Reviewed by:
unregistered, on april 16, 2007
0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 355.5
Features: The JF-1 EXP is a hollow body from their factory in china (EXP is Korean, has larger inlays than mine and has EXP on head). Mine was made in 2007, 22 frets, 22 3/4" scale on a 1 piece mahogany set neck. It has a rosewood fretboard and maple plywood body with a transparent red quilted veneer that is absolutely gorgeous. It has 2 humbuckers with a tone and volume control for each and a 3-way switch. It also has a tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece. Everything is plated in gold including the Grover tuners and the pickguard is black-white-black. I switched the strings over to D'Addario Chrome 11's and love them. The only thing bad I can say is it came with absolutely nothing, not just the case but I had to download a generic book from their website on top of it. Surprised it showed up with strings. // 9
Sound: I play mostly nothing but blues (John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and George Thorogood)with a little bit of rockabilly thrown in and I have to say this guitar suits me perfectly. I do not play with anyone else other than the odd guitar or bass so I don't have to compete with a drum set. As such I am running it through a Peavey Rage on the Vintage/clean settings with a Boss Distortion pedal for the Hooker/Thorogood growl. I find it has a very full, mellow sound to it that fits very well with the dark Delta style blues. // 10
Action, Fit & Finish: I plugged it in straight out of the box and have never touched it yet. The only thing I changed was the strings and even then I never had to play with the intonation at all. The only flaw I have been able to find is there is a very tiny crack emanating from the 3 way Switch. It is not in the finish, looks like it may have split when they drilled the original hole. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Overall, for the price I paid, I don't see it having any problems standing up with a twice the price Epiphone dot or comparable Ibanez Alcore. I may want to put strap keepers on if I was doing any amount of stage work but other than that I think it would stand up fine. // 9
Impression: Others have complained about the tuners and the pickups but I have had no problem at all with either. If this guitar was stolen I would cry and most definitely buy another. This guitar sounds great, the fretboard is very nice to play and the red is, as I said earlier, absolutely gorgeous! The only thing I think was missing is that is never came with a case. I purchased a hardshell after it arrived. // 10