Peerless Renaissance

[Gladders]

This is the newest addition to my small collection. I've never really bonded with the Ibanez JSM10 I bought a few years back. It looks great and plays well but it's heavy and I struggle to get a sound I like. Swapping pickups is made trickier by the tri-sound switch. So I went looking for something to take it's place...

This guitar has an unusual spec - a fully hollow ES330/Casino style body but with humbuckers rather than P90s. To my knowledge it's the only guitar to mix those two things. I'm increasingly digging Emily Remler, which influenced my decision to buy this to some extent. I could have bought a vintage ES330 and cut holes for humbuckers like she did, but, you know, too much effort : )

The pickups are standard HBK Korean stuff found in lots of Korean guitars, especially Epiphone, and are a bit meh. Probably fine distorted, but nothing special clean. I got David at Bloodstone pickups in the UK to make me a Seth Lover clone to go in the neck. With JS12s on it plays beautifully and sounds gorgeous. Because it's fully hollow it's very light and resonant. I've hardly put it down since it arrived.

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[monkmonk1]

Congratz! New guitar looks great! Play it in good health for many years.

[Midnight Blues]

Nice! Congrats, HNGD. and play her in good health!

[Doctor Jeff]

As mentioned in another post—love the Korean guitars. I had a Peerless Sunset, which was a great guitar. (I only sold it to buy an even better guitar.)

I did replace the pickups with Stew Mac Parsons Street Alnico 2’s, which made quite a difference IMO.

[va3ux]

I have one also and its a great guitar. There's not many of these around. Mine is the blonde version, Rensaissance 'Custom' model; overly ornate with 'mother of pearl' binding all over the place. I would have preferred the less flashy version like yours.

Mine is identical to the one in this link.
Peerless Renaissance Custom NA-Nickel 3007475 Blonde > Guitars Archtop Electric & Acoustic | Guitars n Jazz

[Gladders]

@va3ux , I would have taken the custom because I think it is probably the better guitar, but the plainness of the standard really appeals to me. The fancy stuff looks better on the blonde than the sunburst, though, imho.

You'd think there might be more of a market for this body shape with humbuckers than P90s, so I'm surprised there aren't more options around.

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[va3ux]

I really don't know if my guitar is any better than yours. I think the difference is mainly cosmetic. Cosmetics aside, I love the neck and frets on mine, it sounds fine with the stock pickups and hollow body and it's comfortable to play,