JBP® Electric Guitar LP Style - Review
© Darrell Young
Overview	Guitar Review Series
For blues, rock, or jazz guitar players on a budget, this JBP® Single Cutaway Les Paul® Style Electric Guitar is an excellent choice. It seems like there are dozens of Fender Strat® clones on the market, and the Internet is full of all sorts of deals. But, what about us Gibson® style guitar players? We want our dual humbuckers and fast necks! I have a 7-year old son for whom I bought a nice Hondo® Strat clone. When it arrived, he took one look at it and said, "Daaaaaad, I want a guitar like yours!" Cute kid...he got one! Wanna buy a Hondo®
	My son was referring to my Gibson® Les Paul. (Sigh!) Since, at his age, I didn't want to buy him a Gibson, which sells at the cheapest for about $700.00. I started looking around for a Les Paul type clone guitar. One that plays well, but costs little. I didn't see a lot of them on the Internet, so, as a business man I started contacting distributors. Finally, I found one! This JPB® Single Cutaway is it! My son was happy when his red one arrived, since it matched his Dad's. (See his Dad's Guitar here)
I thought I couldn't get much for less than $200.00, so I was completely surprised and amazed when I played his. The sound of those humbuckers, while not up to a $2,000.00 Gibson's tone, were probably 80% of the way there. How can this be, with a relatively low-cost guitar? I hooked the red axe up to my Fender Cyber Twin amp and proceeded to play the blues, to the accompaniment of "Daaaaaad, gimme my guitar!" I was impressed enough that I signed up to be a dealer for these guitars. They are not all that well known, but are suprisingly well made and easy to play for the price. (List $199.00 USD) They have a nice fast neck, well dressed medium-jumbo frets, and pearloid dot inlays. Nice tight sealed tuning machines too.
	Recently, I've been experimenting with buying low-cost guitars and adding expensive Gibson® or Seymour Duncan® pickups. I did a step-by-step article on this website to show you how to do it. (Read article here). I added some Gibson® pickups to a $200.00 Epiphone and was able to achieve about 95% of the same sound as my $2000.00 Les Paul®. This JBP® is very similar to the Epiphone® Special II guitar, with about the same level of quality, although using different tonewoods. I own both, and have carefully compared. They are similar in feel and sound!
The red JBP®, shown here, is my next project. I'm going to add some "hot" gold Gibson® 498T's in both the bridge and neck positions. Whoooeeee! This jewel of a guitar plays so well now that I bet it'll be a real screamer with some hot Alnico V magnets. I noticed right away that this guitar has the same size pickups as all the other Les Paul® style clones. I can put whatever I want in the guitar. This is exciting! If you want to do one yourself, this is a great place to start. The price is right on this guitar, and the pickup size is normal. This is a great project guitar!
	Even if you don't want to add screaming pickups, this axe has more than enough power for a home or small gig player. It plays distortion very well through my Fender Amp, and smoothes right out for some reflective blues or jazz work. I even tried some light fingerpicking with great satisfaction. We connected! It DOES NOT sound like one of those cheap tinny knockoffs. I love guitars, and I'm not interested in selling something like that. This guitar sounds GREAT! Better than its price would make you think it would.
It has a genuine Les Paul® sound, with a lot of bass and midrange bite. Switched to the bridge pickup, it sounds a lot like a Stratocaster®. I don't know how they did that, but it sounds like a single coil, with no buzz. But since I am a Les Paul kinda guy, as is my 7-year old now, this one stays on both pickups! I like the "roar" of a hot Les Paul, and, well, this baby has it. For a street price of less than $200.00 you cannot go wrong with the JBP® Electric Guitar. They are a well made, great sounding, easy playing, and highly affordable guitar choice.
Detailed Images
Single Cutaway Electric Guitar Specifications .......................................................................   Single Cutaway 22 "Medium-Jumbo" Fret Neck Dot Inlays Hardwood Laminate Body Nato Wood Neck Black Rosewood Fingerboard (Sonokeling) 2 Humbucker Pickups (Standard size, open coil) 3-Way Toggle Switch 1 Volume Knob 1 Tone Knob Chrome Die-Cast Sealed Tuning Machines Bolt-on Neck Available in Wine Red and Black
Purchase Your JBP® Les Paul® Style Electric Guitar Below:
Sale Price: $139.95 plus shipping Guitar Color: Wine Red Black
Disclaimer: The JBP® and JB Player® brand names are owned by Musicorp® an MBT® International Company. AxeChops.com is not affiliated with JBP or JB Player, although we find their guitars to be delightful instruments with a great price, smooth LP sound, and quality build! Les Paul® is a registered trademark of Gibson USA. Stratocaster® and Strat are registered trademarks of Fender Corporation. Both fine manufacturers of premium American guitars.