2000s JB Player JB35BK Student 3/4 Guitar

Why post on this? It's a good question -- but there are two of them in for local repairs, here, and I figured I might as well give it a go and let folks know what these are like. This one needed a new nut and saddle and so I made-up some bone replacements and set it up. I'm pretty sure this is an older one (mid-late 2000s?) as it definitely shows "Vermont dyness syndrome" and plenty of "road wear."

Obviously, being an Indonesian-made guitar that ships to your door for $120 from Amazon, these are not the best-quality instruments on the planet, but it has its uses. I think it's an adequate beginner's guitar if it's actually setup (I have never come across an example of a JB Player "anything" that actually played out of the box) and has a sort of fun, chunky, plain-spoken tone. It's x-braced in a bulky fashion -- but that at least insures that it will survive some kid-toting torture.

The build quality is pretty funky, though, unfortunately. There are some pretty decent absolutely-cheap import guitars made these days (think Yamaha), and this model, for your money, is so-so. This example has a slightly twisted/backbowed neck and not-totally-accurate fretting which means I can't crank action perfectly at the 12th fret, but it's dialed-in very close and the ~21" scale is forgiving enough that it plays well, anyhow -- as the set of 54w-12 "lights" that are on it feel more like 11s or even 10s, tension-wise.

Despite the bling, the entire thing is made of thin plywood and has that plastic-y gloss finish you'd expect to see on one of these. Fortunately, said finish repels abuse pretty well.

The rosewood bridge is... at least... rosewood! I know, sadly, that this one will lift-off at some point in the near future. JB Player #2 in the shop's bridge was almost off and needed a reglue because... they glued the dang things down over the coat of black paint at the factory. Grr!

Sealed tuners at least keep the things tuning-stable, for the most part.