I’ve had this instrument for almost a year, and I have to confess, I was this close to moving on from it. But then I decided to invest a few euros into making it better, and all of a sudden, this guitar became the one I’m using live.
By the way, I got this guitar from Tampereen Musiikki, but they didn’t ask me to do this video. In fact, they don’t even know I’m doing it. I wanted to share my long-term observations of using a budget-friendly instrument like this, so you can make an informed decision about whether to get one.
Getting the Guitar and Doing a Demo
When I first got the guitar and did a demo with it, I loved the tones. However, there were tuning issues, and I thought they were because of the studio lights. Many guitars react to sudden temperature changes, after all.
What Happened After the Demo
If you’re subscribed to my channel (and if you’re not, click the buttons below), you might have noticed that I’ve used this guitar in many of my videos simply because I really liked how it sounds. But what you didn’t see was me constantly tuning the guitar between takes.
This isn’t my first budget-friendly guitar, so I anticipated that something like this might happen. Also, because I live in Finland, we go through big temperature and humidity changes during the year—a true test for any guitar, no matter the price. And for many parts, the Jet actually held up well. There are still no sharp fret ends, for example, and I haven’t really needed to adjust the truss rod either. But the guitar just kept going out of tune, and the tremolo was unusable.
I tried going through all the basics like checking the intonation, swapping new strings, and even adding this graphite string tree. And if I’m totally honest, I was really close to moving on from it.
Then one of my friends asked a simple question: “Have you considered swapping the nut?” All of a sudden, I realized I had forgotten one of the most important parts of the guitar. The Jet comes with a bone nut, so I had assumed it should be at least decent. But because most of the other options were ruled out, I decided to give it a try. If this wouldn’t work, then I would move on from the guitar.
The Fix
So I took this guitar to a local luthier and asked him to install a NuBone nut onto it and do a basic setup. To my surprise, the guitar was ready for pick-up the next day.
Did the luthier fix all of the issues? A few weeks in, I’d say the answer is yes! I did get a note from the luthier advising me to use the tremolo a lot to increase the tuning stability, and as of writing this post, I’m still in the middle of that process. But it’s already so much better! I was actually so confident in the guitar being in good shape that I used it live the same week.
What I Learned
First of all, with budget-friendly guitars, it’s always a gamble. Sometimes you might get a really good one right away, and sometimes your guitar might need some work before it becomes an instrument you trust playing live. Mine sounded great right from the start, but as I went from summer to fall and then winter, the guitar took some time to stabilize to the local climate. Your experience may vary, but as of shooting this video, I’m really happy I gave this instrument time to get used to Finnish conditions.
Hopefully, this post answered some of the questions you might have had about JET guitars. If there’s something I didn’t cover, be sure to drop a comment down below.
If you are interested in getting your own JET Guitar, check these links below:
►►Get Your JET Guitar From Tampereen Musiikki: https://www.tampereenmusiikki.fi/fin/sivu/yhteystiedot
►►Get Your JET Guitar From Reverb (affiliate): https://tidd.ly/3z2B4C4
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