which we played everything from hip hop to soul to reggae to funk to jazz. Very loud too – much louder than I like.
I think that was George Bensons initial intention: to have an instrument he can play loud on big stages. Hence the laminated woods, small size and heavy bracing. I understand that they used floating pickups to decouple them acoustically from the top to further reduce feedback. I don't know if that theory makes sense but it works. And I like the brighter and more transparent tone of the minis compared to full size hmbuckers.
I have the impression that it can be just plugged into any amp and sounds fine. Though the neck pickup is my favorite and go-to tone I think the split sound and bridge pickup are very nice for the special skinny tones that sound peculiar on it's own but can just work fine in a mix. Especially when the genre is not jazz.
BTW the specs on the Ibanez website say that the pickups use AlNiCo magnets and I don't think that they are especially hot. Maybe they changed them back to the original specs since in this thread someone claimed they use ceramic magnets and are very loud?
Anyway, I think it's just a great instrument.

[casmirkid]

Hi,

I have been looking at GB10s and thinking about purchasing. I tried out the new model and noticed that the pick guard is exceptional high of the body of the guitar. The lower pickup and portion of the guard can be adjusted by lowering the screw, but I noticed that there is a wide spacer at the top of the pickguard that makes it nearly flush with the fretboard. Does anyone have experience lowering/altering that or is that potentially an error on the manufacture's part? Thanks in advance.

[Jimmy blue note]

Hi,

I have been looking at GB10s and thinking about purchasing. I tried out the new model and noticed that the pick guard is exceptional high of the body of the guitar. The lower pickup and portion of the guard can be adjusted by lowering the screw, but I noticed that there is a wide spacer at the top of the pickguard that makes it nearly flush with the fretboard. Does anyone have experience lowering/altering that or is that potentially an error on the manufacture's part? Thanks in advance.

You can lower that. The screw mount bushing at the body/pickup there is rubber (or it used to be for as many years as I've been working on them) and can indeed be screwed down.
If you want it even lower, go to your hardware store and get tubing and cut it to where you want it. No harm done because the neck pickup is neck mounted.
Good luck and hope it makes your GB10 perfect!

[Doublea A]

You can lower that. The screw mount bushing at the body/pickup there is rubber (or it used to be for as many years as I've been working on them) and can indeed be screwed down.
If you want it even lower, go to your hardware store and get tubing and cut it to where you want it. No harm done because the neck pickup is neck mounted.
Good luck and hope it makes your GB10 perfect!

I agree. I have adjusted mine. It is a great guitar


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[Jimmy blue note]

One additional note, don't use the bridge adjustment screw as a height adjustor, that's primarily to adjust the pickup height of the bridge pickup. You mess with that one, you're messing with the plugged in sound if you're using the bridge pickup at any time.

[casmirkid]

You can lower that. The screw mount bushing at the body/pickup there is rubber (or it used to be for as many years as I've been working on them) and can indeed be screwed down.
If you want it even lower, go to your hardware store and get tubing and cut it to where you want it. No harm done because the neck pickup is neck mounted.
Good luck and hope it makes your GB10 perfect!

Thanks so much! I assumed that post was solid. I appreciate your help.

[casmirkid]

Hi,
I brought the GB 10 home for trial run. Loving it so far. The neck is amazing. The pickups are a bit hot for my taste but I seem to be able to control it by lowering the volume a bit. I have a couple questions I’m wondering if anyone could provide some user feedback.

1. Is the fretboard intentionally pitched at an angle? I know this sounds strange! I’m not a very technical person about guitar terms and repairs but it feels to my hand and to the eye (looking down the fretboard) that the bass side of the neck is pitched lower (towards the body). Is this intentional? The trust rod seems to be straight and I’m not get any buzzing. The action is low and I’m getting a good sound. I'm just curious if this is by design?

2. I changed the strings from the stock d’addario 11s to thomastik benson 14s. I instantly start getting a ton of strange harmonic overtones. I finally determined that they were coming from the space between the bridge and the tailpiece. I put a sock there temporarily and it stopped. Has anyone encountered this or does any one have a potential solution?

thanks in advance for your help!

