Peavey JF-1

Purchased new this year (2004). Made in China. The rest of the specs you can get from other reviews and from Peavey, so there is little point in me repeating them here.

This is basically a generic Asian copy of the Gibson ES-335, and is a fairly well executed copy at that. The Gotoh tuners are a bit sloppy and the iastrument would benefit from having Grovers installed, but the Gotoh tuners don't slip once you get in tune.

The individually adjustable bridge saddles are slightly rough and ought to be carefully filed, but after a change from the poor quality light guage strings that came with the guitar, and several weeks of daily playing (and tuning -- well, you should tune if you play jazz) they smoothed out some.

There were no accessories provided with the guitar -- I purchased a hard shell case and strap separately.

However, with two passive humbucking pickups, individual volume and tone controls, three position pickup select switch, individually adjustable bridge saddles, and solidly mounted strap buttons,the guitar itself has every feature expected in this style of instrument. Not necessarily first rate quality of components, but they're all there. I rate it 8 out of 10 for not having a case with it.

With the strings it came with, it was tinny and bright. The music store owner assured me I could return it if the sound wasn't what I was looking for with heavier strings. With a heavy set of Ernie Balls the tone darkened to what I was looking for for jazz.

Mostly, I was looking for a inexpensive second guitar with a center block so that it would be stable and remain in tune better than a real archtop when playing outdoor venues, and a practice guitar that I could hear without an amp, but that wouldn't wake my wife when practicing in the early morning in our tiny and cramped motorhome. So far, no complaints.

This Peavey's pickups don't seem to have nearly as much output as the humbuckers Gibson uses, although the tone is clean (if a bit thin) from the low registers on up. Single note solos sound good in the mid registers, but it simply lacks the resonance of an archtop hollowbody in the lower range. Advertising hype I found after I bought it targets the jazz market, but don't expect it to sound like something Joe Pass would play if you are into chord solos. There just isn't enough resonance in the thin body with it's thick top, center block and syrupy finish.

To be fair, however, I chose it precisely for those features, and within the inherent limitations of this design, it performs well, and I rate it 7 out of 10 for sound. I haven't tried a new Gibson ES-335, but the old ones sound better. They also cost $2000 more than the Peavey.

Action was too low for my taste. Strings were too light for jazz. Neck pickup was too low. Intonation was off. Bridge saddles were rough. A few globs of glue areound the f holes.

Other than those complaints (and adjustment/wear in solved most of them), the general fit and finish is as good as most of the American built guitars built in the last 20 years that I have examined.

Since the guitar pretends to be a jazz guitar, and really should have been set up differently, and; because the bridge was so rough, I rate it only 6 out of 10. Minor issues, but could have been dealt with at the factory for a few cents worth of additional labor.

Everything about the guitar, with the exception of the sloppy Gotoh tuners appears to be solid, and built to last. I don't intend to gig with it, except for outdoor (charity) gigs, but if it had the archtop sound I demand, I would not hesitate to rely on it for general use. Thus far, it appears to be an industrial strength instrument.

I would definitely replace the tuners before using it as my main axe, though.

Don't know, don't care. Have no intention of contacting Peavey. I do my own minor repairs if I can, and I'll just replace it if it ever needs anything major.

I've been playing 35 years...mostly straight ahead jazz. The JF-1 is a generic ES-335 copy and I selected it on the basis of price and local availability. If something happened to it, I would definitely consider buying another, but the low end Epiphone, Samick, etc., etc., etc., versions of this basic design are so similar that price and local availability would guide my decision just as it guided my original purchase decision.

well im assuming this is an '03 guitar being that there's a green sticker on the back of the head with 03 written in pen right above a mass produced made in china sticker.. yea 22 frets, pretty nice looking curly maple top.. its got 2 volume 2 tone.. 2 peavey passive gold humbuckers.. im not sure what the neck is.. im guessing maple.. but nothing special the body is all maple i think.. its got a nice curly flamed maple top sunburst.. and the rest is uniform black.. tuners are shit.. not 'the shit'.. just shit... rosewood fretboard i think.. not stained very well..there are streaks are spots.. but im not too concerned with looks but i realize other people are..

