Vintage Defil Jowita Hollow Body Electric Guitar - Made in Europe - Free Pro Setup

Vintage Defil Jowita Hollow Body Electric Guitar - Made in Europe - Nitrocellulose Finish
Weighs 7.1 lbs

Includes our Professional Set Up - $100 Value
See below for details.

Available cases:

• Gig bag, $39
• Hard case, $139
• This guitar will ship without a case or bag, unless you add one to your order

Jowita: From Latin, Dedicated to Love

Description: Here's something different. A vintage hollow body from Europe. These guitars are rare. You occasionally see the Defil brand on Reverb, but you don't see the Jowita very often.

If you like thick "baseball" necks, this guitar might be for you. It has a zero fret, vintage art-deco details, beautiful tear drop shaped sound holes, and its nitrocellulose lacquer finish has aged in a really nice way. By the details (slot head screws, finish, aged nickel hardware) we'd guess this guitar was built in the 1950’s or 1960's. However, based on some research, we believe it is actually built in the late 1970's. Anyway, it plays and sounds wonderful. Unique and very cool, with tons of mojo! It has been professionally set up and is ready to rock!

Sound: The humbucking pickups have rather low DC resistance of 5.59k and 6.17k Ohms. They say "Moza" on the backs, and they sound really good. They're clear and articulate, but can break up when you turn the gain up. We played them through a 50 Watt tube amp and they sounded fantastic. This guitar would be great for Jazz, Rock or Blues. We really enjoyed playing it, mostly due to the wide variety of tones we were able to get with these pickups.

Condition: This guitar is in very good original condition with original hardware and electronics. Its "Jowita" emblem is missing and the knobs have been replaced with a new set of chicken heads. Overall it's in very good condition, especially considering it's age. The nitrocellulose lacquer has lots of checking. The neck appears to have had a re-fret. But we don't know for sure. The electronics have all been tested and work great.

Luthier's Measurements and Assessment:

• Weight: 7.1 lbs
• Nut width: 1.75"
• Neck width at 12th fret: 2.08"
• Neck thickness at 1st fret: 0.99"
• Neck thickness at 12th fret: 1.04"
• Action at high e: 0.050"
• Action at low E: 0.060"
• Neck pickup DCR: 5.59k Ohms
• Bridge pickup DCR: 6.17k Ohms
• Truss rod: Turns smoothly
• Frets: Excellent 9.5/10
• Cosmetic condition: Very good
• Functional condition: Excellent
• Electronics: Excellent. No issues.
• Playability: Excellent. No issues. Plays great.
• Overall condition: Very good

Features/Specs:

• Brand: Defil
• Model: Jowita
• Type: Hollow body
• Body width: 16"
• Upper bout width: 11-5/8"
• Waist: 9-1/2"
• Body thickness: 2-7/16"
• Top wood: Laminated spruce
• Back and sides: Laminated maple
• Body color: Sunburst
• Body finish: Nitrocellulose lacquer
• Neck wood: Five ply beech and mahogany
• Neck joint: Bolt on
• Neck shape: Chunky baseball bat
• Scale: 25-3/8"
• Truss rod: Adjust at nut
• No. of frets: 21
• Fret size: Medium jumbo
• Fretboard: Rosewood
• Fretboard markers: White dots
• Tuners: Open gear
• Pickups: Humbuckers
• Controls: Volume and tone for each pickup
• Switch: Three way toggle
• Bridge: Adjustable (tune-o-matic) type
• Tailpiece: Stop type
• Hardware: Nickel

About Del Mar Lutherie:We’re a small shop in San Diego County, California, and part of the local guitar community (Fender, Taylor, Carvin/Kiesel). We build custom electric guitars and vintage-style hand-wired tube amps.We also buy, sell and trade vintage and used gear.  Our owner is a guitar enthusiast, wood worker and professional engineer and designer by training.

Why buy from us?  Our clients have peace of mind knowing they’re buying from an established and highly rated professional shop.  We've been doing this type of work since 1999 and have thousands of happy customers.  We pride ourselves in providing best-in-class personalized service for each client.  We are a Reverb Preferred Seller, and our approval rating is close to 100%.

Dr. T’s Professional Inspection and Setup:  You may find a similar guitar at a lower price, but ours may still be the better value as we include our professional inspection and setup ($100 to $150 value). With over 25 years in the industry, we’re convinced that a good setup is the single most important investment to improve the playability and sound of your guitar.  Here’s what in entails. We inspect the guitar and address issues. Next, we remove the strings and tighten and set the drag on the tuners. We inspect and polish the frets, clean and oil the fingerboard, restring, tune to pitch and set the relief, action and intonation. We then play each fret and check for fret buzz and fret-outs during bends, and we fine-tune as required.  Next, we test the electronics, clean and tighten pots and jacks and balance the pickups.  Occasionally, we find a fault with the electronics, so we dig in and repair that.  Once the electronics are tip top, we play the guitar to make sure everything is right.  Finally, we clean and polish, then slacken the stings to get it ready for shipping.

