plankton
Well-Known Member
I had heard of this company before, seen a couple for sale second hand online, usually a Strat or LP copy, and initially was fooled by the name thinking they were from a custom builder, but soon realised they were just inexpensive Chinese copies and didn't give them much more thought.
A couple weeks ago I wandered into a small shop that I'd only been to once before and there was a nice looking SG hanging on the wall and it was a J&D Luthiers for $399. I had a look over it and a little play and was really impressed. About an hour earlier I had been at the "big music shop" and had done the same with a 2018 SG Standard, and this guitar didn't feel appreciably different in my hands. I asked if I could plug it in and was quite satisfied with the sound after a short play. The only reasons I didn't buy it right then and there was that it was cherry and I have two guitars in that colour already, and I wanted to do a bit of homework about them first before plunking down some cash.
Found the site for the Aussie distributor and everything looked good. It's listed as having mahogany body and neck with rosewood fretboard. It's got a set neck, neck binding and the body and pickguard were the proper shape (unlike some Chinese copies). I also found a black one for sale online for $320 shipped. All good.
Just got it today and I'm very happy with it, especially for the money. It's less than half what my '66 G400 Pro would have sold for new, and in many ways I think it's a better guitar. The body bevels are much nicer and more Gibbo-like on the J&D, it's got neck binding and the heel joint is much more contoured. Not necessarily better, but the neck is a bit thinner that the '66 Pro and it balances better on a strap.
I was thinking I'd most likely want to swap the pickups and electronics eventually, but everything is quite decent in that regard. I like the tone of the pickups through my rig, especially after some height adjustment. I measured their output at the jack, the neck was 7.3 and the bridge 8.5, right were I like them. It's nice to see a company selling inexpensive import guitars that realises not everyone wants a 14k super-hot bridge pickup. Pulled of the back cover and found full size 500k Alpha pots, linear for the volume and audio for tone. I actually like how the linear volumes work on this guitar. The tone caps are 0.47, which I usually find too dark, and that's true for the neck pickup, but it's perfect for this bridge pickup. They only thing I might do soon is change the neck tone cap and add treble bleeds to the volumes.
The hardware is good and it was setup well right out of the box. The frets could have used a polish and a few of the ends were a bit rough, but I didn't even notice while playing, only when I went looking. The only real weakness is the nut, which is plastic and seems like it's causing some tuning issues. When I change the strings I'll try lubing it or maybe a little sandpaper. The fretboard seems a bit dry as well, so that will get some attention too.
All things considered though I'm really impressed with this guitar. It easily competes with instruments double it's price. I'm not sure where else in the world they're available, but I would definitely recommend them if you're in the market for such a thing. Here's the link to it on the Australian distributor's site,
https://www.jademcaustralia.com.au/...-electric-guitar-black?variant=12672960364631
And of course the photos.
The best bit, I'm now a member of the multiple SG club!
A couple weeks ago I wandered into a small shop that I'd only been to once before and there was a nice looking SG hanging on the wall and it was a J&D Luthiers for $399. I had a look over it and a little play and was really impressed. About an hour earlier I had been at the "big music shop" and had done the same with a 2018 SG Standard, and this guitar didn't feel appreciably different in my hands. I asked if I could plug it in and was quite satisfied with the sound after a short play. The only reasons I didn't buy it right then and there was that it was cherry and I have two guitars in that colour already, and I wanted to do a bit of homework about them first before plunking down some cash.
Found the site for the Aussie distributor and everything looked good. It's listed as having mahogany body and neck with rosewood fretboard. It's got a set neck, neck binding and the body and pickguard were the proper shape (unlike some Chinese copies). I also found a black one for sale online for $320 shipped. All good.
Just got it today and I'm very happy with it, especially for the money. It's less than half what my '66 G400 Pro would have sold for new, and in many ways I think it's a better guitar. The body bevels are much nicer and more Gibbo-like on the J&D, it's got neck binding and the heel joint is much more contoured. Not necessarily better, but the neck is a bit thinner that the '66 Pro and it balances better on a strap.
I was thinking I'd most likely want to swap the pickups and electronics eventually, but everything is quite decent in that regard. I like the tone of the pickups through my rig, especially after some height adjustment. I measured their output at the jack, the neck was 7.3 and the bridge 8.5, right were I like them. It's nice to see a company selling inexpensive import guitars that realises not everyone wants a 14k super-hot bridge pickup. Pulled of the back cover and found full size 500k Alpha pots, linear for the volume and audio for tone. I actually like how the linear volumes work on this guitar. The tone caps are 0.47, which I usually find too dark, and that's true for the neck pickup, but it's perfect for this bridge pickup. They only thing I might do soon is change the neck tone cap and add treble bleeds to the volumes.
The hardware is good and it was setup well right out of the box. The frets could have used a polish and a few of the ends were a bit rough, but I didn't even notice while playing, only when I went looking. The only real weakness is the nut, which is plastic and seems like it's causing some tuning issues. When I change the strings I'll try lubing it or maybe a little sandpaper. The fretboard seems a bit dry as well, so that will get some attention too.
All things considered though I'm really impressed with this guitar. It easily competes with instruments double it's price. I'm not sure where else in the world they're available, but I would definitely recommend them if you're in the market for such a thing. Here's the link to it on the Australian distributor's site,
https://www.jademcaustralia.com.au/...-electric-guitar-black?variant=12672960364631
And of course the photos.
The best bit, I'm now a member of the multiple SG club!
