Hello, Semi-Hollow Part 2: Upgrades

As I stated in the previous post I had been searching for a 335 style guitar for quite some time, but only recently turned serious about my search. It's been a little over a month since Cherrie King and I met, and I'm still learning the eccentricities of her personality, but I'm very pleased I made the purchase. After a quick setup, she's playing and sounding amazing; acoustically at least. Being a complete semi-hollow guitar newbie, I'm shocked how quickly a semi-hollow seems to react to the environment around them. Cherrie's sustain wasn't very strong when she first arrived, but her tone warmed up, and her sustain came through after acclimating. Could it be all in my head? Sure it could, but regardless I'm greatly enjoying finally owning a 335 style guitar.

Since the purchase I've been doing a lot of research into where mine was made, what year it was made, and just general information about it. Using the web archive I see the JF-1 series first appeared on the Peavey website in 2004. I believe Cherrie to be one of the earliest models, because the specs from 2004 line up exactly, but change in 2005. The website never says exactly where these were manufactured, but I did contact a Peavey rep who claims, generally Peavey guitars with EXP were Indonesian, and EX guitars were Chinese. For sake of argument I'll just assume Cherrie was probably made in Indonesian around late 03, early 04.

The specs indicate pretty decent quality, and I can confirm this guitar is super nice. In the original 2004 specs Peavey claimed the body to be a lightweight maple ply, but never explained if it's laminated like normal 335 guitars. The neck is a maple set-in, slightly angled, with a 22 fret rosewood fretboard, and pearl block inlays. The scale length is the standard 24.75", like most 335 guitars will be. What shocked me the most about this guitar is the long neck tenon, which wasn't mentioned anywhere. Another missing detail in the original specs is the flame maple top veneer, but the images of the guitars on their website were clearly flame maple tops. Nor did they bother to mention the body is bound front and back, all the way up the neck and headstock, as well as the F holes are bound. To put it simply, this guitar has some features I wouldn't expect for a guitar that was this affordable. MSRP $399.99

The long neck tenon marked, I hope "JF1".

If I had one gripe at all about Cherrie, it would be her pickups. Ideally I want to give her a nice set of PAFs, but these "Peavey designed humbuckers" aren't half bad. They seem highly inspired by the Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded set. The neck pickup is decent sounding, and kind of reminds me of a Jazz, albeit currently microphone. The bridge is fairly beefy and spicy, like a JB. That doesn't mean I can't dial in a really nice blues tone with them though. Even so, I still want a nice PAF set, but I'm in no hurry. I also plan on building Cherrie a 50s style wiring harness. I'm not sure how that's going to go, because of the whole 335 style guitar thing, but it's a plan.

One of the easiest upgrades has been the knobs. Originally the knobs were just black speed knobs, but almost every ES-335 style guitar has black bells with reflector centers. I decided that would be the way to go for me as well. The next project is to get a round, knurled nut for the selector switch - and maybe a cream tip - because the hexagonal nut looks way too industrial for my liking. I've seen newer JF-1s with the round knurled one, so I want that look. Worst case I'll buy a Gibson switch, so I'll have the low-profile nut they use. For what I paid for this guitar it's one hell of a guitar. Sure, I've had my ups and downs getting to know this guitar, as one does with any guitar, but there is so much potential with what Cherrie offers. I love this guitar!

Cherrie with her new bling (knobs)