It all started when I saw an Ibanez AS93FM (emerald green one), and a desire was born. A lot of my blues heroes used a semi-hollow guitar, so I think it's finally time to see if I connect with one. I looked into the Ibanez Artcores, used Gibson ES 335s, Epiphones, Firefly guitars, even an ES 339 caught my attention, but I decided against all of them for one reason or another; most of them weren't in my current budget anyway. Ultimately I decided it had to be a cherry red Harley Benton HB-35 Plus, as it addressed my biggest concern about gelling with a 335 style guitar. On most 335 guitars the input jack is on the front, while the HB-35 Plus has it on the bottom, like most guitars. It also had a lot of features that I like, such as a flame maple top, the switch at the top like a Les Paul, and push/pull pots to split the coils of each humbucker.
I told my brother to keep an eye out for 335 style guitars, especially a used HB-35 Plus. Both Friday and Saturday he texted me a ton of pictures of guitars, but nothing had all of the features that made the Harley Benton my favorite. Then he sent me a photo of a cherry red, flame maple 335 style guitar with the switch at the top, and I got excited! At first I thought it was an HB-35 Plus, because the headstock wasn't visible, but once I noticed the gold hardware I could tell this wasn't a the HB-35 Plus I was looking for. If it looks like an HB-35 Plus, but isn't, what could it be? It' a Peavey!? Yes, a Peavey JF-1, to be exact. After my brother sent me a photo of the headstock, I quickly went to work researching what it was. In most of my research I found a lot of people seemed to like them, so that helped me decide this was the one for me.
The Peavey JF-1 retailed for $399.99 many years ago, so I wonder if the HB-35 Plus was based on it. These were Peavey's entry into Jazz Fusion, thus JF model. The only feature the Peavey lacked, compared to what I wanted from the HB-35 Plus, was the push/pull pots. It did surpass the HB-35 Plus in the pickguard style, which is much more 335-esque, compared to the LP style of the HB-35 Plus. It had some bumps and bruises, but nothing I couldn't overlook. Overall she's in good shape, although she does need a setup. To its credit, as per the Peavey website specs, the tuners are Grover, the neck is set-in mahogany, and it is completely wrapped in cream binding, including front and back of the maple body. If I had any complaints at all I would say I'm not a fan of gold hardware, but that will continue to wear over time.
Another minor gripe is these pickups may get changed at some point. The neck pickup seems to sit around PAF territory, where I want it, but the bridge is a bit too hot for what I want to do with this guitar, at 14k. I may also install a push/pull on the neck, if I change out the pickups, for the out of phase sound. Overall she sounds nice acoustically, and plays really nice. After some elbow grease she cleaned up nice too! It's great having another guitar that rings out acoustically, like my Les Paul. I've already bonded with this one in less than 24 hours of having it. Really nice for what it is, and I got it at a super deal. An easy pick up and play guitar to help me test pedal builds too!
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