@@HappyGeneRC I'm glad to help. This little girl needs a wheel chair van! My guitar donation won't help much unfortunately, but at least it's something 😀
Thanks for sharing this journey and for the shout out, although an unfortunate reason to get one (ha!). Seriously, I am so glad that the ones you and Mike got did not have the carnage on the sides of the neck as the two I had did. Yours looks 100% better than either of the ones I received and sent back. Of course, your playing makes the guitar (and I imagine any guitar) sound great. Just goes to show you that a good player can make anything sing (and please don't tell me your not a good player, my friend, cause I know about 4K of folks who would fight you on it, smile). I am sure you will turn it into a mean lean tele machine. Rock on!
@@TedTalksGuitars ahhhh thanks man... You're too kind. Not sure I want to take this one on. It's just poorly put together and if I rework it, I'll easily double the cost of the instrument and I'm just not sure it's worth it..🤔
@TedTalksGuitars I may order a 2nd one and compare them... Sound familiar? All I really want is a tight-ish neck pocket. The rest I can rework! However, I'm guessing a CNC machine spits these out, so if the pocket is too wide for the neck heel on mine, it will be the same issue on all of them I would suspect!
I would have packed it back up and returned it just for the knot, let alone the bridge. My iyv came to me packed just like that, too. After I reshaped the baseball neck, it is now a great playing guitar.
pretty nice one there bro! im sure it needs to be "jasonized" tho haha!! the paisley teles had clear scratchplates as well but in a more "tasteful" fashion... a bit of pink shot near the neck pup opening(hiding the route for the neck pup) and the "flowery" design made it better....
Squier has proved that you can cleverly fold cardboard and securely ship a guitar. I don't appreciate the Styrofoam packing material because where I live in Canada I can't throw it in the garbage but I am expected to bag it up and transport it across town to dispose of it. What a hassle, and what if I didn't have a vehicle?
@@Bliggick hmmm yeah that sucks! The westcreek stuff is not styrofoam. It does not flake off. It's great to reuse for a home made guitar case, or for packaging materials when shipping gear etc... I keep all mine!
@@Timtime67 yeah but I sent it back... It turned out I't was a defect that shouldn't have been reshipped but somehow it did. I have another one supposed to arrive on Tuesday! We'll see if it's better!🤞
I've tried LJ guitars twice, both times I sent them back. They just required a lot of work to make playable, more than I was willing to do out of the box. I see lots of positive reviews on them, maybe I'm just unlucky with what gets sent to me. Thanks for your vid, J-Man! 🎸😎
@@TonJager yeah I hear ya. I see a ton of positive vids on these too... I think sponsored vids will exaggerate the good and minimise the bad. I however have nothing to hide hahaha! Not a bad guitar out of the box after some tweaks, but to make it a gig worthy guitar, it's gonna need a parts and electronics overhaul for sure... And for me that's minimum 200$ so I don't know if it's worth modding as the upgrades will cost more than the guitar 😯🤔
Knotted wood tends to shrink or grow so your complaint is 100% valid, especially in the neck, I can't believe they even used that piece of wood! It's not the ugliest guitar I've ever seen but not too far from it either. For the money I'd much take my chances with a Squier to be be honest. I purchased a Squier Seafoam Green during COVID and out of the box it definitely needed some fretwork (just polishing) but was absolutely playable for $150. The pickups on the Squier were a lot better too. And that packaging? No dice! Good playing though and thanks for the review.
SWEET!!!!!! I never made a vid for what I did to that Leo Jaymz!!!!! Hahaha i put 300 in it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love ya J My Guitar is string through and top load!!!!!!
Nice demo, J! I'm amazed it's in one piece with that awful "packaging." I'm a fan of no pickguard at all, but the colour of this kinda needs a cream colour or black for the contrast. This slides hinto the "not a bad guitar" category.
Wow, you’re really cranking out gear and videos there! 😂 Yeah, Leo Jaymz seems to be hit or miss, from what I hear. IYV guitars ship in those same kinds of boxes. I’m always amazed when guitars come through okay in those kinds of boxes, which they often seem to! As for the guitar you’re reviewing here: 1) The back of the guitar looks absolutely stunning. The clear pickguard is cool, but in my opinion would go better with a different kind of finish, like tobacco sunburst or something along those lines. The flamed maple top-I assume it is a veneer and not a cap-it looks fine, but that bright orange finish is kind of meh. 2) Top loader bridges are perfectly valid on a Tele, and later were Leo Fender’s preferred choice, as I recall. The one on this guitar looks really tall, probably because of that 6-saddle design, which necessitates that in order for the strings to get the proper break angles over those stamped saddles. I’ll bet the neck is also unusually high or angled as a result. I would therefore advise against replacing that bridge unless you know EXACTLY what you’re doing. 3) The bridge pickup doesn’t sound too bad, but that neck pickup sounds REALLY dark! I’d replace at least the neck pickup if it were me, and maybe even do a matched pair, just for good measure. Overall, I’d definitely pick a Westcreek over this one, and not just for the packaging-overall, in terms of looks and sound and features, that Westcreek Telecaster-style model you worked on seemed better than this Leo Jaymz model.
