REVIEWED
JTR Elvira JT10 JTR Elvira JT10
More pointy than Beelzebub’s horns and brimming with attitude, the JTR Elvira JT10 pumps some serious iron back into your metal…
Words: Tim Slater
We first encountered JTR guitars back in the May 2011 issue of Playmusic when we reviewed the very impressive single cutaway Linda LN10. Whereas the LN10 conveyed a distinctly blues/rock feel thanks to its familiar shape, its stable-mate the Elvira JT10 is an altogether more aggressive looking beasty. The brainchild of former Gibson Custom Shop manager JT Riboloff, JTR guitars are made by the Korean- based guitar manufacturer Samick and represent a very distinctive range of instruments that stand out by virtue of their superb build quality and sounds weighed against incredibly affordable prices.
Get the point The Elvira’s unique body shape displays an obvious Gibson
Elvira JT10 JTR SRP £165.00
All prices include VAT CONT
ACT
Rosetti Ltd T:
W: 01376 550033
www.rosetti.co.uk 28 3pickup
influence, resembling as it does an SG that a particularly hungry person has taken two hefty bites out of; or perhaps a medieval axe! The body is constructed from poplar but don’t fret too much about the species of timber because the real heart of the JT10’s power comes from its single ultra high output humbucking pickup, whose bludgeoning performance we’ll describe in more detail shortly. If you harbor a taste for minimalist hardware then the JT10 is right up your street. The string-thru-body design feeds the strings through the rear of the guitar via a diagonal row of holes lined with Telecaster-like steel ferrules, eventually resting on a standard Tune-O-Matic style bridge. With little to hamper the guitar’s natural resonance the JT10 rings like a bell and its impressive natural sustain is mirrored by its lively performance when the guitar is plugged in. The bolt-on maple neck features
JTR’s characteristic neck join with two ‘smiley face’ neck plates deeply recessed into the neck heel area. Besides looking fairly unusual, this design also serves a useful practical purpose by helping to reduce mass around the neck heel, enabling lightening fast excursions up to the upper reaches of the 24-fret rosewood fingerboard. The JTR headstock is one of the neatest around; its clean lines and thrusting
arrow tipped profile feels like an ideal complement to the JT10’s purposeful weapon-like design. The circuitry is also as brutally
purposeful as you will find anywhere; the lone open coil humbucking pickup is linked to a single rotary volume control with no coil tap, your tone depends on how hard you wind her up and dig in!
Sounds Pinched harmonics, thunderous power chords and shrieking solos; the JT10 unleashes appropriately anti-social sonic behavior by the bucket load! If you hanker after dynamic vintage PAF tones the JT10 doesn’t really do subtle but viewed in the contest that this guitar was surely designed for then you would probably be slightly disappointed if it did. No, this is an unabashed screaming demon of a heavy metal weapon that sounds every inch as brutally effective as it looks. The single bridge-mounted humbucker feels undeniably fit for purpose, delivering all of the blood-and- thunder mayhem that the JT10’s no-nonsense image suggests. With so much firepower to hand it is easy to extract the full pantheon of hard rock and metal licks n’ tricks: even plugged into a wee Blackstar HT-1 combo the JT10 is tons of fun and sounds absolutely massive! From a playability standpoint the JT10 also
ticks all of the right boxes. The neck feels not too dissimilar to a really nice early 1960s Gibson neck, it is wide and flat with a fairly shallow depth that really fits the player’s hand like a glove, making it equally at home when peeling off smooth legato lines or unleashing savage bursts of machine gun tempo hybrid picking. PM
SHOULD I BUY ONE?
In effect the JT10 conveys something of the streetwise essence of a supercharged Gibson SG Jr.; it isn’t sophisticated in looks or manners, not is it particularly versatile but as a dedicated axe for hard rock or metal it is pretty tough to beat, especially at this price. As a singer’s guitar the JT10 also feels ideal, the stripped-down controls negate any need to take your eyes of the audience whilst the easy balance and unique shape also make this the ideal weapon for a singing frontman/woman who desires an eye catching stage guitar that sounds as mean and lean as it looks.
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