Question JP6 fully loaded vs no loaded wood quality difference

[rblackmore]

Hi all.I am a new member on this forum (but a regular visitor since few years).
Next week I am going to order my first MM-white JP6(lefthanded one) with piezo.
Until today I was sure to order one without inlays (don't really like the bullets and JP logo on the 1st fret...and it costs 250$ more),but today I have been told(by an expert) that in one to one comparison fully loaded JP6 sounds better because of better quality of woods.I thought Custom JP Shields, inlays and maybe more birdseye were the only differences between loaded and no loaded JP6.
Does MM choose better basswood and birdseye maple for fully loaded JP6,or have i been misinformed?
P.S.1. Great forum
P.S.2. Sorry for weak english and maybe a stupid question.

 

[Sweat]

hello there and welcome to the fourm!

OK now for your question, well your EBMM expert is totally wrong and well he/she misinformed you.

Fully loaded generally refers to JP shields, matching headstock and piezo system.

Birdseye is hit and miss on all models nothing to do with fully loaded and tone woods depend on standard or BFR etc. just go to musicman.com and look at JP options.

Hope this helps and congrats on your new order. JP shields are not a must bit the piezo is, makes the JP awesome, love mine!!!

 

[metalmarty]

I have no reason whatsoever to think that EBMM uses wood of lesser quality on an unloaded JP. None. All JP's I played played and sounded the same to me. No flaws, even on the "simple" base-models.

All signature models are to artist spec. If Petrucci ordered a unloaded JP its exactly the same as one for us. Meaning we get the quality he gets, same wood.

I have no idea how the EBMM-expert would know this other then to strip the bodies and/or perform resonance-testing of neck and body.

 

[73h Nils]

Yeah, they lied. That's in no way true. In fact, some of the best birdseye I've ever seen was on completely bone-stock JP6 models!

 

[RCh]

Hi all.I am a new member on this forum (but a regular visitor since few years).
Next week I am going to order my first MM-white JP6(lefthanded one) with piezo.
Until today I was sure to order one without inlays (don't really like the bullets and JP logo on the 1st fret...and it costs 250$ more),but today I have been told(by an EBMM expert) that in one to one comparison fully loaded JP6 sounds much better because of better quality of woods.I thought Custom JP Shields, inlays and maybe more birdseye were the only differences between loaded and no loaded JP6.
Does MM choose better basswood and birdseye maple for fully loaded JP6,or have i been misinformed?
P.S.1. Great forum
P.S.2. Sorry for weak english and maybe a stupid question.

Hi! I believe you talked to same nice people I've spoken to.

I've written about this in another thread recently. They tried to convince me that JP6 are 'entry level' guitars and urged me to buy BFR instead. They are either completely ignorant or focused on pushing sale of expensive gear to you.
My advice - when in doubt post a question on this forum. People here are knowledgable, helpful and have no interest lying to you so you'd pay more. And to answer your question - there should be no sound or quality difference between 'loaded' vs 'unloaded' models except for possible small tolerance which is customary for any quitar.

As a side note - they're telling you this tale of a 'better wood' for one simple reason - these guys ordered one of each JP6s with and without inlays. I took the one with dots (sorry ) and they only have the one with inlays. So that's what they're trying to sell you one way or another.

 

[rblackmore]

hello there and welcome to the fourm!


Birdseye is hit and miss on all models nothing to do with fully loaded and tone woods depend on standard or BFR etc. just go to musicman.com and look at JP options.

Hope this helps and congrats on your new order. JP shields are not a must bit the piezo is, makes the JP awesome, love mine!!!

Thanks.Piezo is definatly a mustTried it on righthanded JP6 and i loved it.Went to music-man.com maybe 300 times (a big fan of this company),but couldn't find the great difference between fully loaded and no loaded.Why fully loaded is much more popular,being more expensive and equal in quality?Everybody paying 150-300$ more just for Custom JP Shields and matching headstock?Hard to believe...


The Expert I talked with is a very nice guy and he had no reason to lie to me.Mayby just in his particular case both guitars sounded different...but I also don't believe,that all JP6 have the same sound...every instrument should have it unique sound,because there are no 2 pieces of basswood or mapple,that are 100% the same.But I could be wrong

Thank you for your replies

 

[DrKev]

Find a new expert.

They tried to convince me that JP6 are 'entry level' guitars

Ha ha ha ha hah!!!!

 

[rblackmore]

Find a new expert.

They tried to convince me that JP6 are 'entry level' guitars
Ha ha ha ha hah!!!!

We are talking about completely different people!!!!!Have no reason not to trust my expert.He told me only that in his particular
case fully loaded JP6 sounded better and he think that EBMM choose better woods for them.Maybe it was an exception and all others EBMM JP6 sound the same.

 

[DrKev]

I know it's completely different people. They were two different comments but I'll take the point and make it clearer next time. Sorry!

And I apologise if I'm too hard on experts, I'm certainly not one myself but I've seen (and repaired) two much crappy work and heard too much BS from so called experts that I'm more than a little jaded. Or maybe I just need to get out more often?

Kev.

 

[RCh]

Maybe it was an exception and all others EBMM JP6 sound the same.

I think you're missing the point here.

In fact, all JP6 sound DIFFERENT. So do other guitars. Guitars are made of wood. No two blocks of wood sound the same. Sometimes the difference is so subtle that no one will here it (well, except maybe Eric Johnson ), sometimes it's more obvious.
Every now and then I read stories of people buying Mexican Strats which sound much better than their American-made siblings. Are they lying? No. They were just lucky to find a guitar made of good resonating piece of wood. Other guitars from same batch will probably sound as an average Mex Strat is expected to sound.

I'm pretty sure that if you A/B ten JP6s some will sing to your ear better than others. In your particular case the higher-priced version sounded better. Next time 'unloaded' JP6 may sound better. Things like inlays, painted headstock, etc. make pure esthetic difference without any impact on sound.

 

[metalmarty]

To nuance my previous statement: what I meant by "the same" is a VERY consistent soundquality +/- a normal standard deviation. No dogs or guitars that measured significantly above the others . Unlike some other brands that will remain unnamed. There are very few brands that I would feel comfortable with grabbing a guitar off the wall in a store, gig it and expect it to sound like I expect. EBMM is not the only brand that has this quality, but a very prominent one. This goes for Silo's (and SS), Luke's and JP's, unfortunately I can't speak for the Morse, Axis or AL since I have little to no experience on those.

 

[PaoloGilberto]

+ 1 very good point!

I think you're missing the point here.

In fact, all JP6 sound DIFFERENT. So do other guitars. Guitars are made of wood. No two blocks of wood sound the same. Sometimes the difference is so subtle that no one will here it (well, except maybe Eric Johnson ), sometimes it's more obvious.
Every now and then I read stories of people buying Mexican Strats which sound much better than their American-made siblings. Are they lying? No. They were just lucky to find a guitar made of good resonating piece of wood. Other guitars from same batch will probably sound as an average Mex Strat is expected to sound.

I'm pretty sure that if you A/B ten JP6s some will sing to your ear better than others. .