@@zuperdee yeah man 100%. If I rework and upgrade this thing to my liking I'll be into it for 400$ CAD at least, which is double the cost of the guitar. Not sure it's worth it. If the neck pocket wasn't so poorly cut, I'd be fine with it...
Wutup J-Bone? Hope all is well up there. Personally... I dig that guitar - especially for the amount of cash they ask for these. I think these are pretty nice guitars - and bargains. I hear you on the imperfections on that one. Some things they could be doing better. But again, and as you have stated many times yourself... for the amount of cash they get.... how much time can they spend on QC? None of the issue you discovered would really bother me a bit, at least from what I can see from here, with one exception. Not nuts about the loose neck pocket. Meh. Not a huge deal I guess. Otherwise, that thing is beautiful, and looks like it would be (is in your case) a solid player with a little set-up. Not bad at all out of the box. I've looked at this guitar several times on The Zon. Might need to check one out at some point.
@@jimmyz2098 hey buddy! Great to hear from ya! Yup all good. Hope all is well with you too! Yeah nice enough guitar for the price. Needs to be reworked and upgraded to be gig worthy, but it has potential... Problem is if I keep it and upgrade it, it will no longer be a 200$ CAD guitar. I'd be looking at almost double that and even with the upgrades, I'm not sure it's worth that 🤔 We shall see...
J-MAN did you mention the price cause I like it. I mean it 100% needs a better nut. I do think I see a neck thickness I like I think. Mainly it's just catching my eye. Weak sounding pickups I will say. I'm more of a strat guy but for the first time I think I want this fake tele.
@@GaryBertolo hey Gary, I have not. Never heard of them actually🤔 If you can send me a link or a contact person's email, I would get in contact and see what I could work out 😀
It’s not that poor crack baby guitars fault that it got Leo James as its Baby Daddy.🤣 It actually sounds pretty good. I just got. Sire T7 and despite the glowing reviews the bridge pickup sounded like muddy dog shit. Changed the filter cap to a different value and now it’s musical. One thing to consider also is if that has those cheap dime sized pots they are a tone suck.
A mad cat or bad cat clone without all the other appointments, I believe the rest of the case was lost by the driver who dropped it off, don't blame the company for their cheap packing, it made it that far without an address? I think not, and I think we need to call out the last of the shipping chain,for guitar damage, this proves something,top of the box was on it, right before you got it.
@@2dazetake the shipping label was on this box. There was no other box. But LJ probably ships these out 6 or 8 of them in a larger box at a time. Which would be fine... Individually though, these are not protected one bit!
Good on you for being generous!
@@HappyGeneRC I'm glad to help. This little girl needs a wheel chair van! My guitar donation won't help much unfortunately, but at least it's something 😀
J-MAN is good people.
@cdavidlake2 hahaha thanks man!
Thanks for sharing this journey and for the shout out, although an unfortunate reason to get one (ha!). Seriously, I am so glad that the ones you and Mike got did not have the carnage on the sides of the neck as the two I had did. Yours looks 100% better than either of the ones I received and sent back. Of course, your playing makes the guitar (and I imagine any guitar) sound great. Just goes to show you that a good player can make anything sing (and please don't tell me your not a good player, my friend, cause I know about 4K of folks who would fight you on it, smile). I am sure you will turn it into a mean lean tele machine. Rock on!
@@TedTalksGuitars ahhhh thanks man... You're too kind. Not sure I want to take this one on. It's just poorly put together and if I rework it, I'll easily double the cost of the instrument and I'm just not sure it's worth it..🤔
@@j-man9457 - I feel you on that, clearly, as I sent my two back. That's the beauty of an Amazon purchase. Rock on!
@TedTalksGuitars I may order a 2nd one and compare them... Sound familiar? All I really want is a tight-ish neck pocket. The rest I can rework! However, I'm guessing a CNC machine spits these out, so if the pocket is too wide for the neck heel on mine, it will be the same issue on all of them I would suspect!
@@j-man9457 - Oh, man you giving me flash backs (and not in a good way). It would be interesting to see what you get.
J Man excellent job on the demo on the LJ GUITAR you make it sound great out of the box! Rock on 👍🎸
@@stevenkelkey3412 ahhh thanks man! It's not terrible, but needs alot of work before I'd ever take it to a gig hahaha!
