Back in November, I'd tried one at a semi-local music store, and was sufficiently impressed by its potential for rockabilly and surfabilly. Nearly a year later, I'm at the store to inquire about pickups, and there it is with the used guitars. Turns out, the guy that had bought it decided he wanted something different, that was more expensive, and he had traded the JF2 EXP and an acoustic guitar for the one he wanted.
So I plugged it into a Peavey Classic 50/212, more so to try that combo amp against the Classic 50/410 they had back in November, and I ended up putting the Classic 50/212 on lay-away. When I got home with the JF2, I plugged it into my Line 6 Guitar POD 2.0, and ended up jamming for 2 1/2 hours. Although I tend to like keeping the reverb cranked, for my preference for surf guitar, I don't really need reverb with the Peavey JF2 EXP. Putting the Effects knob on Delay, and setting the Tweak Effect just right produces some great slap-back echo, for pure rockabilly tones. For surfabilly, I just need to crank the reverb, and dial the delay back a tick or two, and the "drip" is like a drop of water hitting water.
I could have held out for a Gretsch Electromatic G512x, for twice what the Peavey JF2 EXP is new, but I'd been longing for quite a while, to add a rockabilly box to my collection, so I went with the current opportunity. I don't plan to make any changes to the Peavey, except for the strings, and I wouldn't have with a Gretsch box, but the Peavey JF2 EXP is a great example of a bang-for-the-buck guitar. Some folks have an elitist attitude that "below X dollars = piece of shit guitar," but I somewhat suspect they have the money to buy $1000.00+ guitars, and wouldn't be caught dead even handling a guitar below that price point.
This one puts my collection up to 17 guitars, and when I go buy the Gretsch Junior Jet (pre-Fender) I'll be up to 18. Some I only use at home, for noodling around, and others I'll be using for recording and/or gigging (whenever I'm able to put together a surf/rockabilly/surfabilly band), and the Peavey JF2 EXP will be one of my recording/gigging guitars.
Matt
So I plugged it into a Peavey Classic 50/212, more so to try that combo amp against the Classic 50/410 they had back in November, and I ended up putting the Classic 50/212 on lay-away. When I got home with the JF2, I plugged it into my Line 6 Guitar POD 2.0, and ended up jamming for 2 1/2 hours. Although I tend to like keeping the reverb cranked, for my preference for surf guitar, I don't really need reverb with the Peavey JF2 EXP. Putting the Effects knob on Delay, and setting the Tweak Effect just right produces some great slap-back echo, for pure rockabilly tones. For surfabilly, I just need to crank the reverb, and dial the delay back a tick or two, and the "drip" is like a drop of water hitting water.
I could have held out for a Gretsch Electromatic G512x, for twice what the Peavey JF2 EXP is new, but I'd been longing for quite a while, to add a rockabilly box to my collection, so I went with the current opportunity. I don't plan to make any changes to the Peavey, except for the strings, and I wouldn't have with a Gretsch box, but the Peavey JF2 EXP is a great example of a bang-for-the-buck guitar. Some folks have an elitist attitude that "below X dollars = piece of shit guitar," but I somewhat suspect they have the money to buy $1000.00+ guitars, and wouldn't be caught dead even handling a guitar below that price point.
This one puts my collection up to 17 guitars, and when I go buy the Gretsch Junior Jet (pre-Fender) I'll be up to 18. Some I only use at home, for noodling around, and others I'll be using for recording and/or gigging (whenever I'm able to put together a surf/rockabilly/surfabilly band), and the Peavey JF2 EXP will be one of my recording/gigging guitars.
Matt