JET
CALDERA
BY JORDAN WAGNER
The closing of 2010 may signal the end of a rather turbulent decade, but it’s certainly
a time to celebrate the state of the independent
guitar-building industry, which, despite uncertain economic times, has been fruitful and
innovative over the last decade. Small builders
are not an entirely new phenomenon, but the
popularity of the internet really helps small
outfits get the attention they deserve. And
playing a superb guitar like the JET Caldera
reminds me how wonderful it is to be a player
in a time when such outfits can thrive.
coil-tap switch in the neck pickup’s tone control) make up the rest of the Caldera’s hardware. Except for the pickup bobbins, there’s
not a trace of plastic on this instrument.
Force of Nature
You can tell the Caldera is a special guitar by
just opening the case. It’s a stunning instrument in every sense of the word. From headstock to strap button, the guitar revealed no
finish or structural blemishes, no matter how
hard I looked for them. The Caldera weighs
just 7 1/2 pounds and was perfectly balanced
when I stood and let it sit across my shoulder
with my strap set waist high. The gorgeous
transparent black korina body is capped with a
quilted maple top and finished in a three-tone
Caribbean Burst paint scheme with exquisite
natural wood binding.
JET uses a unique process to join their body
and top pieces, which involves carving the body
wood to a peaked center in the middle, routing
carefully placed tone chambers, then finally gluing the top on with an extremely strong poly-urethane-based adhesive. According to JET, this
makes the guitar tremendously resonant and lively. The entire body is encased in a polyester finish
that exhibits a strong sheen and transparency.
I was taken aback by how closely JET paid
attention to minor details, such as using exotic
wood pieces to surround the pickup screw
cavities and installing a recessed, angled jack
on the back of the guitar. It’s a practical and
aesthetically pleasing design touch that’s typical
of JET’s work. A string-through bridge, two
custom-wound Seymour Duncan humbucking pickups (which are screwed directly into
the body for better resonance and sustain), two
Volume, and two Tone knobs (with a push-pull
As lovely as the Caldera’s body looks and
feels, its neck was the real source of joy for
me. Made of three pieces of quartersawn hard
maple with a 25"-scale, the ebony-stained,
24-fret neck felt like a piece of finished marble
in my palm. And with the perfectly smooth
slab of ebony used for its fretboard, the
Caldera’s neck was one of the best I’ve felt in
years. The joy didn’t stop there, though. The
Caldera’s highly sculpted neck joint fit my
hand like a glove, giving me effortless access to
the higher frets. All that reach can feel a little
strange if you’re accustomed to the chunkier
neck joints of a Stratocaster or Les Paul. But
with its enhanced playability, the joint is a
true design improvement that’s easy to
get used to.
Born to Burn
It’s pretty evident that the
Caldera has its roots in the hard-rocking tones of a choice Les Paul,
so I was eager to test the Caldera’s
mettle with a rig known for its LP
friendliness—a 1981 Marshall
JCM800 2204 half stack, set with
the gain up about halfway.
Starting right into some
tight, blues-rock riffing, I
was treated to clarity, sustain, and tonal bite that
were off the charts. The
highs were clear and
present, but pleasantly
rounded. The Caldera
has a solid, defined low
end, but I was struck by
the guitar’s pronounced
high-midrange tones. Far from
annoying or nasal, they work
exceptionally well in exactly the way