String Gauges and Settings:  We do our setups using common string gauges and settings, which we've found work well for most players. For electrics, we use 9-42 gauge strings for Fender (25.5") scale guitars and 10-46 for Gibson (24.75") scale guitars.  We set action to 0.050 on the high e side and 0.060 on the low E side. This action is fairly low and allows for easy fretting without buzzing or sacrificing tone. If you have special preferences, please let us know, and we will do our best to accommodate you.

Fine Tuning Adjustments:  Your guitar will be playing and sounding wonderful when we finish our setup. However, occasionally minor adjustments will be needed after shipping due to changes in temperature and/or humidity, rough handling or other unfavorable conditions. Since we have no control over this, we cannot cover the cost of these adjustments. However, if your guitar was mishandled during shipping, please let us know, so we can see if a shipping claim is in order. Sometimes it’s possible to get you a partial refund to help cover issues if we can show that they were caused by shipping.

Condition Ratings:  We do our best to be consistent with Reverb’s condition rating system.  The guitar you get will be the one shown in the photos, and if it has any major flaws or defects, we will point them out in the listing.  Our guitars rated below “Mint” will have signs of use and cosmetic imperfections, including minor dings, dents and swirl marks, which might only be visible upon close inspection. If you are sensitive to minor cosmetic defects, please let us know, and we can provide you with close-up photos.We do not accept returns nor give partial refunds if you receive your guitar and believe that it should have been rated lower.  We’ve sold thousands of guitars, and almost without exception, our clients have not had issues with our ratings.  This tells us that we are doing a great job with our condition ratings.

Standard of Care:  We strive to meet our clients’ expectations, and want you to be happy with your purchase.  Guitars develop wear with use and it’s widely accepted that honest wear adds character and shows that the guitar has been played and loved. Our used and vintage guitars will have signs of use.  If you want a guitar in “perfect” or “flawless” condition, we advise you to buy new from an authorized dealer or buy locally so you can inspect it in person. We do not guarantee that our guitars will be cosmetically flawless, and we don’t accept returns or give partial refunds due to cosmetic imperfections.

Specs:  We list specs as a courtesy.  Some specs are measured by our techs. Others are taken from the manufacturer's data. Manufacturers change specs all the time, and their listed specs may not be 100% accurate. Also, some used guitars have mods that may not be apparent upon visual inspection. The guitar you will get is the one shown in the photos. If there are any "deal breaker" specs that you must have, please let us know so we can double check for you before your purchase.

Videos:  We often provide YouTube links to provide our clients with more information. These videos will be of a similar make and model which is representative of the guitar in our listing.

Shipping:  We ship guitars via UPS ground. The fee shown includes shipping within the contiguous USA with insurance. It also includes packaging materials and our time to pack up and drop off at UPS.  For guitars, shipping costs are controlled by box size and insurance is based on value. Your guitar will ship without a case, unless one is described as included in the listing or you add one to your order. If you decline to add a case, we will pack your guitar well with bubble wrap and other padding and ship it in a sturdy guitar box. However, if you want your guitar to have even better protection, we encourage you to add a hard case to your order. See below for details.

Cases:  Some guitars we buy come with cases and some don't.  Some clients want cases, others don’t, and some are want a particular type of case.  To offer flexibility, we make cases optional.  This allows us to pass on savings to those who don't want cases and to offer several case types to our clients who do want them.  If you want a case, please let us know.  There are many benefits when you buy a case from us; we have good prices, we make sure your guitar fits, we offer free shipping on the case (when combined with a guitar) and we ship your guitar inside the case for better protection. Each year, we see a small number of guitars arrive with damage caused by mishandling during shipping. However, when shipped inside a hard case, the incidence of damage is almost zero. See the top of the listing or inquire for options.

Delivery Time:  We do our best to get your guitar setup, boxed and shipped as soon as possible. However, sometimes this can take a few days depending on our workload and other factors. Once UPS receives your guitar, they will estimate a delivery date, which you can access via Reverb. UPS will typically deliver your guitar within 2 to 7 business days after they receive it, depending on your distance from Southern California. If you're in a hurry, please let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you, or at least we can advise you of the estimated wait, so you can decide if you need to make other arrangements.

Damage Claims:  Although rare, guitars sometimes are damaged during shipping. If you receive a guitar that is damaged, please let us know immediately so we can open a claim.  Save your box and packaging material, as the shipper may ask to see photos of those.

Returns and Canceled Orders:  We are a small business and can’t afford to offer free returns like the big guys. There is a lot of time, effort and cost involved with pulling your guitar from inventory, setting it up, packing and shipping it. Please make sure you want the guitar before you commit to buy. If we agree to a return, you will be responsible for shipping (both ways) and a restocking fee to cover our time.

Trades:  We are a professional guitar business. Anything we take on trade, we resell. To make sense for us, we can only offer wholesale value, which is typically 40% to 60% of what it would sell for on Reverb. This is usually as good or better than Guitar Center.  If you’re OK with this, please send current photos of your gear. We need brand, model, year, and condition. Note any mods, repairs or other issues. If your guitar includes a case or bag, send photos of that as well.  Once we have this info, we can give you an estimate of trade in value.  If you agree, next you would bring or send us your guitar.  We will provide your credit once we receive your gear and confirm its condition.  You can apply your credit to anything we have for sale in our shop.