English Guitar Company Jazz King

I have a 1996 Handmade Jim English Jazz King. It is constructed all of flame maple and the flaming is really nicely done. The body is a 17 inch arhctop jazzbox, with one TV Jones PU mounted at the neck position with one volume and one tone control. It has a tunomatic style flaoting bridge with an ebony base. Ebony freatbaord with nice MOP inlays. Grover imperial tuners, Cool etched metal tailpiece. 22 Karat gold leaf inlayed under the pickguard and trussrod cover. Zero fret. It is built to be reminiscent of tone and quality of a vinatge Gretch and Jim really nails this!! For this price you cannot compare a new Japan made profuction Gretsch in quality and tone to Jim's guitars. This is a wonderfully built guitar and it looks and sounds great.

I bought it to PLay Jazz of course and I have really enjoyed the tone of this guitar. It is setup perfectly after sveral years of playing with no adjustments made. I really enjoy the sound of these TV Jones PUS and I usually pick this guitar up ovre my other electric archtops as they have floating PUs which can sound nice too but not as sweet at higher volumes. For a laminate guitar the acoustic sound and balance is very very impressive, although its real talent is plugged in. I ahve played it through a mini brute, JC 120, and an aooustic image clarus and it sounded great with all of them in my opinion of course. I love it for blues laced Jazz and also straight ahead Jazz. You can also achieve some really nice rockabilly tones as well but I am mostly a Jazzer. I can compare it to buyig a 50's or 60's Gretsch and saving thousands and getting a high quality handmade guitar.

As I mentioned the guitar polayed and intonated excellent out of the box and the bindings, frets, Pu mounting, and quality of the woods were all excellent. It stays in tune and I like the very thin lacquer finish on the neck it is mooth and not sticky at all. All the hardware is first class and solid.

It is almost 10 years old and looks almost like new. PLays like new and sounds very sweet. It is built solid and the hardware is still looking very nice, even with Gold tuners, PU cover etc. The finish is thin on the neck so it has worna bit but it just feels better and better this way. I forsee it becoming a vintage collector someday and I feel like it is very solid, although it is an archtop. Ill give it a 9 as it isn't 50 years old yet

Never had to call., but I have heard positive thigns about Jims attention and he only builds about 5 guitars a year by hand.

I ahve to give it a 10 as it is a great guitar with great attention to detail. Jim builds a very limited number of guitars and I feel like I got a top of the line Gretsch , but made by hand, of woods that are leagues above the production woods used on Gretches. The ahrdware is top notch and the result is a sweet high quailty great sounding, playing and looking guitar. If you are even considering a Gretch guitar check out Jims guitars they are comparable in price but of higher quality and I couldn't have been more please with the purchase. I have about 15 custom archtops and my favorites are 2 Custom Carlo Greco archtops, a Master guitars flattop archback!! and 2 vinatge Standel Sam koontz designed archtops. DO not miss Jims guitars. He is a fine fine player and wonderful builder. You are making a nice investment here with his guitars.