NGD always rocks.... That westcreek guitar looks awesome!
@@Acreustic Thanks. Yeah the westcreek stuff is very good! 👍
I would have packed it back up and returned it just for the knot, let alone the bridge.
My iyv came to me packed just like that, too. After I reshaped the baseball neck, it is now a great playing guitar.
pretty nice one there bro!
im sure it needs to be "jasonized" tho haha!!
the paisley teles had clear scratchplates as well but in a more "tasteful" fashion...
a bit of pink shot near the neck pup opening(hiding the route for the neck pup) and the "flowery" design made it better....
@@birdman316 yeah great Idea they are going for but they need many refinements before these are considered good hahaha!
Always thought of getting one of those. I think they payore attention to thisr metal guitars.
@@AnnoyingCritic-is7rp yeah I think you're right. These are pretty basic for sure.
Squier has proved that you can cleverly fold cardboard and securely ship a guitar. I don't appreciate the Styrofoam packing material because where I live in Canada I can't throw it in the garbage but I am expected to bag it up and transport it across town to dispose of it. What a hassle, and what if I didn't have a vehicle?
@@Bliggick hmmm yeah that sucks! The westcreek stuff is not styrofoam. It does not flake off. It's great to reuse for a home made guitar case, or for packaging materials when shipping gear etc... I keep all mine!
I wanted to hear some AC/DC on the last video when you had the guitar with the gretsch pickups. the slick, it sounds AC/DC.
@@Ro-Bucks hahaha sorry!
Yup it can pull that off no problem! 😎
Fun stuff!
@@Timtime67 yeah but I sent it back... It turned out I't was a defect that shouldn't have been reshipped but somehow it did. I have another one supposed to arrive on Tuesday! We'll see if it's better!🤞
@j-man9457 it's seems like luck it didn't get damaged. I'd love to feel one of the WestCreeks once you've given it some love.
@Timtime67 haha yeah the Westcreek stuff is great once properly set up!
Just got 4 of them in today😉
Sounds pretty decent.
@@joereddy3146 yeah not bad... Needs good pups!
Those JBE pickups sounded great.
I’m looking at their P-90 version for my next build. Pricey tho…
@joereddy3146 yeah JB pups are not cheap!😖
I've tried LJ guitars twice, both times I sent them back. They just required a lot of work to make playable, more than I was willing to do out of the box. I see lots of positive reviews on them, maybe I'm just unlucky with what gets sent to me. Thanks for your vid, J-Man! 🎸😎
@@TonJager yeah I hear ya. I see a ton of positive vids on these too... I think sponsored vids will exaggerate the good and minimise the bad. I however have nothing to hide hahaha!
Not a bad guitar out of the box after some tweaks, but to make it a gig worthy guitar, it's gonna need a parts and electronics overhaul for sure... And for me that's minimum 200$ so I don't know if it's worth modding as the upgrades will cost more than the guitar 😯🤔
I've always liked the looks of these - but not when they're shipped like that. Monoprice Retro Classic all day.
@@cdavidlake2 yeah terrible packaging! This one went back🫤
I'm with you on the clear pickguard J-Man. I say paint it black.
@@danrunnoft6642 hahaha ya definitely gonna do something if I Keep it! 😀
Knotted wood tends to shrink or grow so your complaint is 100% valid, especially in the neck, I can't believe they even used that piece of wood! It's not the ugliest guitar I've ever seen but not too far from it either. For the money I'd much take my chances with a Squier to be be honest. I purchased a Squier Seafoam Green during COVID and out of the box it definitely needed some fretwork (just polishing) but was absolutely playable for $150. The pickups on the Squier were a lot better too. And that packaging? No dice! Good playing though and thanks for the review.
@@JeanLeite-d1e thanks man! This one is surprisingly playable too even with all of the issues. It's going back...
There is movement in the flame veneer and not a photo finish... thats probably be next!!!
@@GaryBertolo hmmm interesting. I haven't looked at it closely. For 200 CAD I doubt it's a real flame top 🤔
SWEET!!!!!! I never made a vid for what I did to that Leo Jaymz!!!!! Hahaha i put 300 in it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love ya J My Guitar is string through and top load!!!!!!
@@theguitarprofessionals8584 wow! Man ya, put out a vid of your LJ!
its got fender noisless gen 4s 4 way switch
@theguitarprofessionals8584 nice man! Probably cost more than the guitar! Lol
Right? cant wait to see yours!! I got that pau ferro on it!
@theguitarprofessionals8584 not sure I'm keeping this one buddy... Not a fan of that oversized neck pocket!
Nice demo, J! I'm amazed it's in one piece with that awful "packaging." I'm a fan of no pickguard at all, but the colour of this kinda needs a cream colour or black for the contrast. This slides hinto the "not a bad guitar" category.
