Amazon Jazz Box Guitar Less than $300. A deep dive and complete demo and review. IYV IJZ-500 NA.

I'm always on the lookout for unique or great value guitars. I found the IVY IJZ-500 NA "Jazz Box" style hollow body guitar for less than $300. Could this guitar be any good? Turns out it was great for my needs.

[@rickroche8860]

I modified the "other" jazz box - the one with the wooden block through the center, and with the refret and a few little tweaks it definitely is perfectly fine as a "professional" instrument. Good review, by the way!

[@geoffreykrietsch2190]

WOW ! KUDOS TO YA. One of the best review videos I've seen yet, complete with a right on performance ! Jus got mine, bought from the owner of a South jersey guitar shop. He had sent back a IYV difficult model that he wasn't satisfying with. They sent him this one, completely set up, all the bugs worked out from their custom shop. Seems this company aims yo please. The owner told me this one was PERFECT in his words and it has not disappointed. Besides being a nice electric sounding axe it's, let's face it, DROP DEAD GEORGOUS ! He wasn't going to sell it but i saw it on an online add of his shop, set up with a load of other axes. My eye was immediately drawn to this one and I kept on him until he finally relented and sold it to me. $275 for the axe and with a really nice gator hard case, shipping($60 bucks ) and tax. The whole shooting match came to 4 bills even. The case alone goes for about $160. Could have had a much cheaper soft case but not for this beauty, uh, uh. For what it all cost I'm a very happy camper and when it arrived and I opened the case, I was blown away. Now I own a small stable including an Takamine EG340SC and a Gretsch 5022CE Jumbo Body Rancher and others, this , at least cosmetically, takes it place among the rest of the family. Again, grateful video!

[@michaelseright3874]

I’m sure glad you put a stamp of approval on this one. I just ordered mine😊

[@6dbthreshold]

Hope you like it! Not a great guitar. But good enough for messing around. I fear the quality control is all over the place. Take your chances.

[@stevenmqcueen7576]

Ten thumbs up for the "Big Bad Bill" performance!

[@6dbthreshold]

A thousand thank you’s.

[@bb_lz9790]

Great, great video!! When I saw the guitar, I thought (based on the shape of the cutaway) Gibson L5 or Super 400 before ES-175, but it's probably just its own thing. Love your editing style, guitar proctology approach, etc. Good singin', good playin' too! Thanks for sharing!

[@6dbthreshold]

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you liked it.

[@ideclineify]

You are not boring and that's for sure... glad I stayed around till the grand finale!

[@tomhall2830]

Thanks! Great review and super entertaining, man. Appreciate the acoustic demo particularly.

[@MichaelJacques]

I did a review on this axe as well. Yours: Great review. In-depth and as thorough as one can get. Cheers!

[@6dbthreshold]

Thanks! I liked your review as well.

[@billsmith5054]

That's beautiful. It makes me nervous that the packing so bad. I ordered one anyway. One of my favorite guitars is my 338 semi hollow. So I know I am gonna like this. Paid 244.00 from Amazon on 10/21/23. Hey Ted Nugget played Semi Hollows and he total rocked out.

[@picker63028]

They make no effort to sand the inside smooth. I bought the other jazz guitar and it was horrible inside. Looked like a caveman used a chainsaw. Sent it back. I do play big box jazz guitars. That's what they were made for. Glad you enjoy yours. Like your music.

[@6dbthreshold]

It’s a poor build for sure. Just dipping my toes in. Since I bought the IYV, I’ve found several Ibanez, Gretsch and Guilds that are much better. But I like the Florentine cutaway look. Thanks for the comment.

[@rickroche8860]

Yeah - very rough inside and mine is very heavy too. I refretted mine with #6100 wire and sculpted the fretboard to match the metal bridge arch. Yes mine has the hunk of wood inside, that they could have slimmed to decrease the excess weight. Plays great but wouldn't want to play it standing up for a 3 hour gig! Still a good value though.

[@6dbthreshold]

Agreed on the value. I’m glad I bought. Even though it isn’t a great guitar, it’s fun to play a looks cool/unique. Definitely not a professional instrument. But good cheap fun!

[@6dbthreshold]

@rickroche8860 nice! Yep. Not a professional instrument. But still a great value and fun to play.

[@FunnyHaHa420]

The inlays look like ab-lam. It's small thin pieces of abalone pressed together with epoxy. It's cheaper than pure abalone but still looks good.

