Friend is offering me to purchase his Korean Joe Pass Emperor but...

[richay]

and tho im quite interested, he sent me a demo of him playing it - and it just sounded bad. now, im new to the electric world (haha greetings from flamenco cloud) so it could be maybe the amp they are using? Idk, heres the vid:

I know its not a fake or anything, i checked the serial. Usually these things sound great, but it seemed to have more of a.. crappy acoustic guitar pick up tone. Tell me what you think, am i imagining things?

[John A.]

and tho im quite interested, he sent me a demo of him playing it - and it just sounded bad. now, im new to the electric world (haha greetings from flamenco cloud) so it could be maybe the amp they are using? Idk, heres the vid:

I know its not a fake or anything, i checked the serial. Usually these things sound great, but it seemed to have more of a.. crappy acoustic guitar pick up tone. Tell me what you think, am i imagining things?

You're not imagining it. There's almost no amp tone detectable in the video (most likely because the amp is on a really quiet setting and is too far from the phone for phone to "hear" it above guitar's unplugged sound). Assuming the guitar is not broken, I'm sure that's not its real electric sound at all.

John

[2bornot2bop]

It would help it the guy could actually play guitar. That’s the worst demo ever.

[citizenk74]

and tho im quite interested, he sent me a demo of him playing it - and it just sounded bad. now, im new to the electric world (haha greetings from flamenco cloud) so it could be maybe the amp they are using? Idk, heres the vid:

I know its not a fake or anything, i checked the serial. Usually these things sound great, but it seemed to have more of a.. crappy acoustic guitar pick up tone. Tell me what you think, am i imagining things?

Sounds to me like newish roundwound strings withe tone controls on the guitar and amp set to full on, emphasizing the highs disproportionally through an iffy cell phone mic. Flatwound strings and some discrete knob-twiddling should yield a range of useable "jazz" tones, whatever that word means to you. On the other hand, it's your money and your choice.

[PaulHintz]

That’s the worst guitar demo I’ve ever seen. This is not a rare or hard to find model of guitar. Buy from someone who knows how to make a sale. IMHO.

[neatomic]

Sounds to me like newish roundwound strings withe tone controls on the guitar and amp set to full on, emphasizing the highs disproportionally through an iffy cell phone mic. Flatwound strings and some discrete knob-twiddling should yield a range of useable "jazz" tones, whatever that word means to you. On the other hand, it's your money and your choice.

exactly ck74...bright light roundwounds...trebly amp..slightly out of tune...can't judge by that!!

don't be scared off...listen to some other epi pass vids played with a more jazz tone and style sensibility

epi pass have been around for decades..popular guitars

cheers

[rob taft]

Well, if anything, based on the guy doing the demo it hasn't been played a whole lot. As other suggested, listen to other videos of the guitar. If you can get a good price for it. Go for it.

[Cunamara]

Is this the more recent version with a coil splitting switch? That would explain a lot, if it was set to that. I couldn't get past about 20 seconds of the playing on the demo, it sounded so bad.

[Marcel_A]

Funny though, he's switching pu's but it's not making any difference soundwise . . . .
This guitar sounds pretty good acoustically. You should ask him to make another demo. With the mic closer to the amp and the amp at louder settings.

I don't think there is anything wrong with this guitar.
Oh and to those who commented on his playing . . . . .
Don't. He probably doesn't even know his video ended up on this forum.

[jazzbow]

Hiya matey.
Guitar is in tune but I think your pal is pressing too hard on .009's or .010's which sound like GHS Boomers (rock music strings).
Listening through headphones I can hear the neck/rhythm pickup has a nice punch to it.
The Fender Peavey amp he is playing through is a Fender Blues Junior and would be voiced for blues rock music, I would need to wrestle with it to get a usable jazz tone.

On the subject of jazz tone it is 10% equipment and 90% player.

Your friend has what I would call 'acoustic fingers' with a smattering of proto-blues, not a bad thing and his musical set up expresses this.

Imagine this, you are a wanting a semi-acoustic rock guitar and your pal sends you a video of him playing a Joe Pass through a polytone with flatwound .013's nickel wrap. He's laying down some sweet bebop lines on a guitar where the pickup selector is fused onto the neck/rhythm pickup and you have posted the video on a punk rock forum asking whether it's good enough to rock out on.......

And...... you're back in the room!

Okay, when you hear the sentence 'Flatwound Thomastic' you will have a compelling urge to purchase a big box jazz guitar and spend many hours enjoying a fine musical instrument.

Jump in mate.....

[jazzbow]

flatwound thomastic!

[Jonathan0996]

I think there's a combination of issues at play here. He definitely has bright round wound strings, probably thin ones. You're not hearing much of the amp. And not to insult your friend, but it doesn't seem like he has a very good touch for guitar. Tone is mostly in the hands.

I've heard guys on YouTube make some great guitars sound crappy. I'll bet any of the elite guitarists we all admire could pick up that guitar and make it sing.