New (Really Old) Guitar Day - aka Jupiter Rising

watelessness

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Apr 26, 2012
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Sergio: it's not blue so read on
Les: get a nice, sipping coffee before you read on and let me know how I did

I've had this beauty for a few weeks but have just been too swamped with all the goings-on to write up a post befitting such a piece.

I walked into Parkway Music on a really fortuitous day, as Andrew Paul had just left behind this magnificent generator of tone. Apologies for my lack of lighting and photography skills.
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That is a cedar top over semi-hollow mahogany, with Vintage Bass and Treble pickups, 24 frets, two-piece tailpiece, and PRSh signature on the headstock. Yes, that is a great deal to take in all at once so I'll pause here while you scroll back up...
 
When i first saw it, drool leaked out of the corners of my mouth. When I first strummed it I knew it was inevitable that I would become its caretaker.

Acoustically, there is instant, sudden and serious volume. It is loud. The chambering acts as an amplifier, a resonator that provides the sustain. It's not devoid of vibration but it leans toward a "mid-range shake".

My greatest observation when it is plugged in: CLARITY. It is just "there" instantly, as the bloom is so quick. It lacks lows, is snappy without being too chimey, and is essentially a mid-range monster.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it through some of my amps. In retrospect it makes sense but I was not expecting it to do crunch, drive, and balls so well. Queue my sonic ignorance...

As a rule, the bridge pickup is "right there", the split positions add quack and jangle, and the neck pickup adds darkness.

The JCM 2000 was a huge surprise, as this guitar is spectacular through the clean channel. Yes, clean through a Marshall - I said it and I stand by it. When adding the Crunch button it took on a very pleasing vintage breakup. On the gain-channel side it continued that "vintage breakup/dark vintage power trip" but it was so clear, so clear that I cold see through it while still feeling its presence.

The HX/DA was another pleasant experience with some surprises. As with every guitar through this infinitely-flexible amp, just a little nudge of the HX/DA gain, Bass gain, or Presence makes a world of difference. I found positions 2-4 just "meh" regardless of hx/da toggles, as they were just too muddy or too quacky. The bridge however, is pretty much "gritty balls" across the board, and the neck was "dark balls" made better with more hx/da gain.
I loved the cleans of the C, but only the bridge on the gain side was anything notable.

The Dallas was interesting, as I loved the boxey, woody, snappy cleans (volume=9:00, master=3:00). When swapping the volume and master settings it was just "meh", however dialing the volume and master back to 9:00 and 3:00 respectively, then adding some push from the Full-drive 2 Mosfet, I got a wonderful a warm, woody, snappy, kick-ass grit monster.

The Archon 100 had great jangley and throaty warm cleans, but I got nothing but mud from the gain channel. The Archon 25 produced less mud and more "quacky power", whereas the cleans were nothing special and leaned more to "jangley boxy clean".

The Blues Jr. (tweed) was very solid grit that turned into nasty grit when i added the Full-drive.

The pattern of wonderful boxy, warm, woody snappiness continued into the Columbia Reverb. I did get some decent grit when adding the Full-drive, but nothing spectacular.

The biggest surprise was the MT-15. Seriously, a guitar with no lows and really old pickups through a modern gain amp? Apparently! I was impressed with the clean channel, as the bridge was a semi-boxy clean, but adding the neck pickup gave me a really neat warm, dark break. On the gain side, the bridge was pure nasty balls, and the neck yielded nasty balls soaking dark cream.

Regarding the name, I gave up naming guitars a long, long time ago, but this one came with the name "Jupiter", and the more I stare at the top it the more I get it. Hence, the name shall remain.

Overall, I'm very much enamored of this guitar and am grateful that Andrew saw fit to part with it! Hats off to Tom and Matt at Parkway Music for setting it aside for me because they knew... they knew...
 
That is a beauty! I'd love to stumble upon one of these and grab one myself! (But I'm pretty sure I can't afford it right now.)
 
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