SVMMONYR
Active Member
I have been looking for a music man for a long time on the used market and finally came across this Blood Orange JP15-7 that I had to get. Never really wanted to buy one for the full retail price so I think I got a pretty good deal on this one. Here is a short review of the guitar:
The Good:
- Asthetically it looks amazing, at least for my eyes. The gloss finish makes the spalted maple top stand out. Its has a little bit of weight to it so its not a super light guitar. The weight is on the body and not on the neck, so naturally no neck dive is present.
- The neck both feels amazing and is truly beatiful to look at. The roasted maple on the back of the neck and on the fingerboard looks and feels amazing. The special wax blend finish on the back of the neck is very smooth and one of the best feels you could ever have on a neck. I prefer this more to a gloss style neck that the Majesty for example has. Its on the thinner side but not the thinnest neck I've ever played. I read that the neck width varies on these guitars because of the sanding. The fretwork is immaculate and the truss rod adjustment placed at the bottom of the neck is a very convinient feature.
- The pickups! Didn't have any experience with these Dimarzio Illuminator pickups but was pleasently suprised how they sounded. Bright and articulate on the bridge and very smooth for cleans/leads on the neck. Not going to swap these out!
- Piezo! Sounds great, nuff said.
Neutral:
- You can tighten the tremolo arm on the bridge to hold position tightly anyway you want, but you have to do it by tightening a small screw with a very small allen key under the bridge. Its pretty tedious and wished there would be a faster way to adjust the trem arm.
- When I got the guitar and set it up with 09-60 strings in drop A, the guitar just wouldnt stay in tune. It had 3 springs in the back of the tremolo bridge, but once I put in a 4 th spring the tuning held up great and had no issues. If you are having tuning issues I sugest adding an extra spring on the back.
- Intonation on the lowest string, for drop A atleast, isnt exactly spot on because I have the bridge saddle moved as far back as it can. If anyone has an idea for 25,5 scale for drop A tuning what string would intonate best let me know. For a gauge 60 it is almost there but not quite.
- With the gain boost activated I found that pinch harmonics especially jump out and "squeal" very aggressively which is nice, but other than that its not really something that I would use otherwise. The middle position coil split is cool, but wished there was also an option for the 2 remaining switches on the pickup selector to have a coil split.
- The layout of the switches initially felt akward and especially when going for tapping licks my right hand would hit the humbucker/blend/piezo switch. But got used to the layout were quickly and it became an non issue. The volume/tone knobs feel great and are not in the way and the pickup selector is quick to reach and reacts perfectly for quick pickup switches when doing leads
Negative:
- I have only one issue with the guitar, and that is the G string resonating on the length of behind the nut to the tuner. With the locking tuner, it doesnt get enough pressure on the string and that causes the open string when played to rattle. Using a fretwrap behind the nut fixes this but still its pretty annoying knowing the issue exists without it. Have to try putting on the string traditionally without the locking tuner mechanisim to see if it will fix it. A string tree or a string retainer would fix it too but dont know if I want to drill holes on the headstock.
All in all, I say it plays like a dream and is a great instrument! Wish I would have gotten one sooner!
Here is a video with the guitar in action:
The Good:
- Asthetically it looks amazing, at least for my eyes. The gloss finish makes the spalted maple top stand out. Its has a little bit of weight to it so its not a super light guitar. The weight is on the body and not on the neck, so naturally no neck dive is present.
- The neck both feels amazing and is truly beatiful to look at. The roasted maple on the back of the neck and on the fingerboard looks and feels amazing. The special wax blend finish on the back of the neck is very smooth and one of the best feels you could ever have on a neck. I prefer this more to a gloss style neck that the Majesty for example has. Its on the thinner side but not the thinnest neck I've ever played. I read that the neck width varies on these guitars because of the sanding. The fretwork is immaculate and the truss rod adjustment placed at the bottom of the neck is a very convinient feature.
- The pickups! Didn't have any experience with these Dimarzio Illuminator pickups but was pleasently suprised how they sounded. Bright and articulate on the bridge and very smooth for cleans/leads on the neck. Not going to swap these out!
- Piezo! Sounds great, nuff said.
Neutral:
- You can tighten the tremolo arm on the bridge to hold position tightly anyway you want, but you have to do it by tightening a small screw with a very small allen key under the bridge. Its pretty tedious and wished there would be a faster way to adjust the trem arm.
- When I got the guitar and set it up with 09-60 strings in drop A, the guitar just wouldnt stay in tune. It had 3 springs in the back of the tremolo bridge, but once I put in a 4 th spring the tuning held up great and had no issues. If you are having tuning issues I sugest adding an extra spring on the back.
- Intonation on the lowest string, for drop A atleast, isnt exactly spot on because I have the bridge saddle moved as far back as it can. If anyone has an idea for 25,5 scale for drop A tuning what string would intonate best let me know. For a gauge 60 it is almost there but not quite.
- With the gain boost activated I found that pinch harmonics especially jump out and "squeal" very aggressively which is nice, but other than that its not really something that I would use otherwise. The middle position coil split is cool, but wished there was also an option for the 2 remaining switches on the pickup selector to have a coil split.
- The layout of the switches initially felt akward and especially when going for tapping licks my right hand would hit the humbucker/blend/piezo switch. But got used to the layout were quickly and it became an non issue. The volume/tone knobs feel great and are not in the way and the pickup selector is quick to reach and reacts perfectly for quick pickup switches when doing leads
Negative:
- I have only one issue with the guitar, and that is the G string resonating on the length of behind the nut to the tuner. With the locking tuner, it doesnt get enough pressure on the string and that causes the open string when played to rattle. Using a fretwrap behind the nut fixes this but still its pretty annoying knowing the issue exists without it. Have to try putting on the string traditionally without the locking tuner mechanisim to see if it will fix it. A string tree or a string retainer would fix it too but dont know if I want to drill holes on the headstock.
All in all, I say it plays like a dream and is a great instrument! Wish I would have gotten one sooner!
Here is a video with the guitar in action:
