Alkuperäinen suomenkielinen testi on ilmestynyt Rockway-blogissa.
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Telecaster-style electric guitars are the cornerstone of all solid-body guitars. Although the original Fender model was released in 1950, the basic Tele is still in everyday use around the world. A simple “breadboard” body, a bolt-on neck, and two very different single-coil pickups, and that’s it.
Tele-style instruments are excellent country, blues, rock, and soul guitars, with their twangy bridge pickup sound easily recognisable.
Sometimes, however, a player wants something extra, something more than that old-school Telecaster tone.
We received two affordable, yet ”factory-customised” Jet Guitars models for a review from the brand’s importer, Tampereen Musiikki.
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There are three things that many people think deserve an upgrade on a basic Tele:
The neck pickup can sound a bit weak, the rudimentary bridge has only three adjustable saddles, and the square body can be annoyingly hard on the ribs.
Jet Guitars’ JT-350SH (€369) stylishly takes care of these three problems.
Despite its affordable price, the JT-350SH has added many pro-level features:
The guitar’s neck is carved from heat-treated Canadian maple, while the fingerboard is made of Indian rosewood. The neck is equipped with a dual-action truss rod, and its adjustment is conveniently done at the headstock end. Thanks to the locking tuners, changing strings is a quick task, and the instrument stays in tune very well.
The basswood body, which is bound at the front, has two bevels at the back – one in the cutaway to make it easier for the playing hand to reach the upper frets, and the other has been added to the top edge to soften the fit of the body against the player’s body. The bolt-on neck joint on the Jet JT-350SH is also rounded.
Wilkinson’s high-quality, modern six-saddle bridge is home to a traditional (alnico) Tele bridge pickup, while a full-size alnico humbucker sits in the tortoiseshell-patterned pickguard.
This SH-pickup combination (a portmanteau of “single-coil” and “humbucker”) makes a single Tele sound like two different guitars, as it offers the classic Tele bridge sound, as well as the creamy Gibson sound. It’s not entirely clear who first invented the SH-combination on a Tele, but blues guitarist Albert Collins used a custom Tele like this back in the 1960s. Rolling Stones legend Keith (“Keef”) Richards uses both modified Telecasters and second-generation 1970s Tele Customs with a factory-installed neck humbucker. In the 1980s, Andy Summers of the Police became well-known for his JT-350SH-style Fender guitar.
The Jet JT-350SH adds a pull-switch embedded in the tone knob to the standard Tele front-both-rear connection, allowing you to split the humbucker for traditional single-coil Tele sounds.
The Jet Guitars JT-350SH model’s playability is first-class, thanks to a slim neck profile, a gentler fingerboard radius (9.5 inches) and really good fretwork. The guitar arrived for review with an excellent set-up.
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In 1979, The Who’s Pete Townshend had had enough of his heavy Gibson Les Paul Deluxe guitars from the 70s, and he sent his guitar technician, Alan Rogan, to find something better for the next tour.
Townshend had also played Telecasters in the 1960s and he remembered that this guitar model was relatively light, but at the same time very durable. However, he wanted a guitar with two humbuckers, for a thicker distorted sound.
After a few twists and turns, Alan Rogan found a new company – Schecter Guitar Research – that made both guitar parts and complete electric guitars. Rogan ordered a pair of Schecters for his boss, Townshend liked them, and “the rest is history”, as they say.
Jet Guitars’ JT-450Q (€399) is a fancy double humbucker Tele, with a few more piquant details added:
A very impressive quilted maple top with a front elbow bevel, a pink burst finish, and a split pickup with a pull-switch (in the tone control).
The basic components of the JT-450Q are largely the same as those of the JT-350SH model. The JT-450Q has a heat-treated maple neck with a fingerboard made of the same material. The shape of the headstock on this model is also different – it vaguely resembles the Pensa-Suhr headstock. The truss rod in this model is also dual-action and the tuners are of the locking variety. The top nut is made of genuine bovine bone on both instruments.
The body of the guitar is carved from basswood, and the JT-450Q also has a gloss finish, while the neck has a satin finish. The back of the body of the JT-450Q features the same soft bevels as seen on the JT-350SH.
Since the Jet JT-450Q uses two humbuckers in their own frames, the guitar’s bridge is a hardtail Strat-style version. However, the strings are still strung through the body in the regular Telecaster manner.
The Jet’s coverless alnico humbuckers are connected to a three-position switch, as well as master volume and tone. As I already mentioned, the tone pot has a push-pull switch that allows you to split the double-coil pickups in half for single-coil sounds. The switch and controls are mounted at an angle, Strat-style, so that you can easily create volume swell effects with your pinky. The JT-450Q’s humbuckers are not spoiled by excessive power, which imbues them with a beautiful and dynamic sound.
In the case of the Jet JT-450Q, you can also just marvel at how such an inexpensive guitar can feel so good in the hand. The neck profile here is also a nice oval C-profile, which – in addition to the very good fretwork – makes playing effortless and fast. The low trim of the test guitars can only be achieved with very strict quality control, which seems to be up to the task at Jet Guitars.
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