BS: Jasmine Guitars

Subject: Jasmine Guitars
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 01:08 PM

Advice please. Would a Jasmine guitar be good to get for someone just learning to play?

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 02:36 PM

Yes

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Bluebelle
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 03:01 PM

No. They sound awful. Get a Seagull, instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 03:09 PM

I'd suggest starting a new thread about Seagull Guitars

Some people might be able to help

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Gary T
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 03:21 PM

I'm not familiar with Jasmine guitars. The Seagull guitars I've seen have been good instruments, quite suitable for learning on and then some. They apparently are one the better values among new guitar choices.

The typical mistake in getting a "learner" guitar is choosing by price alone and ending up with an instrument that is unnecessarily difficult to work with. Coupled with the inherent challenges every beginner faces, this can discourage people from pursuing guitar playing, which is sad.

Whatever instrument is chosen should be checked by a competent luthier and set up properly for the intended use. A poorly adjusted instrument can be as unnecessarily discouraging as a poorly designed one.

There have been a few previous threads on Seagull guitars, which can be found by entering "Seagull" or "Seagull guitars" in the forum search box at the upper left of the threads list. There may also be some previous threads on Jasmine guitars.

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 03:27 PM

Very funny Guest!!!

Thanks Gary for advising researching some old Seagull threads and for the good advice in general........Don't buy on price alone. There are a n awful lot of guitars in the same price range that you might like a lot better and would hold value and be more than just a "beginning" instrument.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: bigchuck
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 03:36 PM

Jasmine guitars are Takamine's cheap line. They are playable and durable, sound thin and tinny, and exist because MANY people do buy on the basis of price alone. It is better to pay a bit more and buy a guitar with at least a solid top, but many people won't spend 200-300 dollars for a beginning guitar, particularly if they are buying for kids. Jasmines are fine for those people.
Sandy

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: UB Ed
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 05:15 PM

Guest, at the top of the Forum go to the filter. Enter "guitar" and set it for 3 years. There is a wealth of advice on different brands, as well as considerations in selecting an instrument.

The only thing I'd add: if its a child's first guitar, go with a smaller body and nylon strings.

Best of luck to you.

Ed

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Justa Picker
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 05:29 PM

Just chiming in here.
Three words when researching the instrument for a beginner.
PLAYABILITY-TONE-PRICE Agree with the Seagull over the Jasmine.

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 05:42 PM

Cheap Washburns are also suitable if you like the bright ring they have. I prefer the Seagull to many more expensive instuments. A second hand Sigma is another good choice. Jasmines are not that bad, if you like the Takamine sound. I don't. Epiphones are slso OK sometimes but modern ones don's sound as Gibson-ish as the old ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 05:50 PM

I played a Jasmine guitar for several years. It was a white, small body, with a cutaway and a piezo pickup. I loved the thing, although it sounded like a cardboard box with strings on it, and the pickup produced a horribly thin, inadequate sound! The reason I loved it was that I had it set up so well that the action was so slick it was almost unbelievable. Very easy to play.

However, for sound it had to be one of the worst guitars I've ever owned. I eventually resorted to better and more expensive guitars...Takamine, Yamaha, and Martin among them. The one I liked best of all was a particular Yamaha dreadnought with a Fishman pickup in it. Still got that one.

Like the other people, I highly recommend Seagull guitars and/or Yamaha (if you get a good one...some are better than others). I do not recommend Jasmine.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Justa Picker
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 06:43 PM

Another thing to consider when you go shopping for that guitar. If you are a rank beginner you likely won't have any callouses on your fingertips. ANY steel string guitar is going to hurt your fingertips for a while, meaning expect some discomfort/pain, and an initial diminished enjoyment of playing because of it (but do persevere.) Have the salesman or a decent playing guitar nerd in the store, play any instrument you're thinking of buying. Ask them about the intonation and how it feels. You'll be able to judge the tone of it. And make sure the action is low, so that a minimal amount of pressure on the strings will allow them to ring out. Once your fingertips get calloused, you'll find it much easier to play it, and in fact may want to have the saddle raised a little to compensate for string buzzes from more aggressive playing. Good luck!

