What is it?
If you’re looking for a budget Jazzmaster-style guitar, there are absolutely loads to choose from these days. From more modern takes on this stalwart of classic design to guitars that aim to emulate vintage Jazzmaster styles, you can get yourself a great playing and sounding JM for below $500 quite easily. So where does the Jet JJ-300 P90 fit into the echelon of offset guitars?
Well, for starters it’s only really a Jazzmaster-type guitar by looks. With dual P90 pickups and a 2-point tremolo, there’s little DNA of a vintage JM guitar here. It does boast a roasted maple neck and fretboard, however, which at this price point is really nice to see. Speaking of money, this guitar sits right in the middle of the budget spectrum at £285/$349, so less pricey than a Squier Classic Vibe, but more expensive than a Harley Benton JM.
Jet Guitars is based in Slovenia and although its guitars are made in China, that’s not the stick with which to beat an electric guitar it once was. Rapidly developing a reputation for impeccable build quality and great necks for the price point, this particular Jet Guitar could well be the budget JM-copy you’ve been looking for. Let’s see what it’s made of…
Specs
- Launch price: $349 | £285 | €305
- Made: China
- Type: Six-string electric guitar
- Body: Roasted poplar
- Neck: Canadian roasted maple, modern ‘C’
- Fingerboard: Roasted maple
- Scale length: 25.5″/647.7mm
- Nut/width: Polymer Fiber / 41.91mm
- Frets: 22
- Hardware: Chrome machine heads, 2-point tremolo bridge
- String spacing at bridge: 53mm
- Electrics: 2x Jet P-90, 1 volume, 1 tone, 3-way switch
- Weight: 7lb 2oz (3.2kg)
- Left-handed options: No
- Finishes: Sea Foam Green (as reviewed), Olympic White, Black
- Case: No
- Contact: Jet Guitars
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★★☆
Having heard of Jet Guitars build quality prior to conducting my review of the JJ-300 P90, I was not surprised to find an exquisitely put together instrument. I didn’t know the cost of it before I picked took it out of the box and it feels far more expensive than it’s actual price. Interestingly I’m also reviewing another budget-level guitar by another brand at the moment, and this one feels superior in nearly every way.
Examining every aspect of the instrument turned up barely a single thing out of place in terms of the finishing, with the paintwork well applied, hardware evenly spaced and uniform, and nothing feeling close to infirm. The knobs belie the guitar’s actual price point with their overly large labels and differences in letter size. They draw the eye and not in a good way, but ultimately, I can’t knock anything about their functionality or how robustly they’ve been applied. They'd be a pretty cheap upgrade.
The fretwork is fantastic too. No gaps in the fretboard side where the cuts have been made, nothing to see or feel in terms of uneven frets, and no sharp ends as I slide my hand up and down the roasted maple fretboard.
The neck pocket is installed snugly with no gaps, and there’s no movement there when I apply some pressure to it.
I do find one surprising oversight later elsewhere, that doesn't reveal itself until I plug in. More on that in the Sounds section.
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★½
There’s a nice resonance to the whole thing unplugged as I strum an open E major chord hard
I first sit down to play the JJ-300 without any amplification just to get an honest impression of the playability, unmasked by effects or overdrive. There’s a nice resonance to the whole thing unplugged as I strum an open E major chord hard, with all the notes ringing out nicely as their tails start to intermingle with one another harmonically.
I find I instantly adapt to the profile, which is billed as a modern ‘C’ and feels very similar to the same profile on my Player Plus Tele. It’s got a 9.5” radius and the frets feel smaller than the medium-jumbo size I typically play, but only by a fraction, which gives it a good all round feel for a variety of playing styles. There’s a tiny bit of scratchiness to the frets in certain places, which stick out a bit as I play unplugged, but I don’t notice this when I change to playing plugged in.
The overall set up is very impressive too considering the price. The floating tremolo is nice and flush with the body, and although like most trems it could benefit from some locking tuners, it does an excellent job of holding its tuning with lighter flutters and bending. It can go quite deep, I hit a low G bending down from my original tuning of drop-D, but once I start leaning on it harder I find it needs a tune up for the following song.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★½
bright-soundingTaking the JJ-300 P90 to rehearsal with my band to really let loose with it, my immediate thought upon plugging it into my Orange Rocker 32 tube amp is ‘wow, that’s a very bright sounding neck pickup’. As it turns out, the pickup selector on my test model is wired backwards to how you’d normally expect, with the up position activating the bridge pickup and the down position for the neck. Odd!
For those clean passages the bridge P90 has a nice bit of sparkly bite when you dig in, and it takes to drive and fuzz tones really nicely. There’s not enough low end for harder stuff, but anything up to punk rock territory it can take in its stride. It’s not the most refined-sounding pickup I’ve heard, but for the money I can’t knock it too hard.
Even with some judicious application of POG they just don’t quite hit in the way I’d like them to
The neck P-90, on the other hand, is a little muddy to my ears. For clean tones it works really nicely, adapting well when I lather on ultra-long reverbs decay times and playing spacious single notes with delay. When I start adding on drive in higher gain value it does tend to get a little wooly though.
The pickups are low output, and work really well with the lighter sections of the songs I’m working on, but as soon as I want to start playing some meatier riffs, I find they get lost a bit in the band mix. Even with some judicious application of Electro-Harmonix POG they just don’t quite hit in the way I’d like them to. It’s not bad by any means, but here is where the guitar starts to reflect that low price point.
Verdict
For the money, anyone looking for a budget-friendly offset could certainly do worse than the Jet Guitar JJ-300 P90. The build quality is mostly fantastic, at its best it's better than I’ve seen on some guitars twice, and sometimes three times the price. The neck profile is a winner too, being immediately playable and eerily similar to the one on my Player Plus Series Telecaster.
This would make a fantastic modding platform
Unfortunately the pickups are where JJ-300 P90 comes up a little short. I found them fine for cleaner tones and although they’re a little unrefined and rough around the edges for the mid gain stuff, it’s when I really dig in they let me down a little. Granted you’re not likely to be buying a guitar like this for heavier stuff, but they definitely felt a little lightweight when I started to ask more of them with heavier drive sounds and lower octave-infused riffing.
MusicRadar verdict: For players who want a well-made offset guitar on a budget, the Jet Guitars JJ-300 P90 is an excellent choice. Its (mostly) stellar build quality sets it apart from many guitars costing twice the price, but it’s admittedly let down a little by the uninspiring pickups. That said, this would make a fantastic modding platform and if you were to put some higher-quality P-90s into it, it could potentially blow away more expensive guitars in all departments.
Test |
Results |
Score |
|---|---|---|
Build quality |
Superb build quality considering the price, but ugly knobs and the pickup switch working the opposite way to normal let it down slightly. |
★★★★☆ |
Playability |
The neck feel is phenomenal, just as good as much more expensive guitars. |
★★★★½ |
Sounds |
The pickups do a job, but I found them to be uninspiring. |
★★★½ |
Overall |
A great guitar for beginner players, or those who want a good quality modding platform. |
★★★★☆ |
