JF-1 EXP Review

The Peavey JF-1 hollow-body electric guitar plays like a dream. Jazz and fusion players are constantly playing up and down the fretboard and need as much access as possible, especially in the upper registers. Peavey took this classic design one step further by ever so slightly angling the neck to allow more comfortable access to the upper register of the fretboard.

Features:	9
Sound:	10
Action:	10
Reliability:	9
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.6
Users rating:	10

overall: 9.6

Reviewed by: unregistered, on april 16, 2007

Price paid: $ 355.5

Features: The JF-1 EXP is a hollow body from their factory in china (EXP is Korean, has larger inlays than mine and has EXP on head). Mine was made in 2007, 22 frets, 22 3/4" scale on a 1 piece mahogany set neck. It has a rosewood fretboard and maple plywood body with a transparent red quilted veneer that is absolutely gorgeous. It has 2 humbuckers with a tone and volume control for each and a 3-way switch. It also has a tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece. Everything is plated in gold including the Grover tuners and the pickguard is black-white-black. I switched the strings over to D'Addario Chrome 11's and love them. The only thing bad I can say is it came with absolutely nothing, not just the case but I had to download a generic book from their website on top of it. Surprised it showed up with strings. // 9

Sound: I play mostly nothing but blues (John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and George Thorogood)with a little bit of rockabilly thrown in and I have to say this guitar suits me perfectly. I do not play with anyone else other than the odd guitar or bass so I don't have to compete with a drum set. As such I am running it through a Peavey Rage on the Vintage/clean settings with a Boss Distortion pedal for the Hooker/Thorogood growl. I find it has a very full, mellow sound to it that fits very well with the dark Delta style blues. // 10

Action, Fit & Finish: I plugged it in straight out of the box and have never touched it yet. The only thing I changed was the strings and even then I never had to play with the intonation at all. The only flaw I have been able to find is there is a very tiny crack emanating from the 3 way Switch. It is not in the finish, looks like it may have split when they drilled the original hole. // 10

Reliability & Durability: Overall, for the price I paid, I don't see it having any problems standing up with a twice the price Epiphone dot or comparable Ibanez Alcore. I may want to put strap keepers on if I was doing any amount of stage work but other than that I think it would stand up fine. // 9

Impression: Others have complained about the tuners and the pickups but I have had no problem at all with either. If this guitar was stolen I would cry and most definitely buy another. This guitar sounds great, the fretboard is very nice to play and the red is, as I said earlier, absolutely gorgeous! The only thing I think was missing is that is never came with a case. I purchased a hardshell after it arrived. // 10