Best Jazz Guitar For Beginners (2024 Update)

Never owned a "jazz box" before. However, over the past 4 yrs I got very serious about upping my jazz soloing skills; includingre-engineering my picking technique. All that was done om my LP Classic. Come last Xmas, I saw the great GB10EM offering on S/W anddecided it was an opportunity too good to miss. It was time to reward myself. I wasn't disappointed.Since this is a fairly inexpensive axe, my expectations weren't particularly high, despite all the good reviews on the Internet. At this price, I considered it an experiment. Normally, I would be very reluctant to buy online (sight unseen) but given the C19 pandemic and S/W's 55 point review, I felt it was worth the gamble. S/W didn't disappoint. The GB10 arrived in mint condition and, even though it's built in Indonesia, Ibanez QC holds there. The workmanship is absolutely impressive.Several features of the EM that sold me, over the (Chinese) SE, was the (1) color: I wasn't interested in yet more boring "burst" colors; especially blue, (2) body size and (3) shape: it's essentially a s Gibson LP shape with a 1.5" deeper body. The same applies to the neck dimensions. Most jazz boxes are much bigger and deeper. In fact, I would've paid the SE price for this color scheme if everything else were equal. My decision wasn't just based on price, per se. The EM is a complete bargain.All that said, my first attempts at playing it were a disaster. The feel and playability of the body with flatwouunds are so different from an LP that, at one point, I thought I'd made a huge mistake and eBay would be the next stop. I was so desparate that I even went down to a 0.43mm plectrum (paper thin). That did help and within a week it all started to come together and I was back to my usual medium 351 playing Benson's "Give Me the Night".Ever since then, I've completely fallen in love with this thing. I play it every day and I can't imagine a better new buy at this price. It's been incredibly helpful for my jazz guitar studies. Getting essentially the same sounds as Benson, or whoever, really helps make for faster progress.Something not addressed anywhere that I could find is, restringing with a moveable (free) bridge and that wooden tailpiece cover. Just last week I finally replaced the strings with D'Addario 11-50 flat chromes. And the answer is: the tailpiece is hinged and lifts up when all the strings are loosened or removed. The ball ends are slid in underneath. The bridge should be taped down so you don't lose the intonation.Another thing that bothered me a little bit when I first played it was, the frets felt a bit rough when bending the treble strings. Reading around the Internet, it seems this is just one of the hazards of buying a low-end guitar (labor costs of polishing?) but, it's easily fixed. In fact, it got better with playing but, noentheless, while replacing the strings, I took the opportunity to polish the frets with a Lizard Spit kit and F-ONE oiled the fretboard (all purchased via S/W). Easily fixed. So, don't fret. 🙂

I bought this guitar because I needed a backup for tour. I also did a lot of research and wanted something that was affordable, but had all of the bells and whistles that I needed. This guitar sounds amazing through my Boss GT100 pedal board. It’s super clean, but also has just the right OD when I need it. I would recommend this guitar to anyone. It’s super sleek, and the Hardware is black and beautiful. The pickups are fantastic. There are three setting to apply to your pickups. Each sounds great, and really all work for any sound you need. I’ve been playing for over 20 years, and I truly believe that although it’s the player that makes the instrument sound good, you also need a tool that brings it all together to make the magic take place. Rock solid, gorgeous guitar.

The only thing I'm not entirely happy with is the action. It's just a little too high. Other than that, I love it. It's a very nice looking acoustic for the money. It stays in tune extremely well and I was shocked at how full the sound was even with such a thin body. Sounds even better plugged in. The thinner body is super comfortable to handle and hold. It makes the transition from electric to acoustic very easy. The built in tuner is one of my favorite features. It works great and seems to be as accurate as any other tuner I've ever used. Overall, I would recommend this acoustic to anyone on a budget looking for a great sounding and feeling acoustic who doesn't mind the action a little on the higher side. (Side Note – I might be too critical on the action since I'm used to my electrics set up for such low action.)

