Earlier this year, Jon Gomm partnered with Ibanez to release his JGM10 signature acoustic guitar – an intricately crafted instrument that was designed in an attempt to make boutique-esque fingerstyle-ready six-strings available to the masses.
The guitar certainly made strong strides towards smashing this goal thanks to a series of seriously impressive specs, though the fairly hefty price point of $3,399 still meant it was out of reach for some eager beginners.
Now, the pair have teamed up once again to release a more wallet-friendly version of Gomm’s acoustic – the JGM5 – which weighs in at a cut-price point of $1,499.
And, while it still may not exactly be a truly beginner-friendly price range, it certainly marks an even greater step forward towards realizing Gomm’s aims of making a high-quality fingerstyle acoustic more accessible to the aspiring guitar player.
Alas, with such a price gap, you’d expect to see some serious changes to the spec sheet, right? For almost $2,000 less, it would make sense for Ibanez to introduce a significant functional and aesthetic overhaul to cater to the “budget-friendly” mark.
Nevertheless, at first glance, really not much has changed. In fact, there is a lot that has remained the same.
Like the JGM10, the JGM5 sports an asymmetrical jumbo body, featuring a Thermo Aged solid Sitka spruce top with Thermo Aged spruce modified X-M bracing. Pau ferro back and sides also make the cut, as does an identical five-piece African mahogany/pau ferro neck.
Macassar ebony is once again used for the guitar’s top loading bridge and rounded body binding, with the JGM5 also featuring a 655mm radius, 20 frets and chrome die-cast tuners.
Perhaps the most impressive feature of the axe is the pickup configuration, which comprises the JGM10-standard Fishman Rare Earth Mic Blend Active Soundhole pickup, the Fishman PowerTap Earth Blend preamp system and dual outputs for mono or stereo/mono capabilities.
“This was the dream,” said Gomm of his new acoustic on social media. “A high-quality/zero-compromise guitar that’s affordable and accessible, specially designed for modern fingerstyle players.”
Gomm has previously spoken to Guitar World about this dream of his, saying that the original JGM10 was in-part designed to promote the playing style to those unfamiliar with it.
"Hopefully this style of playing will become more popular,” he said, “because people will be able to get a guitar that's designed for it."
The Ibanez JGM5 is available now for $1,499.
For more information, head over to Ibanez.
