Finding a double-cutaway electric guitar that delivers authentic vintage character alongside modern performance reliability can be tough on a budget. The Jet JS-400 Relic electric guitar addresses this directly by featuring an expertly distressed body finish out of the box, offering players the broken-in look and smooth feel of a well-loved vintage instrument without the premium price tag.
Constructed with a solid basswood body, this instrument provides a resonant and lightweight platform that prevents shoulder fatigue during long rehearsal sessions and live sets. By pairing high-grade kiln-baked tonewoods with an incredibly flexible electronics layout, it serves as a highly dependable and expressive workhorse for guitarists who want classic retro styling and reliable hardware performance.
Versatile HSS Mixed Pickup Layout
The electronic foundation of this guitar is built around a highly versatile humbucker and two single-coils (HSS) pickup configuration. This mixed system lets you toggle seamlessly between traditional single-coil bite and aggressive, thick humbucking power. The bridge position is loaded with a passive ceramic humbucker that generates a punchy, focused overdrive, making it perfect for driving rock rhythm parts and singing lead lines with excellent note separation.
For contrasting clean tones, the middle and neck positions feature passive ceramic single-coil pickups. These deliver a bright, scooped mid-range and an articulate top-end response that captures clean funk rhythms, classic blues leads, and expressive pop melodies beautifully. Managed by a five-way pickup selector switch, a master volume control, and a master tone control, you can instantly balance and refine your output voice for any musical style.
Premium Roasted Maple Neck and Rosewood Fingerboard
A major structural highlight of this model is its Canadian roasted maple neck, which undergoes a specialised kiln-baking process to remove deep-seated residual moisture and organic resins. This treatment hardens the wood fibres, making the neck incredibly stable and highly resistant to warping, twisting, or bowing caused by sudden temperature shifts or humidity changes in transit.
The neck is shaped to a modern C profile with a smooth satin finish that eliminates sticky palms for fluid navigation across the entire fingerboard. Paired with a dark rosewood fingerboard, a comfortable 9.5" (24.1 cm) radius, and a 42 mm nut width, the playing surface provides an intuitive feel that simplifies complex chord construction down low and enables smooth, clean string bends on the upper frets. A double-action truss rod ensures straightforward, accurate neck relief adjustments over time.
Dependable Vintage-Style Tremolo and Aged Hardware
To match its distinctive relic aesthetic, the hardware configuration bridges classic expression with modern mechanical reliability. The body is equipped with a smooth vintage-style synchronised tremolo bridge, allowing you to incorporate tasteful dips, pitch shimmers, and chordal vibrato into your phrasing. The system offers great physical stability and a positive mechanical return-to-pitch after active use.
At the headstock end, strings pass over a high-density bone nut directly into sealed chrome machine heads. The genuine bone material ensures optimal string vibration transfer straight into the neck timber to maximise natural acoustic resonance and sustain, while the enclosed tuners provide smooth, precise gear retention. The entire hardware package features an aged finish to complement the time-worn character of the body.
Jet JS-400 Relic Specifications
- Pickup Configuration - one humbucker and two single-coils (HSS).
- Bridge Pickup - passive ceramic humbucker.
- Middle Pickup - passive ceramic single-coil.
- Neck Pickup - passive ceramic single-coil.
- Body Material - basswood.
- Body Type - solid body double-cutaway with relic finish.
- Neck Material - Canadian roasted maple.
- Neck Profile - modern C.
- Fingerboard Material - rosewood.
- Fingerboard Radius - 9.5" (24.1 cm).
- Scale Length - 25.5" (64.8 cm).
- Nut Width - 42 mm.
- Nut Material - bone.
- Truss Rod - double action.
- Number of Frets - 22.
- Bridge Type - vintage-style synchronised tremolo.
- Controls - 1 x volume, 1 x tone, 5-way pickup switch.
- Machine Heads - chrome sealed with aged finish.
- Hardware Finish - aged chrome.
The Jet JS-400 Relic electric guitar stands out as an exceptional choice for guitarists who want an authentic, broken-in vintage look backed by modern structural upgrades. Its combination of kiln-baked neck stability, classic rosewood fingerboard comfort, and an adaptive HSS electronics setup delivers an incredibly inspiring playing experience that punches far above its price bracket.