[@benkatof5852]

Nice job with the review. That price is pretty insane for even a crappy 175 copy. I had an Epiphone Joe Pass, which is basically an entry level 175 style jazz box and it costs 2x yours. 2 questions: how's the neck and fretwork, and how are the tuners?

[@6dbthreshold]

The neck and fretwork are excellent and of professional feel and quality. The tuners are decent Chinese copies of Gotohs. They work fine.

[@ChuckNicholsonTRM]

I've definitely seen 1950s ES-175s in the 5 1/2 pound range. They were built pretty lightly compared to those built later though. They tend to be much more resonant too.

[@6dbthreshold]

Thanks for the comment! I haven’t paid much attention to 175s until recently. Next time a vintage guitar meet comes to town I will need to check out a few.

[@valley_robot]

It looks stunning for 300 , I might get one , I’m not a guitar snob , played in bands for years never used an expensive guitar on stage , always cheap Washburns superstrats , I have two nice electrics now for home use but if it looks cool and it plays ok I’m not bothered what it says on the headstock

[@Joe-mz6dc]

That looks and sounds great.

[@daerganguy7504]

Great performance

[@anthonymorales842]

as long it plays good and sounds good and your confident with the instrument what does it matter.

[@guyincognito1423]

That maple is neither flamed, quilted, spalted or birdseye. It's a sticker. A lot of these imports dont bother using a veneer, and basically slap a sticker with wood grain on it, then cover it with thick coats of poly. Im only guessing its a sticker because when the camera pans over it, there is zero reflectivity or movement of the grain. Oh yeah... and because its a $300 guitar

[@jameslanclos568]

I don't believe that's spalted maple. I think it's quilted maple, which in my opinion is prettier. Spalted woods look kinda crappy to me. They're $247 now, I might get one. I've always wanted an ES 175. What did you do about a case? Do you have any links on a budget case? I wouldn't want to spend $300 for a $250 dollar guitar !!!

[@6dbthreshold]

Agree. Yep. Quilt looks much better than spalted maple. I won’t play it out so I won’t get a case. But a case may be a problem because it’s bigger than most similar style guitars. I’ve seen it for $222 since I bought mine. The price fluctuates a lot. Good luck. Let me know if you come up with a cheap case solution.

[@scottshields3054]

Love the song at the end. Excellent!!😆

[@6dbthreshold]

Thanks! 🫢😂

[@vancochran7344]

That is nice but I think the top it is actually Quilted Maple. Are the sides supposed to be spalted?

[@6dbthreshold]

The original versions were blond spalted maple. You are correct. I got the second version which is quilted instead. Low quality guitar ingeneral. But is cheap fun. I think they are available occasionally for $170. Cheap fun.

[@vancochran7344]

I have 2 green Les Pauls made by them. @@6dbthreshold

[@harrykelley7131]

New sub. Good show brother.

[@6dbthreshold]

Thanks for the sub!

[@kevincosgrovemusic]

I picked up a similar, S101 joe pass epi tail with a gibson head

[@paulmattle6683]

I bought one of these and made a big mistake by trying to adjust the tension rod. By the time I had it tight enough it snapped the truss rod. Does anyone know if I'd be better off buying a new neck or taking it to a Luthier to fix the truss rod. I looked up how to fix the truss rod and have contemplated fixing it that way. Or just buying a new neck and installing it. Does anyone know what kind of neck I should get? There's a few different pocket designs and I don't want to get the wrong one.

[@robert2628]

can't go wrong for only less than $300

[@louisfryzel4618]

I just bought one a few minutes ago. It had dropped to a crazy $150.10 ... that is less than half what it once sold for. I hope it is OK.

[@6dbthreshold]

Good luck! Let me know how it turns out.

[@louisfryzel4618]

@@6dbthreshold Well when I made the post it was that price. Today (Aug. 5) the price has zoomed to $280!!! I hope I get it as it still hasn't been shipped. But I will let you know one way or the other.

[@louisfryzel4618]

I got it yesterday. Do you know what guage those stock strings are? I'm concerned by that "wood" bridge (that's all the specs I can find) so I'm thinking of getting a TOM bridge atop a wooden cradle.

[@6dbthreshold]

My had .009s.

[@markdelacruz1322]

How could you know that the guitar was undamaged before you pulled it out of the foam wrapper?

