The best value I've ever gotten in a guitar

[Jim Soloway]

The best value I've ever gotten in a guitar is a Jet JJ-350. It's a Chinese import that sells for about $350 US and is actually a really well made guitar. The neck and fretwork are pretty much flawless. Roasted maple neck, incredibly clean stainless frets, rosewood fingerboard, good balance and only 6.5 lbs. The only obvious weaknesses are the very ordinary pickups and sub-par wiring but those are the easiest things to upgrade in a guitar. I replaced the neck pickup with a Canadian made Vineham Royal Humbucker (another great bargain) and it's now rewired with proper shielding and quality pots. We took the pickup switch completely out of the equation so in reality it's now a one pickup guitar with just the Vineham in the neck position. My total investment in this guitar is about $465 US and it's not just a good guitar for the money, it's good guitar regardless of the price. It may not look like a jazz guitar but I'd be happy to play this anywhere.

I actually bought this guitar several months ago but it mostly sat while I was working on the album and then I took a month off of playing because if pain in my left hand. I finally got around to really playing it this past weekend and it was a real joy. It came out of it's case almost in tune, a good indication of its stability and it stayed in tune for most of the weekend. Here's a quick look and listen that I knocked out on Saturday.

[Archie]

A lot of buzz on youtube about how good some of these Chinese guitars are. They started out naff, then got better QC but with cheap finishes, now with excellent QC and good finishes.

[rpjazzguitar]

My best value guitar is a Yamaha Pacifica 012. That's the cheapest model they make afaik. Sold for $179 just a few years ago, with an amp, a bag, a cable a pick, and maybe a book. I bought it used for $125 at Starving Musician. It had replacement tuners. I put a Lil 59 HB in the neck position. I had to replace the switch and output jack. The bridge HB died and I replaced it with some black tape.

Seems like the wood parts are great and the metal parts not so great. I think the woods are agathis and cocobolo.

The scale length is Fender but the neck is very slim in every other dimension. Not for everybody, but great for my arthritic hands. Radius is 12 or 14 iirc, which I prefer to my 9.5 Fender.

Playability is excellent. Stays in tune way better than my Comins. Doesn't sound quite as good as the Comins, or the Fender but I've gigged with it many times and never had a complaint.

[Jim Soloway]

My best value guitar is a Yamaha Pacifica 012. That's the cheapest model they make afaik. Sold for $179 just a few years ago, with an amp, a bag, a cable a pick, and maybe a book. I bought it used for $125 at Starving Musician. It had replacement tuners. I put a Lil 59 HB in the neck position. I had to replace the switch and output jack. The bridge HB died and I replaced it with some black tape.

Seems like the wood parts are great and the metal parts not so great. I think the woods are agathis and cocobolo.

The scale length is Fender but the neck is very slim in every other dimension. Not for everybody, but great for my arthritic hands. Radius is 12 or 14 iirc, which I prefer to my 9.5 Fender.

Playability is excellent. Stays in tune way better than my Comins. Doesn't sound quite as good as the Comins, or the Fender but I've gigged with it many times and never had a complaint.

The metal parts on the Jet seem OK. Their one obvious shortcoming seems to be the electronics but with the Vineham pickup and some shielding, that's a non-issue. It's a good time to be a guitar player if you're spending impaired .

[JGinNJ]

I like seeing an offset body in this price range. I'd love to find a semi-hollow, thinline type, but it's a rarity to find even a kit body.

[DRS]

I've had great success with Chinese Epiphone guitars in the last 5 years

• ES339
• Johnny A
• SG Standard 60s

[Jim Soloway]

I've had great success with Chinese Epiphone guitars in the last 5 years

• ES339
• Johnny A
• SG Standard 60s

It seems like a lot of Chinese manufacturing as a process has gotten awfully good and guitars are just a small piece of that. They've made huge investments in advanced manufacturing technology and the skills needed for that.

[Rickco]

Just came over from the archtop value discussion...Your guitar sounds beautiful and certainly makes benchmark of value and relative value questionable, but your playing is why that guitar can sound that good. Great clip as usual and inspiring, thanks

[Jim Soloway]

Just came over from the archtop value discussion...Your guitar sounds beautiful and certainly makes benchmark of value and relative value questionable, but your playing is why that guitar can sound that good. Great clip as usual and inspiring, thanks

Thanks. It's the opening passage to a song I wrote called "Ripples On A Pond". It was meant to be on the new album but I never really bonded with the performance so I replaced it at the last minute. Now I'm trying some new things with it so I can take another run at it for my next project.