i play some strange combination of blues/rock (very zz top like) punk (casualties style) ska and jazz (the slackers and b.b. king are my main inspirations)... and i must say this does quite a nice job of covering that.. it has the peavey humbuckers which i've only ever seen on much rockin'er guitars.. when mixed with this 335 type body its got some nice versatility.. i play it through either a behringer blue devil or a marshall something or other... it's really nice through the marshall but its a little 10watt.. so i use the behringer for live shows which leaves something to be desired but its not bad... the bottom pickup is somewhat rich and very punchy (almost gretschy.. but no)and definitely fuller than one of the ibanez artcores.. its not very good clean but does nicely with distortion.. the top pickup is pretty damn warm but still leaves something to be desired when clean... its fairly feedback resistant.. for a semi hollowbody...i've heard better but i've heard a lot worse

the action was NICE... the pickups.. i cant complain.. i have since recently raised the neck side and lowered the bridge side.. but it wasnt anythang serious.. the top was bookmatched flawlessly.. everythang fits nicely. no rattling or anythang.. but the binding did not fit and the nut was cut too small.. it still serves it's purpose nicely.. but the egdes don't come near lining up... though when do big bends.. it rarely returns to proper tuning.

this is not a guitar im afraid of throwing around.. its pretty thick and everythang seems sturdy.. i play live with it and damn hard too.. i replaced the buttons with strap locks.. i never play live without a backup.. but just for the saftey in case of a broken string.. speaking of which.. i think the edge on the saddles are too sharp.. im using 12's and still breaking strings quite frequently.. im thinkning about getting them filed down

???

i've only been playing guitar for about 2 and a half years.. i've got a yamaha fat strat copy and thats a piece (the bad kind).. i've got no problem with this guitar.. its no gibson.. but its about the same quality of a more expensive epiphone's... if it were stolen.. yea i'd probably get another one... it would probably be a few years before i could afford another one (i'm what they call poor white trash (with taste.. can i get a whoot whoot for j s bach!?!)) ... i love its sound.. definitely damn cool for cheap price.. this guitar is nothing special but the fact i could afford it is enough for me... it beat the hell out of the artcores.. and it matched the epi's quite nicely... it was very similar to the sheraton2... as lacking as this guitar may be i really love it

This is the New Peavey 335 style guitar -Everything I read about it said it was a hollowbody--but it is a semi-hollowbody with centerwood block---It's going for $299 at Musician's Friend-2 humbuckers ,gold hardware stop tail piece.It was made in China ,the serial number was on a little white sticker on the back of the neck along with the made in China sticker-Itlooked cheap ---that carries over to the whole guitar-The sunburst on top looked pretty nice but the rest of the guitar is totally black (painted black) no wood finish here. Don't think you're getting some great value here.

After looking at this guitar for a little while- I knew I was going to send it back.I got it at work and didn't even bring it home to plug it in so I really can't judge the sound too well..but since there is precious little info out there on this guitar--I'll give you my impression. I have owned a 70's Gibson 335 as well asan 86 Ibanez AS 200 -John Scofield type.Unplugged the guitar sounded ok --not alot of buzzing right out of the box---I never heard the pickups so I'll be generous and say 7 maybe 7.5

The action set up from the factory was very nice --I did get some buzzing on the high E at the 12th fret but that was it-the string tension and feel was very good--as I said I have owned 2 very nice high end 335 types--I'm in the process of replacing the Ibanez since I mostly play Les Pauls now.Looks and quality aside -the guitar did play very well.I've tried out alot of the Epiphone 335's and Sheratons and most of them have a big clunky neck on them.This guitar has a nice neck and feel to it.
The Top looked decent--the sides and the back looked real cheap--inside the F holes were big globs of glue--the binding (which again looked super cheap--was patched on the F holes-It looked like something I would have built--and I'm a klutz whose favorite tool is duct tape.There were some big scatches inside the cutaways--(not much of quality control) The name on the headtock looks good on the web --up close it is merely painted on--did I mention Cheap.Tuners ,hardware and switches were ok -But Volume and tone knobs looked bad---and felt like a dimestore guitar.The frets had corrosion on them--and the neck wood had spots without stain on it.
I have played some of the upper end Peavey's in the stores and the workmanship looked great --
This is not one of them.

Tuners,toggle and bridge would probably hold up ok --But Volume and tone knobs--Good luck!!!

I've owned several Peavey amps and liked them and had no problems with them ---It's a shame to see them put out a product like this.

I've been playing over 30 years-(rock,jazz rock/Christian)I've owned some nice name brand gear-But I'm not a gear snob-( I've had some nice cheap guitars too )-I bought an Ibanez in the 80's to replace my stolen Gibson 333 because the Ibanez was hands down a better guitar-I now have several Epiphone Les Pauls that have very nice workmanship.
I sent this guitar back after looking at it--If it was $150 maybe--but $300--it's just not that kind of quality.( If you have to go cheap try an Oscar Schmidt- couldn't be any worse) Or if you have more money try an Epiphone--At least they're put together decent--or Washburn or look for something used.
I wanted to put this review out becasue I really appreciate this forum It's been very helpful to me--hopefully this will be helpful to some of you.