[casmirkid]

Hi,
I brought the GB 10 home for trial run. Loving it so far. The neck is amazing. The pickups are a bit hot for my taste but I seem to be able to control it by lowering the volume a bit. I have a couple questions I’m wondering if anyone could provide some user feedback.

1. Is the fretboard intentionally pitched at an angle? I know this sounds strange! I’m not a very technical person about guitar terms and repairs but it feels to my hand and to the eye (looking down the fretboard) that the bass side of the neck is pitched lower (towards the body). Is this intentional? The trust rod seems to be straight and I’m not get any buzzing. The action is low and I’m getting a good sound. I'm just curious if this is by design?

Update: Just in case anyone else has this question. I called Ibanez about the neck. I was super impressed with their customer service. They said that they have had this question before. Yes, the fretboard is intentionally pitched lower on the low-e side.

[Rob MacKillop]

That helps when you have a very thick low E.

[Cunamara]

Hi,
I brought the GB 10 home for trial run. Loving it so far. The neck is amazing. The pickups are a bit hot for my taste but I seem to be able to control it by lowering the volume a bit. I have a couple questions I’m wondering if anyone could provide some user feedback.

1. Is the fretboard intentionally pitched at an angle? I know this sounds strange! I’m not a very technical person about guitar terms and repairs but it feels to my hand and to the eye (looking down the fretboard) that the bass side of the neck is pitched lower (towards the body). Is this intentional? The trust rod seems to be straight and I’m not get any buzzing. The action is low and I’m getting a good sound. I'm just curious if this is by design?

Speaking to the pickups, those hot pickups are in my opinion the secret sauce of the Ibanez GB10. For a very nice jazz sound, I run the neck pickup at 4-5 on the volume knob and set the tone knob to taste; I might turn the amp up just a little bit. Rolling the volume knob up towards 10 results in a brighter and more poppy sound similar to GB's tone. So, just by utilizing the volume knob you can get a dark jazzy tone or a bright pop tone which can work quite well for R&B, etc. That makes it a very versatile guitar. My apologies if I am repeating myself, I make this point frequently.

I will have to go look at my GB 10, which is a 1981. I have never noticed what you speak of, but I don't think I've ever looked for it either. EDIT: my 1981 GB10 does not show any fall-off on the bass side of the fingerboard, either across the board (parallel to the frets) or along the length of the fingerboard.

[casmirkid]

That helps when you have a very thick low E.

thanks so much. That makes perfect sense. I have been able to set the action very low without any buzzing.

[casmirkid]

Speaking to the pickups, those hot pickups are in my opinion the secret sauce of the Ibanez GB10. For a very nice jazz sound, I run the neck pickup at 4-5 on the volume knob and set the tone knob to taste; I might turn the amp up just a little bit. Rolling the volume knob up towards 10 results in a brighter and more poppy sound similar to GB's tone. So, just by utilizing the volume knob you can get a dark jazzy tone or a bright pop tone which can work quite well for R&B, etc. That makes it a very versatile guitar. My apologies if I am repeating myself, I make this point frequently.

I will have to go look at my GB 10, which is a 1981. I have never noticed what you speak of, but I don't think I've ever looked for it either.

Thanks so much. That volume setting is working for me. My old polytone seems to tame the brightness better than my tube amp. You’re right I could see it as an interesting R&B or even neo soul guitar when turned up.

Thanks again for your help.

[GuyBoden]

I understand why the GB10 is designed with a small body and a very thick top to eliminate feedback, so that it can be played in groups at high volume.

I understand why it has over bright pickups, so it cuts through in a live group at high volume.

But, there is very little acoustic sound from a GB10. Why the floating pickups?

[casmirkid]

I understand why the GB10 is designed with a small body and a very thick top to eliminate feedback, so that it can be played in groups at high volume.

I understand why it has over bright pickups, so it cuts through in a live group at high volume.

But, there is very little acoustic sound from a GB10. Why the floating pickups?

