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Lot's of love for them here.
I didn't bond with the 2 that I've owned. Both were the older ones.
I much prefer the sound and feel of Eastman.
YMMV
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02-17-2014 02:37 PM
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I had one as my first jazz guitar ... liked it a lot and still do. The neck plays exceptionally nicely on mine. I have upgraded it a lot though ... new pickups, bone nut, new tuners, TOM bridge, wood pick guard, wood knobs. Today I probably wouldn't do that anymore and rather buy a guitar with all quality components or leave the cheap guitar to be what it is - a guitar with a very good price/performance ratio that is what it is (no matter how much you upgrade it, it will never be in the same league with a great guitar that is made from great tone woods by master luthiers).
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It's a great guitar for the money, especially used. Nice size, the neck is as comfortable as anything out there for me. I did upgrade the tuners and pickups and added wood knobs and pickguard, though I don't the the pickup upgrade is absolutely necessary with the right amplifier.
The Eastmans I have seen are nice but supply much more limited than Epi JP, not much of a used market so quite a bit more expensive (about twice the retail price for 16" laminated, if I understand correctly).
The way I look at it, you could buy one (used) tomorrow on Ebay for $400, and if you don't like it sell it again for the same price.
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I'm in the "much love" for JP camp I guess :-)
Funny...maybe I'll have the only positive comments without caveats. I have two, one is an early natural colored "Emperor" made by Samick which is identical to a JP (Emperor 2) without the JP badges, the other a tacky cherry burst is from the Unsung factory, both are dead stock and don't need a thing.
I don't have or need any Eastmans to compare it to which have lots of owners here already commented on, but I think that the early JP's (contrary to what's written above) stand shoulder to shoulder with my Gibson ES-195 and a number of other "better" guitars I have.
Some feel it necessary to mod them, but then again some VERY expensive Gibsons are being modded more often so who REALLY needs those mods? I personally wouldn't touch a guitar that "needed" mods YMMV.
Both of my JP's sport very Gibson like three piece necks that play fast, sport Grovers, and original Gibby style leaf switches and rosewood bridges. I don't know of any guitar that can be had for under $800 WOHSC that can touch it in sound or features, more likely for that money you get a kerf jointed neck, house tuners, old sewing machine style three position toggle and feel you HAVE to mod it.
Anyway... Just a side mention, the day I bought my Emperor I had just committed to buy it and while the sales guy went to get the case, an older jazzer offered to buy it from me on the spot for more than I was paying for it, gave me his card too just in case I decided to sell later on! That's the first and last time THAT ever happened to me.
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I have one since ages, and she is still in use. Built in Korea in the 90s. On the heavy side, stabile and somehow a bit stiff, like as if she was built like a 335 (which of course she is not). This means less acoustic quality, but also virtually no feedback issues. I put a Lollar CC pickup in recently, and she is a totally transformed piece now, very reactive and transparent sound.
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Mine is a 1999 from the Samick factory. I agree with all of the above except that my tuners were crappy. One had been replaced before I got it, and I had another one break at the bushing. I replaced it with amber-colored Ping tuners that really add to the appearance as well as the function.
I found the stock pickups to be a bit "muddy" and replaced them with Stewart Mac Parsons St. HB's. While I think it was a worthwhile upgrade, I have since learned that a good amp and equalizer will fix a lot of these pickup issues, so IMO probably not a necessary procedure, but still a heckuva lot cheaper than many similar guitars.
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I've got a Korean '94 & I'm very fond of it. Agree with above comments about how nice the neck feels - one of the best neck profiles I've tried on any guitar.
These guitars really have their own thing going, and if you can dig that, then you realise what fine instruments they actually are. For one thing, the fingerboard is much closer to the body than you find on most archtops - more like a 335 neck join. The 'feel' or compliance of the strings is much looser than other guitars with the same scale length such as a Gibson 175 - the JP feels more 'floppy', or looser than other designs. For that reason, on mine I can get away with a higher action without exerting much finger pressure. Perhaps that combo of high action and loose feel is why the Epi JP is popular with gypsy jazz players like Stochelo Rosenberg and others I've seen.
Mine turns 20 y.o. this year and it sounds really great - it's been played in a lot, and the wood it seems is aging nicely, despite having a poly finish (after all, the inside of the body isn't coated).
Because of the floppy string feel, and it being a basic laminate - the JP feels to me, kinda, sorta, more like a Gretsch than a Gibson - sort of a bit 'junky' and loose feeling (in a hip way) with no sustain. Qualities that I dig for playing 50's style jazz.
Billy Bean and Mundell Lowe played them. Apparently Mundell said he loved it, and used his on tour.
I like the specs too: 2.75" body depth, with the 16" body width make for a comfortable guitar - much more comfortable for playing long periods than my 175.
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Another vote for the JP here.
Mine is a 1995 Samick made and plays like a charm, one of the best neck ever.
I did upgrade mine with a 490R at the time to get more or less a similar tone to my guitar teacher (he was playing an ES 165). I even put some Labella black nylon tape 800M at some point but went back to 13-56 like my Regent.
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The first JP I ever tried was in '93 - at that time there was a big divide in quality between the (relatively) inexpensive asian made ones, and the US models. These days, with companies like Peerless and Eastman, every gap in the market seems to have been filled both in price and build-quality - but for many years, the Epi JP was IMO the best budget archtop on the market.
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Mine's a Samick-made '92 and I did all that as well. The original pickups were a bit limp, so I replaced with Gibson 490 HB's. I didn't feel that they were all that special, TBH. I came to the conclusion that I needed something completely different from my main guitar, so I had KA P90's fitted. Sounds both great and different enough to take out to the right gig. I also replaced the tailpiece (the original resonated too much at certain frequencies, provided an unexpected SPROINGGG! sound every so often.) and as many others, have added a wooden scratchplate. It was always a great player - as other mention, it has a great neck, which is better than any of my other guitars with the exception of my NYL-5. Very easy to play. Now however, the sound is really good too - a lot of the more traditional guys I play with like it for mainstream stuff that we do.
