Peerless Journeyman

Ok, my last review got cut off so I'll do a short one here.

Looks quite nice apart from the pick guard and the volume/tone knobs, but looks can be deceptive

Hate it.. thin, no body, crap. Pickups and electronics are cheap.. acoisticly it's dead.

Buzzes all over the fret board.. binding terrible.. awful

its a solid wood archtop.. try sitting on it and see what happens.

none existant.. they never reply to emails.. awful.

Yep.. a hunk of junk.. I'm buying american next time..

Mentioned in review before.

Ok, I've had the Peerless Journeyman for a few weeks now and have gigged it 4 or 5 times, so I decided that it was time to write a little review seeing as it was hard to find any info about this particular model.
I got it from Manns Music in the UK, great service and they even upgraded the hard case from standard to deluxe as a ???good will gesture.???
First impressions when it got here were ??? the case is too big for it. It rattles around in it like a pig in an alley (silly expression that!)??? so I???ll have to pack it with clothes and stuff if I ever take it on a plane??? they should make a special case for this model or something.
Visually it was very pleasing to the eye on first impressions, but after a closer look I decided I didn???t like the scratch plate at all.. very ugly shape. It also hindered adjusting the volume knob for the bridge pickup, so that had to go, and the guitar looks much better for it. Also didn???t like the cheap looking, gold volume and tone knobs. They look like the tops from cheap perfume bottles. So I got some Gibson style speed knobs and it looks much classier now.. also weighs MUCH less??? sounds crazy but those gold things it had on before weigh a ton! Very unpleasant.

First little play and the neck feels pretty comfortable. Quite chunky, but anything seems chunky after playing my 70???s Guild Starfire 4. Pretty wide neck too, giving plenty of room for fingering??? it???s more a matter of taste really, so if you don???t like chunky wide necks, this isn???t the guitar for you. The body is a nice size too, comfortable to hold and play.

Once I changed the guage 7 strings it had on (exaggerating, but they were damn thin) and put some 14???s on it I got more of a feeling for what it was about. Very very bright acoustic sound but with some bass too. Very little sustain, especially the higher notes.. this is most probably to do with the cheap rosewood bridge it comes with. I???m gonna get a tune-o-matic for sustain and intonation reasons. The guitar felt nice after putting the 14???s on though.. very solid, no rattles and nice string tension.

The factory set up I???m afraid was appalling! The frets are uneven, there???s buzzes all over the neck and no amount of truss rod/action adjustment will get rid of them without having an uncomfortably high action, and I???m not one for low actions on archtops or acoustics??? so I???m not being a pansy here, it???s just too high to play.. so for now I'm opting for an unhappy medium.. slightly higher than usual action AND buzzing!
The frets are dull and very poorly finished off.. so a trip to my guitar tech and more money spent is in order to get this guitar to a decent working standard.

A closer look at the finish and there???s some sloppy binding work, especially around the F-holes. But from a distance you can???t see this and it is a nice looking guitar after changing the things I mentioned above. I also ended up putting a cream pickup selector button on there.. getting picky now, but that gold one was tacky looking. There's also a very strange kind of dip in the top right next to were the neck joins the body. More like a gauge, maybe a slip of a file or something.
Another thing is the grain of the top. It kind of curves in at the top of the guitar, on both sides.. I've never seen that before... nothing major at all, almost gives it character.

After gigging it in quartet, trio and duo situations I found what I expected to find.. **** electronics and crappy pickups. The tone knob didn???t work until it got down to 2, and the volume went from on to off just by looking at it! The pickups are cheap and nasty too??? very boomy bass and nasty brittle highs and very little mids. I took the neck pickup and pots out and found very cheap crappy pots. Also the volume pot was a linear taper and the tone an audio taper??? this can get into the realm of ???matter of taste??? here, but in general, in my experience.. it should be and works much better t

Bought it 1 month ago. Its a 175 clone. Is made probably in 2009 in Kore. Solid sruce top (arched not curved), solid maple side and back, 25.5 in. neck rosewood fretboard and brige, 22 medium frets. The price included a generic hard case (the guitar has 16" body and the case accomodates easily 17.5").
The neck is C shaped and quite fat.
Grover tuners. The only minus (if it really is one) is that the neck in 2-pieces sloted at the 3-5 fret. So for the prive payed is a 10.