Sound: Today's guitars are all made on cnc's unless you get something like a US made G&L, those are cut out with bandsaws and routers, like fenders in the 50s up to the 70s. The neck pocket in mine is very clean and neat, the body routing is very clean, the frets were nice out of the box, no misaligned screws or parts, no blemishes in the finish or anything. Features: The least useful feature for a majority of people will be the rhythm circuit, it has its own volume and tone pots and is neck pickup only, with a much darker tone than the neck pickup on the lead circuit, leave the switch in the down position, and you never have to worry about it unless you want an old school jazz guitar tone. Then push that switch up. (It does old jazz guitar really well) Ease of Use: The jazzmaster has quite a bright bridge pickup, makes it well suited for surf, or spaghetti western guitar, but it also means distortion on the bridge pickup will cut through rather well. the neck pickup is strat like, but bigger and thicker. Like a strat neck pickup on steroids. Both pickups together results in a sweet soft sort of quack tone, due to the pickups being so far apart, it's not the same as a strat quack tone, but its very nice sounding. Then of course there's the neck only rhythm circuit which is very much like an old jazz tone (hence the name Jazzmaster)The pickups are generally higher output than most other fender pickups, and work well with distortion. A lot of people still think jazzmaster pickups are p90s. Nope, real jazzmaster pickups are roughly the same size, but thats where the similarities end. They don't even sound similar. This confusion is furthered by the old mexican player jazzmasters, the j mascius, and others that have P90's. Quality: Fender mexico didn't skimp on the electronic parts, the pickups are very much like a mid 60s jazzmaster in sound, even down to the gray bobbins and enamel coated coil wire. Pots are CTS, both switches and the jack are switchcraft, just like they are supposed to be. They should last forever. The trem is built well, but not exactly the same as the old ones, the trem arm is screw in, it really should be a push in arm, like all the old ones. Also, I think the hole of the trem arm in the top plate is way way too big, it only needs to be slightly bigger than the trem arm collet.The tuners are kluson like split shaft, loke fender used from the very earliest days until 68, they're not made by kluson but it doesn't matter the design is too simple to screw up. The frets are vintage, they're always described as tall and thin. They're not tall, but they are thin, it is a 60s styled guitar after all. But I think a lot of people used to 9.5 and flatter radiuses will have problems, it's a 7.25" radius fretboard, requires a bit higher action but a half hour or so of playing, you get used to it. It also has a truss rod nut at the heel of the neck, its a correct feature for all fender's prior to 1971, but man was that a bad design choice on leo fender's part. You either have to loosen the neck a lot or take it completely off to adjust neck relief, and hope you got it right.Now when I got my guitar I took it completely apart (I always do). What I found on the inside could be improved. First was an excessive amount of wire. There is a lot of wire in a jazzmaster, but they didn't even bother cutting the pickup leads to length. Both pickups had about a foot of unnecessary lead wire, so I fixed that.The other issue was a bad conductive paint job in the cavities. The jazzmaster is an electrically noisy guitar, they need all the shielding they can get. The conductive paint was one thin coat, and didn't even go up the sides of the cavities, it wasn't doing anything. From 1958 to the end of the original run around 1980 each jazzmaster had brass tubs in all the cavities, all soldered together and grounded. I don't expect that in a new jazzmaster, but they knew then that it needed shielding. The pickguard in 58 was also gold anodized aluminum, which was excellent for shielding. But the anodizing wasn't good, and the gold wore off after a few months so and looked awful. In 59 fender switched to plastic tort pickguards, with a thin pickguard sized aluminum shield underneath. Anyway I properly shielded the cavities. Also the pickguard only had aluminum tape for the toggle switch to the jack, and another piece for piece for rhythm circuit switch and pots. That ain't going to do it. I added more shielding, put it all back together and it was a major improvement. Recently I decided to see what a proper gold anodized aluminum pickguard would look like on ice blue metallic, and its VERY cool, looks like a 1960s california speed shop modded my guitar, might put some tele knobs on it sometime.I also made another modification, I had a 65 reissue trem and bridge laying around, so I put them on it. In the old days, the lock button, trem

If you want a good looking semi-hollow body guitar that plays and sounds OK, this is probably the best value for money guitar out there. You still get what you pay for, but i think Ibanez has found a good balance in that regard. Craftsmanship : It looks amazing and sounds great for such a cheap guitar. Of course there are some features that could be better, but none of these really affect the looks, playability or sound of the guitar. Sound : the pickups are a little hot and punchy for me, but for a pair of cheap pickups they sound pretty good. They give plenty of output for a good fuzzy sound but also sound reasonably good clean. This guitar can handle a solid rock sound and a decent clean sound as well. A little bright maybe, but you have the individual tone controls to remedy that if you wanted to. Plenty of sustain too. Neck : If you're coming from a Fender electric guitar it could take a little getting used to the smaller scale length, the bigger radius of the fretboard and the smaller string spacing. But nothing dramatic. I would think this is the perfect beginner guitar for those reasons. The neck profile feels good to me. All in all a great guitar for the money.

What a wonderful instrument! I have had this guitar for a few weeks now and been addicted to playing it. This guitar plays like something in the $350-$500 range. The build quality is really good. I do find that the 3 way pick up selector is a little wobbly but it hasn't been an issue for me so far. The Tone/Volume pots have a smooth action and they look nice to boot. The neck is super comfortable and a joy to play. The pickups sound awesome. I bought the Baltic Metal Blue version and it was a little darker in person than the images show so keep that in mind if you are looking at that specific model. Overall I really don't have any major complaints with this guitar. For $199.99 you can't beat it. This would make an excellent first guitar if you are learning, which is what I did. The thin neck will make learning easier as well.

