Yesterday I finally got my new JP6 Pearl Redburst with matching headstock and piezo bridge. Here's some comments after the first test (from 9 PM to 1 AM):
Pearl Redburst is a bit darker than I thought, but just great. This guitar definately needs matching headstock, in store they had one with natural headstock, and the difference was huge. The redburst also has a bit of that "classic" feel due the "burst effect", that's actually the reason I chose this. And the maple birdseye neck is just amazing! My OLP MM1 already had unfinished maple neck, but this one is from another planet, without a doubt the best neck I've ever tested. The body feels great, now I finally have a guitar with "curves in right places", and the balance is awesome (it's nice when you're doing something with your computer and you don't have to hold the guitar with other hand).
The action isn't as low as in my OLP, this was a minor disappointment, although after playing it for a while I got used to it (this was actually one thing I noticed when I tested another JP6 about a month ago). I have adjusted my OLP so that it has really low action, so maybe I'll tweek this one a bit, but we will see. During the first 15-30 minutes I had to tune the guitar few times, but after that the guitar stayed in tune really well. I did few dives, but the whole whammy bar thing is one thing I have "re-learn" (I haven't used whammy bars in ten years).
Due to the fact that I had to play during the night, I was not able to fully test the guitar in "live situation", but I used my Axetrak (via Firebox into Logic) so that could use my normal gear via headphones. Piezo went straight into Firebox, so I had both signals going into my Logic into separate tracks. This is nice if I create some nice riffs etc. I just hit "record" and both signals are recorded.
The first I noticed was the silence: no humming, no "crackling" noises when using pickup switches, nothing! I thought that my OLP (with Dimarzio AirZone and AirNorton with the same pickup wiring as JP6) was quite quiet, but this something else. Just amazing, great work at San Obispo! The feeling and action of the switches and potentiometers are also a top notch, and the placement of the volume pot is good, I was a bit afraid that it might be too far away (to do swells). Wouldn't change anything...
The piezo sound is so nice, although it's weird playing electric guitar with acoustic sound, 'cause I normally tend to change my playing styles depending on the guitar I'm using. But this one of the reasons why I chose EBMM JP6, I really have use for acoustic sound in live situations. In one band where I'm playing we have two acoustic guitars and I'm playing electric, so It's gonna be interesting to compare this to their guitar sounds.
The Liquifire and Crunchlab seem to be great, although I have to wait until I can test them with real cabinets (not via Axetrak) before giving a proper review. But already now they sound really good, cleans are great (and the volume difference between different positions is so small compared to my OLP), and the overdriven sounds are really nice (with fulltone OCD they have that nice warm sound, and with Mesa's od channel I can get that heavier sound without losing "clarity"). But I really want to experiment these with Mesa's own cabinet combined with DIY ported 1x12".
In overall this is the best guitar I've played, and I'm so happy that after 20+ years of playing I finally decided to invest more money to one instrument. I ordered this in the middle of July, so the delivery time was 15 weeks, which was actually a lot less than estimated. Nice work from EBMM, EM-nordic (Scandinavian distributor) and DLX-music (finnish dealer). Special thanks to Mr. Quinn (EMBB CS), who gave good info about the order status.
Ps. I'll post pics soon, first things first....
Pearl Redburst is a bit darker than I thought, but just great. This guitar definately needs matching headstock, in store they had one with natural headstock, and the difference was huge. The redburst also has a bit of that "classic" feel due the "burst effect", that's actually the reason I chose this. And the maple birdseye neck is just amazing! My OLP MM1 already had unfinished maple neck, but this one is from another planet, without a doubt the best neck I've ever tested. The body feels great, now I finally have a guitar with "curves in right places", and the balance is awesome (it's nice when you're doing something with your computer and you don't have to hold the guitar with other hand).
The action isn't as low as in my OLP, this was a minor disappointment, although after playing it for a while I got used to it (this was actually one thing I noticed when I tested another JP6 about a month ago). I have adjusted my OLP so that it has really low action, so maybe I'll tweek this one a bit, but we will see. During the first 15-30 minutes I had to tune the guitar few times, but after that the guitar stayed in tune really well. I did few dives, but the whole whammy bar thing is one thing I have "re-learn" (I haven't used whammy bars in ten years).
Due to the fact that I had to play during the night, I was not able to fully test the guitar in "live situation", but I used my Axetrak (via Firebox into Logic) so that could use my normal gear via headphones. Piezo went straight into Firebox, so I had both signals going into my Logic into separate tracks. This is nice if I create some nice riffs etc. I just hit "record" and both signals are recorded.
The first I noticed was the silence: no humming, no "crackling" noises when using pickup switches, nothing! I thought that my OLP (with Dimarzio AirZone and AirNorton with the same pickup wiring as JP6) was quite quiet, but this something else. Just amazing, great work at San Obispo! The feeling and action of the switches and potentiometers are also a top notch, and the placement of the volume pot is good, I was a bit afraid that it might be too far away (to do swells). Wouldn't change anything...
The piezo sound is so nice, although it's weird playing electric guitar with acoustic sound, 'cause I normally tend to change my playing styles depending on the guitar I'm using. But this one of the reasons why I chose EBMM JP6, I really have use for acoustic sound in live situations. In one band where I'm playing we have two acoustic guitars and I'm playing electric, so It's gonna be interesting to compare this to their guitar sounds.
The Liquifire and Crunchlab seem to be great, although I have to wait until I can test them with real cabinets (not via Axetrak) before giving a proper review. But already now they sound really good, cleans are great (and the volume difference between different positions is so small compared to my OLP), and the overdriven sounds are really nice (with fulltone OCD they have that nice warm sound, and with Mesa's od channel I can get that heavier sound without losing "clarity"). But I really want to experiment these with Mesa's own cabinet combined with DIY ported 1x12".
In overall this is the best guitar I've played, and I'm so happy that after 20+ years of playing I finally decided to invest more money to one instrument. I ordered this in the middle of July, so the delivery time was 15 weeks, which was actually a lot less than estimated. Nice work from EBMM, EM-nordic (Scandinavian distributor) and DLX-music (finnish dealer). Special thanks to Mr. Quinn (EMBB CS), who gave good info about the order status.
Ps. I'll post pics soon, first things first....
