IYV Jazzy cool guitar $190?

CoolCat

CoolCat

Well-known member
I been looking at this thing for awhile. Pulled the trigger and got a short review if anyones looking for a "jazzy humbucker guitar".
A lot of happy customers, of course at $190 helps positive reviews in quantity.
It showed up in a sparse carboard box with styrofoam and somehow Amazon had one in Texas so it arrived in a 2day trip.

Buying so many guitars over the years I feel Ive had them all from Gibsons E335 to warped neck used ripoff buys....for the most part a Fender Strat/Tele single pup was enough....Gibsons and Epiphones seemed alluring with the humbuckers, but the "Jazzy" "thick" mellow bluesy clean sound was
something to compliment a single coil guitar.

At $190 the picture shows a Gibson-ish semihollow but what arrived is "the new" version and it seems, Im guessing, but the Headstock and body had a couple too close to Gibson-ish and they changed up and rounded some corners and slight adjustment to the headstock (like WARM and Neumann 87 shape change?) ....any way. The bigger difference was the color from the picture was a lighter sunburst.

Moving on, tuned it, plugged it in and tweaked it to a really nice tone, and it hit that well. The silent Humbucker is great, a little eq to my taste and was soon recording a little mellow jam 3chord slow stuff with clean-smooth in Reaper...very nice.
Plus is its a different Guitar from my strats, so its been a little enjoyment for some strange.

At $190...apparently a automated "3D" CNC can do this? The whole thing is kind of mind boggling and scary imo.
I told my son.."if we had $190 could I go build one of these from Home Depot?"...hellno!

The next day some more jamming and then to look for problems a bit, but I just dont see anything to really complain about.
Ive seen expensive guitars with little cosmetic things in the paint or on the bindings...and sure, thats unacceptable for $4500 guitars, ok for $190 guitars?
Dings and things will happen if its played a lot around here, so this cosmetic stuff is small imo. But there arent any defects I can see from 12inches away anyway. The "magnifier stuff" some people get off on and I get that, could find more defects but again Ive seen that on $4500 Gibsons at times too.

I guess then these CNC take a lot of the cheapness out and as a player, the guitars are really well done. Im playing it Stock, and its fine.
Maybe its the CNC Robots taking over? Maybe the pearl inlays are synthetic-copies, maybe the tuners will wear out in a year?
But Im playing it "as is" and its fine. I dont justify a Brydland for hobby home stuff and the Fender Tube amps are now located in my computer sim folder.
This guitar will be in a house and wont be banged around other than humans, but there wont be airflights and weather changes to destroy it.

Benn listening to Wes Montgomery and the Hank Garland stuff...Semi Hollow guitars, the large beautiful guitars back in the day....(the Gar- land part of Bryd-land I learned..Bryd + Garland = Gibson Brydland pretty cool).....anyway this guitar has that vibey tone too. Big fat humbuckers and sooooo quiet compared to single coils. Very different to play than the Strat maple necks...

still I wonder how do they make such a nice a guitar.... and sell so cheap?
 

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Funny I notified Amazon the guitar in the picture isnt the same guitar being shipped and they cancelled my post. Others had mentioned the same thing.

IYV IJZ 300 TSB(tobacco sunburst various colors?)
a damn nice guitar for the money. Some might even like the 2021+ modified cosmetics versiosn better than the picture design. I admit I liked the dark walnut wood look in the picture vs what was in the box, but its really done well so,,,,anyway....

Surprise Tobacco Sunbursts
 

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A lot of those cheap guitars actually have a printed veneer on the top. It's really easy to print a wood grain pattern on a thin sheet, which is then glued to the top. In that case, every guitar can look identical! Maybe they changed the wood pattern in the print process. I bought some tile for a bathroom remodel, and the wood patterns are printed on the tile. You wouldn't know if, except that if you look closely the pattern repeats about every 10th or 12 tile.

There can also be big variations in pictures because of lighting, digital manipulation, etc. It's really easy to change colors, y'know!
 
I really like the Chinese guitars - I just saw a couple of really interesting ones - a strat body with PRS type neck (no branding) and a telecaster - but a 12 string tele - so I've ordered one for the price.
 
I hate the idea but the actual guitars are pretty good for the most part. Where they fall down is hardware/electronics. The guitars themselves on the otherhand are pretty straight and decent players.
 
I will say that many of these low cost guitars are much better than what you got in the mid 60s. Considering that in the mid 60s, my dad paid $120 for a Guyatone built Kent guitar that really wasn't a great guitar, getting something that is really playable for $200 is amazing. With inflation, that would be equal to $7-800.

I have a couple of Korean built guitars and both are really well made, and very playable. I wouldn't hesitate to take my G&L Tribute guitar on stage any day. My Dearmond Starfire has made many trips with me when I was traveling for work. I played it at one of the last gigs my band played years ago.

WHile the electronics might not be the best, those things are really easily rectified. An hour, $30 and a soldering iron will give you a completely new harness.
 
I have a pretty extensive collection of guitars ranging from $40 to around $5000. The best all around player is a Schecter PT Custom. A $500 guitar. And the electronics and hardware were poop but the guitar itself is one of the most stable, playable guitars I've ever had my hands on.
 
I've got one real and two fake Gibson Les Paul's. Out of the three the real one is my second go to. One is just a bit narrow on the neck, and the other is really nice, so Gibson comes second. My favourite bass is a 5 string Peavey - but I have a Chinese unbranded 6 string which is a lovely bass to play, but too heavy. I'll happily play one of the fake gibsons on stage - no matter how hard you try, they fall over, or get thumped or dinged - and I'd rather do that to a cheaper price one. I'll never sell the fakes LPs, so despite the usual public outcry, I'm sort of comfy with the fakery. My choice to buy them, but selling them as genuine is not on my agenda.
 
Track Rat said:
I have a pretty extensive collection of guitars ranging from $40 to around $5000. The best all around player is a Schecter PT Custom. A $500 guitar. And the electronics and hardware were poop but the guitar itself is one of the most stable, playable guitars I've ever had my hands on.
Click to expand...
now thats a huge range of samples! $40 to $5000!
 
Looks like a chair behind the couch doesn't have a guitar on it. You need to buy more.
 
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