I dont think the JEM is soposed to be tonally superior to the average guitar for its price. Because like aschleman said, if you put a pair of Evo's on an RG, or any super-strat(ish) guitar, its gonna sound like a JEM. If anything, all the metal from the bridge, the 24 fret scale, and the big monkey hole on the guitar are downgrades as far as tone.

But like I said, i dont think Steve designed this guitar to have the best tone of all guitars. More like best looks, stage presence, and playability. When your playing infront of thousands of people live, those reasons above may out weigh the tone factor.