@@calbrockocat8728 yup Cal, 100% agree with everything you said! 👌👍
Wow, you’re really cranking out gear and videos there! 😂 Yeah, Leo Jaymz seems to be hit or miss, from what I hear. IYV guitars ship in those same kinds of boxes. I’m always amazed when guitars come through okay in those kinds of boxes, which they often seem to! As for the guitar you’re reviewing here: 1) The back of the guitar looks absolutely stunning. The clear pickguard is cool, but in my opinion would go better with a different kind of finish, like tobacco sunburst or something along those lines. The flamed maple top-I assume it is a veneer and not a cap-it looks fine, but that bright orange finish is kind of meh. 2) Top loader bridges are perfectly valid on a Tele, and later were Leo Fender’s preferred choice, as I recall. The one on this guitar looks really tall, probably because of that 6-saddle design, which necessitates that in order for the strings to get the proper break angles over those stamped saddles. I’ll bet the neck is also unusually high or angled as a result. I would therefore advise against replacing that bridge unless you know EXACTLY what you’re doing. 3) The bridge pickup doesn’t sound too bad, but that neck pickup sounds REALLY dark! I’d replace at least the neck pickup if it were me, and maybe even do a matched pair, just for good measure. Overall, I’d definitely pick a Westcreek over this one, and not just for the packaging-overall, in terms of looks and sound and features, that Westcreek Telecaster-style model you worked on seemed better than this Leo Jaymz model.
@@zuperdee yeah man 100%. If I rework and upgrade this thing to my liking I'll be into it for 400$ CAD at least, which is double the cost of the guitar. Not sure it's worth it. If the neck pocket wasn't so poorly cut, I'd be fine with it...
Wutup J-Bone? Hope all is well up there. Personally... I dig that guitar - especially for the amount of cash they ask for these. I think these are pretty nice guitars - and bargains. I hear you on the imperfections on that one. Some things they could be doing better. But again, and as you have stated many times yourself... for the amount of cash they get.... how much time can they spend on QC? None of the issue you discovered would really bother me a bit, at least from what I can see from here, with one exception. Not nuts about the loose neck pocket. Meh. Not a huge deal I guess. Otherwise, that thing is beautiful, and looks like it would be (is in your case) a solid player with a little set-up. Not bad at all out of the box. I've looked at this guitar several times on The Zon. Might need to check one out at some point.
@@jimmyz2098 hey buddy! Great to hear from ya! Yup all good. Hope all is well with you too! Yeah nice enough guitar for the price. Needs to be reworked and upgraded to be gig worthy, but it has potential... Problem is if I keep it and upgrade it, it will no longer be a 200$ CAD guitar. I'd be looking at almost double that and even with the upgrades, I'm not sure it's worth that 🤔
We shall see...
J-MAN did you mention the price cause I like it. I mean it 100% needs a better nut. I do think I see a neck thickness I like I think. Mainly it's just catching my eye. Weak sounding pickups I will say. I'm more of a strat guy but for the first time I think I want this fake tele.
hahaha hate it when the G strings in the way.
@@Ro-Bucks it was 217 cad to my door. Not bad but needs to be reworked and upgraded!
This looks like a return Leo Jaymez new guitars come in huge colorful packages….in fact the package is to big.
Have you ever reviewed Artist Guitars from Australia??? ¡¥¡
@@GaryBertolo hey Gary, I have not. Never heard of them actually🤔 If you can send me a link or a contact person's email, I would get in contact and see what I could work out 😀
It’s not that poor crack baby guitars fault that it got Leo James as its Baby Daddy.🤣 It actually sounds pretty good. I just got. Sire T7 and despite the glowing reviews the bridge pickup sounded like muddy dog shit. Changed the filter cap to a different value and now it’s musical. One thing to consider also is if that has those cheap dime sized pots they are a tone suck.
@@keenedgedesigns yeah this has cheap everything hahaha! Not sure it's worth modding! 🤔
She needs a second look. That pickguard is odd.
@@barackmycat9448 yeah not a fan of the clear guard! 🫤
A mad cat or bad cat clone without all the other appointments, I believe the rest of the case was lost by the driver who dropped it off, don't blame the company for their cheap packing, it made it that far without an address? I think not, and I think we need to call out the last of the shipping chain,for guitar damage, this proves something,top of the box was on it, right before you got it.
@@2dazetake the shipping label was on this box. There was no other box. But LJ probably ships these out 6 or 8 of them in a larger box at a time. Which would be fine... Individually though, these are not protected one bit!
This looks like a return Leo Jaymez new guitars come in huge colorful packages….in fact the package is to big.