Jazz City Peerless Guitar
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The Jazz City is a unique full bodied ‘f’ hole jazzer from the newly arrived Peerless stable.
Not that the Korean Peerless company is new to making guitars (they’ve been making guitars for various other well known brands since 1970), but this is the first time that they have set out on their own, confident in the quality of their product. With a solid flame maple top and laminated maple back and sides together with a maple neck, this full size 17 inch baby with a 75mm body depth, produces a beautifully focussed, clean, round tone that you might expect from maple. The adjustable bridge, tailpiece and 22 fret fingerboard, which is decorated with mother of pearl inlay, is produced out of stock rosewood, while the nut is traditional bone.
The whole is topped off by a set of gold plated Grover machine heads set on a headstock that is very similar to the large crown of the D’Aquisto. The “house designed” humbucking pick up with its gold tone and volume controls is set into the body in the ‘mid-way’ position a la Gibson ES 175D and although well balanced, it is not an ideal match for the maple top, giving a very lively and bright sound. We would have preferred something more mellow, along the lines of a ‘Seth Lover’ or a ‘59. Unusually, the instrument comes in a satin/matt sunburst finish with a rather classy abalone/white binding that you will either love or hate! Strung as standard with a set of D’Addario 12’s, the Jazz City has a good overall balance and a feel that will please even the most discerning player. It comes in a plush, traditionally shaped hard case.