NJA15D - NGD - JA-15

Ugh... The Nuge?

I was thinking something more like this:

Yeah, that is more like what I would want to play on the JA-15.

Perhaps this
That is good stuff, but I can't play that well/cleanly, so though mildly inspiring, I can't cop that style effectively.

And of course the signature artist himself, Paul Jackson Jr, is probably the sound I would aim for, when not just doing my own thing.

EDIT: here's a video I was thinking of.


I will admit that I am not a huge fan of Nugent the musician nor Nugent the person.
 
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That strap button is so wrong. But the rest is so right! Nice pickup. A wood dowel would fill that hole nicely. I bet the PTC would do it for “cheap”.
 
That strap button is so wrong. But the rest is so right! Nice pickup. A wood dowel would fill that hole nicely. I bet the PTC would do it for “cheap”.
I already have those abalone/paua earrings on the way - one of those should look interesting. if not, I will clean it up with a wood dowel or similar fill - I feel comfortable doing that myself.

But seriously... I f@cking hate when sellers say mint in their ads. Mostly because they never are.
Indeed. Not in this case, but I have seen many listings with "Mint" that really weren't. You know, "Mint". Except for the ding on the lower bout. And the buckle rash. And the chip out of the headstock. And I swapped the pickups (and did a lousy job soldering, but I won't show you those pics). And the fretwear - it is hardly noticeable! Except that one fret, probably just needs a re-crowning. OK, maybe replacing. But otherwise "Mint"!
 
Oh yeah, one more thing...

I played this guitar for about an hour and a half last night, playing along to The Voice - not what we normally watch, but we do occasionally like to turn off our brains and enjoy some overproduced karaoke with cartoon-character "judges" (although there was one or two original songs last night, so I will give them credit there).

Playing along to the TV can be an interesting exercise, especially the ads - you don't know the key, and if it is something new then you don't even know the structure of the melody. (Versus "Nationwide is on your side" - we all know how that goes, right?!)

Anyway, with the ebony fretboard feeling so sleek, it seemed effortless to just noodle away, and I had the amp set up so that with the guitar's volume knob rolled down it was nice and clean-jazzy, and then I could crank the volume to get a bit of nice gritty dirt. My wife bashed away at some bongos, and we had a great old time!

Once again, PRS has created a beautiful instrument. And this particular model seems so under-the-radar. Glad I snagged it!
 
So I had someone send me a PM asking about the overall tone of the guitar, and how/whether the maple neck vs spruce top affected the sound. So here are my thoughts:

I also have a Spruce Hollowbody (with Archtop Pickups). That has a mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard. So that can be a fair comparison to the JA-15, in a sense.

The Spruce top on the JA-15 will certainly mellow it out compared to a maple top. It seems a common consensus [citation needed] that a Spruce HB is mellower than a HB I (with maple top), which is mellower than a HB II (with a maple top and back).

The JA-15 is not bright. It sounds comparable to my Spruce HB. Maybe it is because the bigger body would sound mellower, but the ebony/maple neck counters that just enough. The JA-15 has flatwounds installed right now, because that's what the seller had put on. That is probably a big influence too, maybe moreso than the bigger body in making it mellow.

I suspect if I put Ernie Ball strings on it would get noticeably brighter: EBs are known for being nice and bright (or harsh, I guess, depending on POV).

IMHO, it isn't so much one way or the other that you wouldn't be able to adapt in some way to get closer to what a player might need, tone-wise: different strings, twist of the tone knob, tweak of the amp EQ settings, etc.

Also keep in mind that my JA-15 has the so-called 50s Gibson wiring installed, which may also affect it.
 
I had a JA-15, but a good friend of mine fell in love with it, so it eventually became his. It was the guitar featured in the February 2011 Guitar Player magazine, although I eventually put a pick guard on it.

IMG_8160.jpg
ja2.jpg
 
@Shawn@PRS , is that your JA-15 featured in this blog post about creating that pickguard design?

http://www.prsguitars.com/index.php/blog/post/ptc_custom_pickguard_design_for_ja_15_model

EDIT: Wait, it can't be: the one on the magazine cover (I presume yours) has the six-slot bridge string holder, whereas the other photo has the five slot version (mine has the five slot bridge too).

Yes it's the guitar from the blog and the guitar from the magazine. I had the tail piece swapped out, but the original is still in the case (or it was when I sold it).
 
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