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Justa Picker
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 06:52 PM

And have it strung with lights or extra lights.

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: GUEST,Mudweasel
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 07:13 PM

I had a very good friend recently pick up a Jasmine (used) and found that it had a very nice tone, especially for such a small body. "She's a good 18" shorter than I, so she fits to this guitar better than, say, my martin J40.)

Not sure as to the details of construction but it seems like a very soldily built guitar.

Is there a difference between the older models and the Jasmines they're making now? I'm not hearing a lot of good things here, but the only jasmine I've seen is a very nice instrument.

My 2 cents,

-Mudweasel

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 07:31 PM

With most makes you do run across the odd one that is markedly better (or worse) than most. Maybe you just got lucky. All I know is that on average the Jasmine's are not what I'd call too impressive.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Aug 01 - 09:01 PM

I've only seen one Jasmine, a scaled-down classic (model JS241, if I remember correctly). For a guitar that sold for, what? $125 or so, it wasn't half bad. Fairly well made, looked pretty durable, fretted accurately, intonation was okay, tone was -- passable. Okay starter guitar for a child. Maybe good to knock about with. Second guitar perhaps? Plays okay and easy to replace if somebody sits on it.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Bluebelle
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 12:02 AM

I believe it was Rick Fielding who said having a better instrument may have something to do with playing better. Unless the new picker is totally tone deaf, learning to pick guitar on a Jasmine might have the effect of turning him off guitar completely. Spend a little more and get a better sounding guitar.

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Troll
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 01:45 AM

I have a Jasmine acoustic bass which does its job very well. With a cheap guitar you just ain't gonna get the sound of a pre-war J-45 but a proper set-up job will help as far as playability goes.
That said, Seagull is an ok guitar, but every guitar is different, even within model/years. Play every one they have in the store. One will sound better that the rest. If the store only has one you can play and wants to sell you one in a box "cause that's our floor demonstrator", go elseswhere.

troll

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: GUEST,Calach
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 05:48 AM

Trying to cut through some of the pretentious bullshit above...... (That got your attention!)
I played a Jasmine cutaway for a year or two, and I still refer to it as "my baby", cos it was small, thin, tha accoustic sound wasn't fantastic, but when you plugged it in, it could rock like a good electric. The action is SO GOOD!
Don't listen to those saying "Spend more money".....
If you can just afford a Jasmine, there's NOTHING WRONG WITH THEM FOR THE MONEY.
It's all very well us saying spend more money, but everyone has to start somewhere, and I'm quite sure that if everyone were to recall their FIRST guitar, (for $10 in a garage sale etc) they wouldn't be slagging off Jasmines so much!
Yours... Calach
P.S. Jasmine now passed onto my girl, who still thinks the action is SUPERB!

Subject: RE: BS: Jasmine Guitars
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Aug 01 - 02:22 PM

I've been playing the guitar for nearly fifty years, and part of that time I was making a living at it.

My first guitar was a Regal that I paid $9.95 for (new) in 1952. Total of $15.00, complete with a fiberboard case, a copy of Guckert's Chords for Guitar without Notes or Teacher and a Nick Manoloff "Chord Wheel." The action was soft, the frets were fairly accurate, the intonation was okay, and it sounded like an apple-crate. A year and a half later I was playing a Martin 00-28-G classic. I sold the Regal to a friend for $5.00. Last I heard, he also had a Martin classic and was taking classic guitar lessons. I have five guitars now. One of them is a Flamenco guitar made in Madrid in 1961 that is worth so much that I'm afraid to take it out of the house.

It's nice to start out with a really fine guitar, but if you are at all interested in learning to play (folk, classic, whatever), you don't need a pricey guitar to start with. If it's a guitar you can afford, and if:-- 1) it can be tuned accurately, and 2) the action is soft enough so that it won't destroy your fingetips, it will serve.

Don Firth