The J & D LS II Translucent Black pays homage to the famous blues-rock icon with its single-cut design and delivers rich sounds at an unbeatable price. Authentic tones are ensured by the classic combination of mahogany and maple tonewoods, which lend the guitar’s fundamental character a warm and full-bodied tone. Naturally, it features two humbucker pickups in the neck and bridge positions. The separate volume and tone controls, along with a three-position toggle switch, allow you to reproduce all the sounds of the original. The J & D LS II Translucent Black is completed by a Tune-o-Matic bridge and an aluminium stopbar, along with six die-cast chrome-look tuners.

J & D LS II Translucent BlackI’m a french guitarist and i write this first review in english because universal langage. First of all the guitar traveled during 4 days by high temperatures. When i received (one week now) the guitar, all was OK and the setup adapted for this particulary conditions. Very good job from musicstore and the guy who setup this beauty at the store. Then after one week my opinion with pros and cons.
Pros :
- The color of the cap. Not common on this price tag. Beautiful iridescent Copper (more than gold) color. It shines.
- Very good build quality. Incredible at this price.
- Sings well defined acoustically.
- The vintage style frets are well polished. Frets level seems good with no buzz or dead note.
- No flaws on the binding (neck or body) and on the varnish.
- The varnish is smooth and no sticky even with high temperature.
- Aluminium tom and stopbar.
- The setup of the bone nut is perfect.
- Comfortably c neck 50s profile in spite of my small hands.
Cons :
- The poor quality of the original rough strings.
- The tuners too smooth and with a poor ratio.
These 2 parameters don’t help to fine tune the guitar.
- The ceramic pickups branded KD (like all the hardware) are not at the level of this guitar.
Conclusion :
In this price range, difficult to do better. With some upgrades (the cons) not necessarily expensives, this guitar could compete with more expensives guitars. J&D isn’t well known and underrated but this model seems to become a succes if all the production is like mine. Just for fun i mention the head who remind me the hoshino/elger lawsuit era. Thanks Musicstore !