[@6dbthreshold]

Translucence

[@rofflestomp684]

I bought the Glen Burton variation off of Amazon, and it has a sound post like block under a fixed bridge similar to sound posts in a cello or violin and resonates nicely. Paid less than $200. Already added a roller bridge and I'm upgrading the tuners and nut next, because it did not stay in tune well, but with the roller bridge and simply filing the nut burrs and rounding edges it has already changed that a lot. It was cheap and man do I have upgrade plans. For the money this is going to be an awesome guitar at a fraction of the cost of the original. Maybe even better.

[@6dbthreshold]

Good luck with your project. I find that 90% of my tuning issues are caused by the nut. I’m getting better at cutting nut slots, but still learning. Cheap guitars are fun to modify! Thanks for commenting.

[@raytaylor372]

Very good video...now if I could just mute those parts where he sings....

[@beeftheheat]

you had me at whole lotta rosie

[@leonardofurtado3468]

Where did you bought this one?how do you search for on web?

[@6dbthreshold]

Search for “IYV guitars all” or “IYV IJZ-500 NA” on Amazon. However, it might not be available where you live if your local Amazon warehouses don’t stock it.

[@wildesage4172]

Pretty good. Honestly, I think my main concern would be the quality of the hardware; I'm guessing it's pretty cheap pot metal? I don't expect I'd easily be able to find a replacement for that tailpiece if I got tired of the cheap-feeling original (assuming it is cheap-feeling, which... I am assuming!). This is just $250 on Amazon right now. That's damned impressive. On my local classifieds on this random Monday afternoon, I see an Ibanez hollow w/ HSC and a little Fender Mustang 1x8 practice amp for $375. Damn! It's not exactly an ES-175 but it's a jazz box. I see Gretsch hollows starting at $350, Epi Joe Pass $450 w/ HSC, some Godins for a little more.. Based on that? For a difference of one or two hundred bucks, I'd go for something used, personally. Though that's not for everyone, as there's always some risk involved buying used; you should know what you're looking at lest you accidentally buy someone else's problem. So plenty of people will be happy with this IYV. And like you said, it's perfect for faking it. Cheap and usable. Most importantly, guitars like this being available so cheap helps keep the used market reasonable! Win/win! P.S. your closing song, as far as faking it goes, well, that's good enough for me! Haha.

[@waynegram8907]

What color is that? it looks like a honey burnt wavey

[@6dbthreshold]

I haven’t found any mention of finishes anywhere. I guess you could say my example is honey burst. The inner stain is yellow and it bursts into a darker red stain at the edges. Probably covered in poly.

[@williamking7420]

Quilted not spalted maple!

[@6dbthreshold]

Correct. My mistake.

[@gnawbabygnaw]

LOL! ROCK AND ROLLLL!

[@6dbthreshold]

Correct on both counts! Thanks for the positive comment.

[@hadleymanmusic]

5:50

[@BobZed]

Absolutely ZERO spalted maple on this guitar. Looks to be a quilted maple veneer. I get it that you're just reading from the listing, but Google "spalted maple" You'll see something very different. As you note, despite the fact that the listing says this is a semi-hollow guitar, it has the traditional bridge and trapeze tailpiece that says "hollow". You seem to be looking at a Gibson ES-175D rough copy. You also note this. The two-piece sides are kind craptastic. Would have been nice to see some comments on the frets. I think I would have spent the extra $100 and gotten a Gretsch G2420 Streamliner, partly to get the filtertron pickups.

[@6dbthreshold]

I stand corrected. Yep. Quilted. Not spalted. I always hood something up.

[@BobZed]

Still a good review. I liked the look inside. Maybe do a follow-up on the frets? I'd make sure they were level, clean up the ends if needed and do a polish.

[@fgoindarkg]

What's with all these jumbled number letter names? Why not name these things after things that men like already? The Amazon 6 String Turkey Smoker! The 4x4 Swamp Stomper Banjo! The Naked Lady Bass Guitar.! I'd buy that $#!+

[@badscrew4023]

won't be calling this great under any circumstances

[@6dbthreshold]

I was bit over zealous. Definitely not a great guitar. Fit and finish is pretty poor. But I love it. It’s fun to play and immediately inspired me to want to record a song with it. And I no longer have the itch to look at real decent jazz box guitar. I definitely got $270 worth of fun out of it. And it looks cool as wall art. Not sure if I’ll keep it. But it has bumped other much better guitars out of my collection because it’s different.

[@GradualErase]

Nah