I am playing mainly blues and some jazz. Its perfect for these styles, through a Kustomer Defender (50 W all tubes), when using the neck PU with the tone halfway off. Fatt and crunchy at the same time. I suppose chenging the PU it wil excell most of the high priced stuff loke Gibson, Easteman etc.
Paying with the knobes I can get even a tele-like sound and almost everything in the middle.
Also the pure acoustic sound is loud and fat enough for proctice or even to play along with an acousric guitar.
Like it very much. The only comment is that it feedbacks a lot, but it is expectable.

The guitar was very goods set up, palyable from the begginig (the local distributor helped with it), with low action, no buzz.
The PU may need some adjustmet but need more time for this.
No visual flows, very good finish.

I just have for a month so I cann't tell, but for the first impressions I am quite confident that it prove durable.
The only hesitation is the rosewood bridge; it does not seems too durable to me; I am considering chenge it with a tune-o-matic, or an ebony one.

I bought it from their distributor in Greece, whcich can also take care of any adjustments repair etc. and he seems to be very helpfull.

I've playing for almost 40 years (not continously, in the middle I switched to clarinet and sax)and mostly owned classic and acoustic quitars, but also because of friends I had the chance to play oftenly with a 137, an Ibanez GB and a Strat. This is my first serious electric (I had some craps in the middle that I do not want to mention).
To make a long story short, it would still worth every penny even if it was double the price.

Made in Korea,came with a hardshell case, the rest is straight from their website:
Body
Shape : Arch Top Cutaway
Top : Solid Spruce
Back & Sides : Solid Maple
Body Depth : 76 mm (3")
Body Width : 406 mm (16")
Top Binding : Aged White/Black Triple
Bridge : Rosewood
Pickguard : Rosewood
Tailpiece : Rosewood
* Neck
Wood : Maple
Fingerboard : Rosewood
Scale : 648 mm (25.5")
Width at Nut : 43 mm (1.69")
Width at the 12 fret : 52 mm (2.05")
Neck Joint : 14 F
Number of Frets : 22 F
Fingerboard Inlays : Acrylic
Nut : Urite

* Electronics
Pickups : 2 Humbuckers (Epiphone' 57 Classic Style Alnico-v Magnet)
Controls : 2 Volume, 2 Tone, 1 Toggle

Hardware : Gold
Finishs : Natural High Gloss

I play mostly blues, rock and am getting heavy into Jazz that was the reason for the purchase of the journeyman. I use it through a Dr Z Carmen Ghia. Its sounds pretty big and has great sustain. Probably would do rockabilly stuff pretty well its just not my thing. The only complaint is that the tone controls tend to be all or nothing.

Its was set up by the dealer in NJ. I thought it was pretty top notch. The binding on the guitar is quite nice. The guitar seems to stay in tune. The frets are well dressed and polished. The finish is a really nice natural finish. I couldn't ask for a better finish. I have never had a guitar with a wood bridge but it seems well made and sturdy.

It will stand up to live playing. I don't think there are going to be to many jazz guys out there jumping around and getting all crazy. It is a hollowbody so its not built like a solid tank.

No problems to use customer service. I believe they are in Korea

I have been playing for 15 years and have been in 4 different bands. I own a couple of highend small luthier guitars and a couple of G&L's. I have owned couple of PRS and Gibson guitars as well. I went out on a huge limb and bought this site unseen and unplayed.(Not my style at all) I did a ton of research and went and played some Ibanez and epiphone guitars of he same style and never bonded with them, so I took the plunge and ordered the Peerless. All in all I am quite happy with the guitar and if it were stolen or lost I would buy another one no doubt. I think for the price and what you get the Peerless Journeyman is a great deal. Check out you tube for some vidoes of some of their other models