I'm sure there are others that can answer this with more authority, but my understanding is that GB was coming from the era that he played the Blonde Gibson Johnny Smith with a single floater on This Masquerade when he designed the GB10. There is a long and well rehearsed debate about floating pickups vs. mounted pickups, the pros and cons of each, and the tonal difference. I think that you are correct that floating pickups were intended to preserve the integrity of the carved top guitar. As with many guitar inventions there are some unintended effects. They generally sound just different...generally brighter and (to my ears) more clear and articulate (especially the original Gibson Johnny Smith pickups). I think that to some extent that clarity and brightness was what GB was seeking during that period.

I do know that there was a prototype of the GB with mounted humbuckers that never went into production because it was not the sound GB was after.

If you check out the youtube video with GB discussing recording This Masquerade he shares the impact that the Gibson Johnny Smith with the floater had on his sound during that period and thereafter. It seems to me that he found what he was after and stayed on the formula for the most part.

Hope that this is helpful!

[Bob_Ross]

a versatile instrument that had a hollowbody sound, but smaller body so easier to handle and no feedback issues.

I have never played a GB10 side-by-side with any other archtop guitar, so I don't know what that sort of comparison would be like...but I played (bass) in a general business band with a guitarist whose main instrument was a Strat, but he'd pull out his GB10 for all the "jazzier" numbers, and yeah, in that context the GB10 sounded exactly like what one would expect from an archtop jazz guitar: It got the sound.

I played his GB10 once or twice, and it was certainly a well-made instrument, comfortable to play. But all its idiosyncracies made it something I couldn't get attracted to; it just didn't fulfill any of my Archtop F-Hole Jazz Guitar archetypes when I held it.

Now, a GB20 on the other hand... :schwing!:

[GuyBoden]

A friend had a 1979 GB10, a nice guitar that was setup very well, a pleasure to play, but there was little or no acoustic sound.

Personally, I don't think a GB10 sounds anything like a Gibson Johnny Smith. But, they both have floating pickups.

Gibson Johnny Smith:
17" inch bout
3 1/8" inch depth
25" inch scale

Ibanez GB10 (New 2025):
14 3/4" inch bout
3 3/8" inch Depth
24.7" inch Scale

[Bob_Ross]

^^^I am astonished that a GB10 is thicker than a Gibson Johnny Smith!

[Jimmy blue note]

I have a Gibson Johnny Smith and I also have a GB10. The feel, resonance, speed of the neck, projection...just about everything is different and it effects what I play on them, and which I would choose to play something.
With both of them, I do need to be careful about how they're set up and very much how their strung.
Personally, I like half rounds on the GB because the top isn't very resonant and half rounds bring back some of the higher end transients that the top takes away. I will point out that I had MJ at the Seymour Duncan custom shop wind me a PAF type neck mounted floater the same mini size as the JS and GB. But the sound is much more clearly defined and with that change, it comes MUCH closer to the big box JS sound.

I did leave the Ibanez bridge pickup on it and the blend of the Duncan PAF with the Ibanez bridge gives me a very wide spectrum of sound that I find really useful. I liked the feel of the 15" body so much that when I switched over to 7 strings, I now play a 15" 7 string with a solid top. That's my way of making a mini Johnny Smith with everything I want.

Gotta say, for stage work and fast runs, the tightness of the smaller top and the action I can get with that solidity is a real plus in the "Guitar for playing on the road" category.
If you ever have a GB10 and you want a move to older jazz box vibe, do consider having a PAF floater put on at the neck. Game changer.

[GuyBoden]

^^^I am astonished that a GB10 is thicker than a Gibson Johnny Smith!

Yes, the depth is a bit more complex than a single measurement.

The GB10 is depth: 86mm / 3 3/8" (65mm / 2.56" at tail)

I'm using the GB10 spec here:
GB10 | Ibanez Wiki | Fandom

[GuyBoden]

Also, maybe, the GB10 design is reminiscent of the Gibson Les Paul George Benson played when he was young.

[Woody Sound]

There are so many different GB10’s, with prices all over the place, I never know which ones to pay attention to. JS, SE, BS, JSBS, EM, SEF, etc.