Peerless Renaissance - What else compares ?

[Naquat]

I used to own a Peerless Renaissance and it's one of those guitars I should not have sold.

It played very well, much better than the similar Casinos or Ibanez ASR70 and the fit and finish was excellent.

It's basically and upgraded Casino - Double Cut Thinline Hollowbody guitar with hum buckers.

Used Renaissance's are rather scarce though and before I take the plunge is there anything else that compares?

I had an old Gibson T-Top from the early 70's that I put in my FrankenTele that sounds super. I mean really good for the mellow tone. I'd love to put it into a Renaissance of sorts. I have a few other T-Tops so I'm not worried about the Tele. Funny, that 70's T- Top sat in box probably since the late 70's. LOL...

Anyway, I digress, for the money, is there anything that Tops the Renaissance with similar specs?

Thanks much....

[lammie200]

I don't know but I just traded my Monarch 16 with a set HB for a Jazz City with a set HB. I think that I have a keeper. The 25.5" scale length did it for me.

[Doctor Jeff]

The Peerless Sunset is a great guitar for jazz and a couple of hundred cheaper. It's only a single cutaway of course, but fully hollow.

There's a Renaissance on Reverb for $895, no Sunset unfortunately. There's also a Tonemaster for $550 which has that Gretsch thing going on--very cool-looking guitar.

IMO it's hard to find a guitar the quality of the Peerless thinlines for less money. There might be some Ibanez out there, but I don't have any experience with them.

[lammie200]

...

IMO it's hard to find a guitar the quality of the Peerless thinlines for less money...

I found both the Monarch and now the Jazz City to be excellent guitars. Probably on par with the D'Angelicos, but aren't they all made in the same factory?

[Naquat]

The funny thing is unlike many people I'm not a fan a bling. I prefer the Renaissance Standard over the Custom, I'm not partial to gold and I prefer plastic or wood binding to the Custom binding. Unfortunately they don't come up for sale very often and the US importers seem to stock the Custom rather than the Standard these days and I'm not going to custom order one.

I actually prefer the look of the hard tail with the dot inlays rather than the block inlays on the Ren as well but .....I can live with that.

Some of the Eastman's look nice but favor I 1 11/16" nut rather than 1.75.

[lammie200]

The funny thing is unlike many people I'm not a fan a bling...

I hear you. On the Jazz City I changed all the gold screws to black. I also put on an ebony wood pick up ring and ebony knobs. It really helped tone down the looks. It has abalone top binding. However, it doesn't look too flashy with it now that I exchanged the gold points for black.

I wonder why they decided to ship these Peerless guitars with the heavy gold knobs. I had to change them out.

[Doctor Jeff]

I found both the Monarch and now the Jazz City to be excellent guitars. Probably on par with the D'Angelicos, but aren't they all made in the same factory?

Peerless used to make guitars for Epi, Gibson and Gretsch, but now I think they only make guitars under their own name. Not sure which factory makes D'Angelico.

[Naquat]

I know that Peerless built guitars for Epi and many others but which guitars did they make for Gibson?

[Naquat]

I asked this in another thread but I'm still curious. The dimensions are the same on the Renaissance and the Songbird.
I know they have different neck woods and the Songbird has P90 type pups but do they play pretty much the same or is the construction of the Songbird like a Casino and the Renaissance is higher quality?

[GNAPPI]

There's a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L natural Peerless Renaissance with all nickle hardware on Ebay, such a looker.

[Naquat]

Gnappi, yes that is a beauty and he has more on his website. I'm just not a big fan of all that abalone. More "stuff" to go wrong down the road. Funny the only guitar I have for decades is my old '75 Guild D40. Heavy, 1 5/8" nut ( a bit narrow) a few bumps and bruises, but after all these years that dread sounds good.

The Eastman T386 looks nice with the dot neck. Unless it's thin(but that could be remedied) the 1 3/4" nut seems a bit wide for me and I know it's a semi not a full hollow like the Renaissance but I've never played one.

[Naquat]

Here's another possibility perhaps I should consider.

I own an Engel 14" Hollow body. It's almost like a semi in a way because the top and back are so thick and it has a small post under the bridge. Great guitar, plays fantastic but I'd like something with a bit MORE hollow body sound without relying too much on backing off the tone control.

I think it's made of Butternut and Maple with I believe a maple/rosewood neck, Frailin Hums w/split coil and reverse phase, and I have a calzone type travel case for it.

My Engel is near mint and a new one is close to $3K so I'm guessing $2k +/- on a trade seems reasonable. If I did a sale or trade deal what might be a good 14"-16" Full Hollow no more than 2.5" deep, 1 11/16" nut to move up to? I could add another $800 -$1000 but I'd prefer not to get another boutique guitar, unless it's a well known builder, because of devaluation if I get run over by a truck and can't play and need to sell it.

Thoughts?

[lammie200]

Godin Jazz and some of the other Kingpins meets your criteria.

[Doctor Jeff]

I know that Peerless built guitars for Epi and many others but which guitars did they make for Gibson?

Sorry, my bad. They made guitars for Gibson's Epi division.

[va3ux]

There's a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L natural Peerless Renaissance with all nickle hardware on Ebay, such a looker.

I have one of those. It is a little blingy but it is definitely a good guitar

[docdosco]

I used to own a Peerless Renaissance and it's one of those guitars I should not have sold.

It played very well, much better than the similar Casinos or Ibanez ASR70 and the fit and finish was excellent.

It's basically and upgraded Casino - Double Cut Thinline Hollowbody guitar with hum buckers.

Used Renaissance's are rather scarce though and before I take the plunge is there anything else that compares?

I had an old Gibson T-Top from the early 70's that I put in my FrankenTele that sounds super. I mean really good for the mellow tone. I'd love to put it into a Renaissance of sorts. I have a few other T-Tops so I'm not worried about the Tele. Funny, that 70's T- Top sat in box probably since the late 70's. LOL...

Anyway, I digress, for the money, is there anything that Tops the Renaissance with similar specs?

Thanks much....

FYI: I have 2 Rens for sale. One is the new carved top model Renaissance Master. Only one in the US. (if you are in the US) The other a 40th anniversary model. Only 50 made.They cost more than the regular Renaissance, but they both have better pups, body woods and ebony....

[Naquat]

Thanks Doc, I did see those. Beautiful guitars but a bit over my budget and I actually prefer chrome hardware.