NGD: JP6 in Mystic Dream

NGD: JP6 in Mystic Dream

Hey folks,

it’s NGD for me at last – 378 days after I ordered what has been my dream guitar for probably more than 10 years, it finally arrived in my hands. I am the proud owner of a EBMM JP6 in Mystic Dream. I never thought I’d be able to say that.

The wait has definitely been excruciating at times – but it was a learning opportunity for me to simply be a bit more patient; from what I can say so far, it’s absolutely worth it. I might do a more thorough review some day but here’s my first impressions (coming from an Ibanez JEM555 that was my main workhorse for the past decade):

  • Finish: I knew I would love the MD colour-shift finish, and what can I say. It is the most awesome finish ever to me. It’s definitely much darker than I thought – sometimes it’s black, sometimes bright green, sometimes purple, sometimes orange-ish. Amazing.
  • Build / Quality: One can feel that this is a (at least partially) hand-crafted instrument. It’s really well built while retaining character and a “uniqueness” you don’t get with something off an assembly line. It definitely feels like a high quality piece of craftsmanship.
  • Feel: Man – this is probably the point I was most nervous about, but also the point I love most. This thing feels amazing. The forearm-scoop is extremely comfortable, the neck is seemingly perfect for my hands and get this: I do think this piece of gear actually improves my playing (somewhat at least). Usually I’d be “The gear won’t make you a better player”, but I might’ve been proven otherwise in this case. I feel I have much more control over the instrument and can thus be more accurate. So I can only attest to what has been said many times – in terms of feel and ergonomics this thing rips and is hard to beat.
  • Sound: Again, it is exceeding my expectations; unplugged it’s extremely resonant and it wants to sing. This translates well to it’s plugged-in behaviour. Best cleans I ever got out of a guitar without having to tweak my “go-to” sounds in my AxeFX. One of the gripes I have with my Ibanez guitars is that I think their cleans sound very thin – not the case here definitely Distorted sounds have a lot of punch without losing clarity or note-separation. Very pleased so far. Can’t say much about the piezo sounds yet as I have to dive into those a bit more.

So far so good – lot’s of well deserved praise! And I am very happy that the things I was most curious about (sound, feel and ergonomics) have been met or surpassed regarding my expectations.

I definitely have to explore the piezo-setup in more detail yet; I have the impression that using the stereo-jack with a mono-cable creates some sort of hum, noticeable on the magnetics played through a distorted amp at some times. But I’ll have to test more to confirm that.

Also, I don’t like the placement of the output-jacks; I HAVE to get a cable with an angle-jack. I do think the design of the recessed output-jack on the JEMs is hard to surpass and something I do miss on the JP6.

Pics will follow; I wanna do this beauty justice.

That’s all for now – I am looking forward to playing the hell out of this piece of art. Thanks EBMM for crafting such beautiful instruments, for finally getting it all the way to Austria (in one piece) during these challenging times and for JP for having a really, really good sense for what makes gear great.

EDIT: What I forgot to say – besides from bearing a lot of sentimental meaning for me personally, this is probably one of the last JP6s made in the Mystic Dream finish. Delivered to me 20 years after it first came out. Lovely bit of special trivia to go with it.

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Source: http://forums.ernieball.com