Peerless Imperial

Peerless is Korea's premiere guitar manufacturer and has been producing high quality jazz guitars since the 70s. Over the years they've built thousands of guitars for Gretsch, Gibson, Fender, Epiphone, and many others. Now a prestigious brand in their own right, Peerless offers instruments that rival the sound and playability of much costlier boutique makers at a fraction of the price.

The Imperial features a solid spruce top, solid maple back and sides, and a maple neck. The fingerboard and cello style tailpiece are made of ebony. Hardware includes a set of gold Grover tuners and a Kent Armstrong floating humbucker. The overall style of the instrument is reminiscent of the understated, "clean" look pioneered by the great Jimmy D'Aquisto and later developed by Bob Benedetto. In an effort to keep embellishments to a minimum, the fingerboard is free of positioning dots (there are still side dots.)

The Imperial is largely based on the classic Gibson Johnny Smith model, a longstanding favorite among jazz guitarists for over half a century. Like Gibson's original design, this instrument is designed to retain its acoustic capabilities while simultaneously producing a rich and colorful amplified tone. It performs these duties exceedingly well as the Imperial sounds gorgeous both acoustically and electrically. Players looking to tackle Johnny Smith's legendary chord melody pieces will be pleased to find that the Imperial's 1 11/16th nut and short, 24 3/5" scale make even the most cumbersome chord shapes feel effortless.

This guitar comes setup with D'Addario 12 gauge flatwounds and fairly low, 2mm action. However, this instrument performs well with many types of setups, including traditional bebop (14 gauge flatwounds and very low action) and swing (higher action) setups.