About

A Tribute to Joe Jem Despagni

CUSTOM GUITARS

Joe wasn’t just a motorcycle painter and in 86′, his good friend from way back when who made his way to the top by being a Guitar Virtuoso was recruited by David Lee Roth after playing for Zappa and others for years and asked Joe to paint a guitar like he flamed motorcycle tanks and in the interum he decided to take it to the extreme.

When setting up the guitar for paint, Joe decided that he was going to cut the flames out and that was the start of JEM CUSTOM GUITARS and his innovated way he went about building One Off Custom Guitar that lasted for over 40 years .

The first guitar was the one off FLAME Guitar and was the second guitar that was seen in the DLR video, “Goin’ Crazy“. Neither head stock was completed for the photo shoot and that’s yet another story..

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CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW

The second guitar he built was the Green Monster and it was in DLRs first video released which is the first ever guitar with a Key Grip that through the grace of God and Guitar Guru Steven Vai was redesigned by Steve and with Joe’s innovative electronics then submitted to to Ibanez and became the world famous Ibanez JEM 777 that is Steve’s Go To Guitar.

Joe had his hands on the Ibanez Universe. It was painted by Joe Jem and the first ever one was made with a handle in it, but that was denied by the manufacturer. Oh Well! Joe helped them out by giving the idea of splitting two 6 string tremolos to create the 7 string tremolo and using the spring block to hold it together for the first build and he told me,“He wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still in there today”

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CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW

My name is Robert Despagni, Joe’s brother, and was with him from the beginning helping rebuild his 68 Harley Davidson Police Special and working on, repairing, stencil work and repainting motorcycles with him at age 15.

I was working on and helped with some design work and art work and was building guitars with him from the start and I will be doing the best I can to keep the JEM name alive with over 18 years of shadowing him and his long and illustrious career .