Overall: My first electric guitar so not much to compare it to but I feel like it's heavy. But it's so pretty :-)! Also the frets are a bit Sharp on the outsides this parts where the finish doesn't completely cover the surface. A big reason why I got an Ibanez was because of an ex-boyfriend getting one some years back and he was in love with it. A big part of that was because of the awesome sweatshirt and three picks that came with it. He must have bought from someone else or Ibanez just isn't with it anymore but it would have been nice to have any kind of accessory, even a thank you card. Did I say it was beautiful guitar though! Also it doesn't stay in tune for s***. But it is really pretty.

Overall: I've had this GB10SE for about a week now. Purchased a blemished model to save a few bucks.When it came, (in one day, thank you), it rattled when moved. I thought it was the wiring banging around. But, turned out to be the pickguard bracket epoxy had broken free of the guard . Drop of epoxy and no rattle. There was a gouge about the size of a half dollar on the back, which on further inspection was some dried goo that wiped off completely with a wet towel… The bridge intonation was out about a quarter inch, but since the factory sheet off foam was still under it, it had to be removed and reset anyway… And the truss rod was a quarter turn tight making the first two frets buzz..The entire "FIX" took about four minutes total… I have since tried to figure out why it was considered blemished at all. Looks great. Sounds great. . Not pretending it sounds like an expensive jazz box. But, it isn't. It does sound MUCH better than the GB30 I had years ago.. The top not having the pickups attached or the holes gives it much more resonance. And same with the bone/brass nut… I'd have given it and the service 5stars if it wasn't for the fact that it seems like no tech touched or tried to fix such minor issues before the sale..

Overall: I LOVE IT…. Tone, feel, size, strings, lookIm ready for the next higher George Benson Guitar…. A great guitarummmm the socket did come loose where you plug into the guitar. This was a 4 minute fix with some ingenuity. It was under warranty but the retail shops where hours away. I decided to fix it myself and im glad I did…. I basically tightened the screw so it wont back itself out…. its back to new… Im happy with the guitar….. they probably just didnt tighten it enough when it was build…. no complaints here.

I bought the LGB 30 when it was released.. Totally blown away by every aspect of the instrument. I couldn't get solid info on the GB10SE guitar. Went to Atlanta to return a very expensive Les Paul, and they had the SE. I am a Guitar Tech by trade. After checking it out for 15 minutes I knew the guitar (despite some issues ) was good. The set up was poor. High action and too much relief. The Bridge pickup was out of alignment. These things were easily remedied, but they are obstacles. I have dealt with several Japanese GB10's, and they were perfect out of the box. This guitar required some work. But the end result was worth it. The neck is straight, the tone is great, and I only see it getting better!

I bought this guitar as a beginner's guitar for my kids aged 3 and 5 (probably a bit too early for the youngest, however I couldn't get myself to buy a guitar from the toy store). I had read some mixed reviews about the guitar before my purchase, in particular regarding its ability to stay in tune. After having played it myself for a couple of nights however, I don't really see this as an issue. The lower string tension does mean that you will have to be careful not to play too hard on open chords. You also have to be careful how hard you push your fingers down unto the fretboard. However, these are issues you will find on any 3/4 model. Tuning the guitar a half note higher or using thicker strings can make this less of a problem. However, all in all I am very happy with the puchase and the kids (and myself) just love the looks of the guitar.

I'd give it a 6 outta 10 I knew what I was getting when I ordered this: a cheaply made gypsy guitar. I was pleasantly surprised when I received it – had a big, loud, style appropriate sound. Plays pretty good, it's in tune.If you're lloking to dable in this style, it's a good place to start. It was recommended to me by a young guy at Djangofest NW. As he said, "you won't die with this guitar". It took a while to get it as it was back ordered.

Superb value I was very pleasantly surprised at the build quality and tone of this guitar, as a cheap instrument. Extremely light weight, lots of sustain and a real sweet tone, somewhere between a classical and an archtop–plenty loud. Very decent satin finish, not too heavy. The guitar was very playable, plays in tune up the neck. Could maybe use a little buffing of the fret ends, but I expected worse, given the low price– was definitely very playable right out of the box, with a new set of strings (the strings that came with the guitar seem to be appropriate strings for this type of guitar however; I mention this because the Saga Gitane guitars years ago used to come with the wrong type of string). I'm very happy with this purchase.