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Got a Korean made one from 2003, solidly made and nice to play. Never happy with the tone until I replaced stock pick up with a Bare Knuckle Manhattan (single coil in Humbucker form) - transformed the guitar's sound. I didn't really realise how bad the stock pup was until I replaced it.
So in summary I would say a pretty well built guitar at the price, but be prepared to replace the pup. I think even with the stock pup JP has a better traditional jazz tone than Ibanez, but big difference in neck profile Ibanez very skinny necks which I don't like (some do though).
Also the older Korean made ones are better than the current Chinese version. Picked one up recently in store and it really feels very different and not in a good way!Last edited by sparkhall; 02-18-2014 at 03:10 PM.
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Great guitars for the money, especially if you only play at home or at low volume, at higher volumes they feedback like crazy.
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@Guy - interesting. I use a Fender HRD and never had any feedback issues. Mine is quite heavy and the 2 pup structure and solid build makes it essentially fb-resistant. Not to challenge ur statement, maybe from different periods of build. Cheers!
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I only played one once. I was at Long & McQuade and I wanted to try the Fishman Loudbox Artist and Mini, as well as the Solo 220. Anyway, I didn't have a guitar with me and the only archtop in sight was an Epiphone Joe Pass so I grabbed it. I was mostly paying attention to the amps and no so much to the guitar, but I'll say this: it was easy no to think about it, so it's a good sign -- meaning nothing about it bothered me, and I don't feel that way very often with brand new shiny guitars at a big chain store.
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I am wondering which higher end guitar comes close to the JP design? It is ergonomically and visually a quite nice guitar but I couldn't name a higher end model it is modelled after. Do you?
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"I am wondering which higher end guitar comes close to the JP design? It is ergonomically and visually a quite nice guitar but I couldn't name a higher end model it is modelled after. Do you? "
Modeled after? Maybe not, but Visually from the front to me they very much resemble a Byrdland. Same cutaway, same last fret binding, block fret markers, similar tailpiece, Some JP's had the switch in the same location as the Byrd. They differ in bout width and thickness as well as scale length, but "visually" to me they're close.
I think if you were to get an older Emperor with the switch on the lower bout, change the TP and pickguard you might see it in a similar light :-)
Last edited by GNAPPI; 02-18-2014 at 11:55 PM.
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Go to 2:22 to see Stochelo playing his JP - looks like he put a Seymour Duncan Phat Cat in the neck position plus changed the pickguard. Also on the Djangologists doco you can hear audio of him playing it in different spots:
I've seen other Manouche guys play them on youtube clips, but I just happened to stumble on them over time. Can't remember where they were - like finding a needle in a haystack! Especially because these manouche guys aren't that hung up on gear, so 'Epiphone Joe Pass' never shows up in the metadata!
A friend says that he saw a clip of Angelo Debarre playing one - I've never seen that myself, but if correct, perhaps Angelo just happened to use it because it was there. Also I saw a clip of Jimmy Rosenberg playing an archtop which wasn't a JP, but looked very similar - sometimes I've seen different archtops from different brands with that exact JP body and f-holes, so probably made in the Samick factory perhaps.
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The Emperor 2 clearly evolved from the Emperor Regent, although there are some style elements it borrows from the Byrdland.
The Regent was 17" though. It looks like maybe the design changes came from Emperor models produced for the Japanese market.
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Originally Posted by Phil in London
I found that the Epiphone Joe Pass had a lot of feedback problems at loud gig volume with bands, that was in the 1990's. I was probably using a Roland JC amp at the time.
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Clearly these are nothing alike in no way... nope. Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
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Very nice. Maybe it's just me, but I found the Gibson to sound more defined with a pick than the Epi, and the Epi more defined and bell-like fingerstyle. I'm surprised by the great tone of the Dean too. Very different from the other two.
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I do not like any of the newer JP. My fave is an Unsung factory made. It has a 3 piece neck like a Gibson, without neck joints. If you can find one from Unsung you will be real happy. The others I have are Samick made, 3 piece necks, with heel joint.
Some also have Emperor in the label not Emperor II and no Joe Pass badge markings which may make a difference to you in sound, mine do.
They are silly cheap here in the U.S., I got the Unsung made CSB for under $300.
PS. All of the JP and Emperor I have played have the "modern" wiring where either of the volume controls set to zero in the middle position do not shut down the volume of the other pup.
Last edited by GNAPPI; 01-13-2017 at 05:26 AM.
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At the risk of embarrassing myself, here is a video I made a couple of years ago when I had my Epi JP. I think it was after I upgraded the pickups with Stew Mac Parson Street Alnico 2's.
Please don't focus on the performance, as I was just messing around, but check out the sound--I like the tone even given the limitations of the primitive recording technology (iPhone with a tiny plug-in mic).
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I quite like the tone! Tried searching for used JP, still no luck in my country
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Since I switched to AlNiCo II's I have never looked back. Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
Just recently put on II's for a Tele bridge pickup, wow! Quite a wide tone sweep. Nice.....
Back to OP, yes the JP is great value considering Mr Pass help design it with Epiphone. It's not a direct copy of a ES 175 like the premium but it is unique to epiphone. I played a second hand early made JP and it was faultless. Unfortunately the shorter scale doesn't do it for me so i Joe Pass-ed on it (lol).
I did get an Unsung made Emperor Regent and despite some QC issues its an absolute diamond.
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