Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Review quickie: Gibson J-series

Alrighty! I've tried both the LPJ & SGJ not because I'm a keen Gibson fan but because these are my kinda guitars- gloss free neck + no frills hence the price tag(s). 

LPJ
This guitar is a Les Paul, just not your kinda Les Paul. So much is removed from its typical incarnation, it's a bare bones player, enough to serve needs, nothing extra. The LPJ can be deemed as a BFG variation through & through but the neck here is maple, not mahogany. So that's the expectation when you handle one.

Tone wise, the LPJ offers rounded tones from both pickups due to their covered nature. The gloss-free, lighter body- plus the fact that it's chambered- balances things off somewhat so there is neither an excessively bright voicing nor is there a deep, grinding bottom end to be heard. The test model was flawless- thumbs up.

SGJ
Same finish treatment, same pickups, same neck profiles but hey, the SGJ doesn't sport a chambered body :-) It also has 2 more frets than its LPJ brother. Due to its different dimensions, the SGJ manifests great clarity even from the neck humbucker- it clicks even for non-490R fans like me. So is that a good thing? It depends on your tonal preferences, there would definitely some of us who would like the SGJ's tone to be smoother but that's nothing a good EQ wouldn't help. Or a capacitor swap for that matter.

Gibson LPJ ($899)/ SGJ ($799) are now available at Swee Lee Co.