JJ Guitars Electra

JJ guitars are a UK company who produce a small range of handmade guitars of which the Electra is the latest model to be added. Its a Single cutaway twin Humbucker guitar sporting 22 frets, The body is unusual in two ways , firstly its lower bout is slighty offset which should steer it clear of any angry attention from a certain USA company, secondly its Alder with a Maple cap which helps give the guitar an individual voice.The glued in neck is mahogony with rosewood fingerboard, dot inlays and a figured maple cap on the headstock . hard ware is a wrapround bridge, gotoh vintage tuners.3 way toggle, 1x volume and 1x tone control the two jj custom pickups with a coil tap on the tone.The scale length is 25" with a 12" radius and medium frets.Hard case was included.

I play mainly rock(classic too Nu) and blues and this guitar handles them no problem, Live I play through Laney and Fender amps and for recording I use a behringer V amp II. The guitar is well behaved even on the tapped settings . The sound is quite bright for this style of guitar(due no doubt to the Alder)but there is enough mid range and bass to suit most styles.Turning down on the tone knob brings in the "love tone" sound, Perfect for face gurning slow blues. bringing the coil tap into play brings a pleasant surprise, most coil taps produce a thinner humbucker tone that just sounds weedy, the Electra manages to emulate the single coil almost to a tea , leaning towards a P90 type tone, all in all a very versitile guitar.PS this thing sustains forever!!

The guitar was set up with 9's from the factory and allthough i tend to fit custom 10's they suit the guitar perfectly so I think I'll stick with this gauge.The guitar played like a dream with a low action along its length, and no buzzes or choking to be found.had to make a slight adjustment to bring the bridge humbucker up slightly on the treble side but otherwise the finish and set up where better than any other guitar I've owned or tried and thats including all the "big boys".The flame maple top is gorgeous without being OTT and the fret work is perfect with no sharp or protruding edges and even along the length.The neck has a comfortable "c" profile that although feels more substansive than a LP is very easy to get to grips.The rosewood fingerboards on jj guitars where purchased from 1960's stock so they've been seasoning longer than your granddads y fronts.In all top of the range parts and timbers .

This thing is built like a tank, everything feels solid and the bits that are suposed to move do so smoothly, these things have more chance surviving the gig than you do.The bridge is milled from a single peice of aluminium and connects to the body using brass posts.Taking just one guitar too any gig is a bit silly but apart from a couple of songs needing a trem I can get every sound I need from the Electra.

Met the Director Tony Muschamp at a guitar show in Birmingham, not only did he he knock off a wad from the price , he also deliverd the guitar himself(even threw in a copy of his CD "more bass please" have a listen if you get the chance)Total Muso with a hell of a pedigree and a realy nice bloke. As above cant imagine this guitar ever needing repair but if it did would use the company instead of any local luthier.apparently the guys a jj R+D spent 18 months developing the guitar and it shows.By the way the jj is for JJ Hucke a very well respected luthier.

Been playing 23 years and the Electra makes 8 guitars I own at the moment and it is by far the most impressive.The one thing that I would even consider changing is the Volume pot, I like to clean up the sound by rolling back the knob, but the Electra's control is a little too all or nothing, but i can honestly say in the 3 months I've had this guitar its the only thing that Im not 100% impressed with.Would I get another if This one was nicked?(they'd have to pry it from my cold dead hands) Damn right I would.Spent a long time comparing and researching before settling with this guitar (PRS,Gibson,Parker sorry guys but..). This guitar looks the Biz, sounds the Biz and has a build quality that is outstanding.