Jedson Acoustic '000'

I am the original owner of this Martin 000-28 copy. It was manufactured in July, 1972 in Japan for Dallas Arbiter in London. I have had the guitar for 34 years but it stayed in the closet for long periods of time because I was busy playing my archtops. I took a very active interest in the Jedson when my son wanted to learn and I handed it to him. At that point, I realized it was not just a beginner's guitar.

Jedson guitars were built between 1970 and 1973 (give-or-take a year.) All of the information currently available on the Internet is either on my website or available through a link from my website. http://home.nc.rr.com/flask/jedson/index.htm

I setup the website in an effort to help other Jedson owners searching for information.

Japanese guitar makers in the '70s and '80s were desperately trying to match the build quality, fit-and-finish, and tonal qualities of American-made guitars such as Martin, Gibson and Fender. In many cases, they did produce guitars of extremely good quality. I believe Jedson, Yamiki and Tokai guitars fit into this category.

My Martin 000-28 copy is the only one I know of at this time, and it is the only Jedson that I know was purchased in the US. The importer and all of the other Jedsons I located are in the UK.

Jedson '000' Acoustic review follows
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Finish: Clear gloss, back and sides possibly stained a walnut color -- might be natural wood color

Top: Solid Sitka Spruce

Back and Sides: Solid -- I have checked with many Luthiers and the conclusion is that the material is flat-sawn East Indian Rosewood for the back and sides are rift-sawn. Other possibilities for wood-type are Brazilian Rosewood and African Blackwood. It is very difficult to determine because there are samples of each of these wood types that resemble the Jedson's back and sides

Body Style: Martin "000" auditorium sixe. The Jedson matches the specs of the Martin almost exactly. Please refer to the "comparison" page on the aforementioned website

Tuners: Chrome-plates enclosed. Cheap - No brand name. Will replace with Grover or Gotoh tuners

Neck/Scale: Solid mahogany with Indian Rosewood fingerboard. Very small frets! Very low action with no buzz. Truss-rod was adjusted one time in the 34 years that I have owned the guitar. White Pearl-block inlays. No neck binding. Headstock has rosewood veneer, Jedson brand name inlayed with white pearl. Truss rod is adjusted from the headstock -- there is a cheap plastic cover with gold-edging. Scale length is 24.75" Plastic nut is being replaced with bone.

Bridge: Solid rosewood wide (6.5") bridge having height-adjustable metal saddle frame. In process of modifying bridge to eliminate the adjustable saddle frame and replacing it with a tightly fitted rosewood insert and new bone saddle. Plastic bridge pins replaced with bone.

Binding: Martin-style white with black-lines. No purfling
Rosette: Martin style white and black circular pattern
Pickguard: Martin-style black plastic. Being replaced with '50s style Tor-tis pickguard

Music-style: When playing acoustic, primarily fingerstyle-jazz and folk. Acoustic-alchemy, Pat Metheny, Larry Carlton, etc style

Body resonates beautifully. Solid hardwoods and solid spruce top provide warm but bright tone. After playing several Martins, I would say that the tone quality is comparable. I prefer the Jedson '000' sound over the larger Martin dreadnaughts

As expected, upper-register notes are pretty dull on strings 4-6. Martin might have an edge here.

I kept the action very low over the years for playability, but because the "cut" angle at the saddle was very low as well, sound quality suffered. I raised the saddle and have much fuller lows and brighter mid and high-tones.

Action is extremely low and there is no buzzing! Truss rod was adjusted about five years ago when I took it back out of the closet for my son. It was stored for extended periods of time in a de-tuned state.

Fit and finish is perfect with the exception of slight irregularity in the corner of the neck/body joint. I do not know if this was a manufacturing defect or if it happened somewhere along the line since 1973. The binding just to the right of the top-side neck joint is slightly wavy in one spot. One edge of the fingerboard near the body has a slight irregularity in the color -- probably due to the grain of the wood. Might have been corrected with a little stain.

Due to age, the sides and back have a slight haze which I can probably resolve with a mildly abrasive cleaner and careful polishing.
Everything is tight ... no loose bindings, frets, etc etc

I have taken good care of the guitar and it is in perfectly usable condition. I will replace the cheap tuners shortly. I have no reason to believe the guitar will have future problems of any kind as long as I continue to care for it.

See the history page on my website: http://home.nc.rr.com/flask/jedson/history.htm

Obviously, Dallas Arbiter, John E Dallas, Jedson or whatever is not available for support. Since the guitars were produced for only 3-4 years in the early 70's, support was probably very limited. I never had a need for support anyway.

Been playing for 35 years. I own two Ibanez archtops, an Ibanez classical (junk when compared with the Jedson, btw), my son owns a Gibson Les Paul Jr and has an Epiphone LP Jr and Squire Strat.

If the guitar were lost or stolen, I would be looking at the Martin 000-28 EC as a replacement ... at $3000 for the Martin, I can't afford to loose the Jedson!

By today's standards, this guitar would be considered to be an upper mid-range because of it's solid-wood Indian Rosewood and spruce body. It cost about $75 in 1973. A comparable guitar in today's market would cost approx $700-$800. If this guitar had a Martin logo on it, the customer would probably send it back because it didn't meet Martin's very high standards :-) but it is far better than any laminate body guitar available from what I have seen