If you have ever done any serious woodworking, you might have
looked at portable planers. If you have, you’ve seen that most of them have 12
or 12 ˝ inch blades, and only a few are 13”. In order to get a planer with a
capacity greater than that you need to buy a large expensive floor mounted
model, that weighs thousands of pounds. What does all this have to do with
electric guitars? Here’s the facts: The JET Earlewood is the only solid-body
guitar in the world – with or without routed chambers – that is over 13” wide.
It is 13 ˝”. Unless you specify the petite model. (Same Price).
(Semi- hollow-body and hollow box guitars are wider, however, they are
constructed completely differently.)
Maybe it’s only a coincidence that no other solid guitar body will fit through a
small portable planer. But I think the reason is that the initial designs of
Leo Fender, Ted McCarty & Paul Reed Smith were all limited by the equipment
available in a small shop, which after all, is what they all had to start out
with.
Jeffrey Earle T. took an entirely different approach, one not influenced by the
machinery available. He designed the Earlewood for guitarists who are tired of
smaller and smaller body designs, and want to go back to a body that has more
substance, resonance, and visual appeal. The Earlewood is not only wider than a
PRS, it is also thicker. In fact, it comes in four different thicknesses, the
largest being 2”, and even this one is no heavier than a PRS Custom.
How can this guitar be both wider and thicker, and yet weigh the same? The
answer is twofold:
One, the body is extensively
chambered to cut weight and increase resonance.
Two, the top is joined to the body in a completely
different manner than the way PRS, Gibson, Hamer, or any other guitar maker does
it.
Instead of gluing a thick maple cap onto a flat tone-wood body,
the book-matched maple starts out a little thinner, and is press glued onto a
body that is specially milled with a roof-like peak. This way you get a better
proportion of tone-woods in the body. The best of both worlds: The weight and
tonal response of a thinner top, and the cool look and feel of a sculpted
figured top.
Would you rather have a
PRS 22, or 24 fret model? Of course you
want the range and better playability of the 24. But if you compare the neck
pickup response, the 22 sounds better. That’s because in order to add two more
frets, PRS adds another inch to the fingerboard, and has to push the pickup
closer to the bridge. JET, however, has a solution to this problem. They put a
brass end-piece on the end of the fingerboard that acts as a 24th fret. Without
the extra overhanging wood, they don’t have to knock the pickup completely out
of its sweet spot. Again, the best of both worlds. The pickups are also direct
mounted, giving a subtle microphonic coupling effect. That may sound bad, but in
fact it produces a vast improvement in tonal complexity and resonance. That’s
why Eddie Van Halen demanded this mounting style in both his signature models,
from two different companies.
Then there’s the electronics. With JET you can choose between
traditional Les Paul wiring (with the special JET tone controls) or a simple,
but effective, PRS-like scheme… As far as the neck goes, the Earlewood is
starting to gain a reputation as the dreamiest neck in the business, and this is
due in no small part to the compound radius fingerboard along with the hand
carved soft V neck profile. (Naturally these can be custom varied per individual
taste.) The coup de grace is the unique jack placement, putting your
unruly cable back in its place.
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