PJD Carey Origin Pro — Sea Blue Electric Guitar

The PJD Carey Origin Pro is the top tier of PJD's Origin Series in the Carey body shape: a UK-designed, Indonesian-manufactured single-cut electric guitar built on a solid mahogany body with a bound figured flame maple veneer top, a roasted maple bolt-on neck, Indian rosewood fingerboard, dual PJD Origin humbuckers (bridge medium output, neck vintage PAF-style), bone nut, locking tuners, and a fixed hardtail bridge. The Sea Blue finish is applied in satin open grain poly — a cool, considered blue that sits with genuine depth on the figured maple veneer without requiring a gloss surface to carry it. The Carey Pro occupies the same specification tier as the St John Origin Pro: the two models are built to the same construction standard throughout, with the difference being the body shape each model is built from.

Sea Blue — The Finish Explained

Sea Blue is a cool, mid-register blue in PJD's satin open grain poly finish — neither the deep navy of a darker blue nor the bright, saturated electric blue of a more vivid colour. It sits in the range of blues that reference the ocean in its quieter moods: clear, considered, and with enough depth to read as a serious finish rather than a novelty colour. On a figured flame maple veneer top, the satin finish allows the grain movement to remain visible beneath the colour layer, so the figure in the maple reads through the blue as a subtle texture rather than being obscured by a flat opaque coat. Under different lighting conditions — particularly in natural light — the grain and colour interact in a way that changes the guitar's visual character depending on the angle.

The satin open grain poly finish, applied on the back and across the instrument, has a practical dimension beyond aesthetics. Satin finishes are lower in reflectivity than gloss, which means the back of the neck feels faster under the hand — less resistance as the thumb moves across the surface. For players who find gloss necks tacky or sticky, particularly under stage conditions, a satin-finished roasted maple neck is a significant practical advantage.

The Origin Pro Platform — What the Carey Pro Adds Over the Carey Standard

The Carey Origin Pro is a step up from the Carey Origin Standard in every specification category that affects playability and tonal response. The differences are not cosmetic — they are the hardware and materials choices that PJD's UK-designed instruments are built around, applied to the Apprentice tier's construction foundation. The key upgrades from the Standard to the Pro are:

• Roasted maple neck: The Origin Standard uses a standard maple neck; the Pro uses roasted maple. Roasting is a thermal treatment that removes residual moisture from the wood, producing a more dimensionally stable neck that responds less to humidity changes. The colour shifts to a warm caramel tone, and the feel of the wood is subtly drier and faster under the hand. The tonal effect — often described as improved resonance and sustain — is genuine, if subtle.
• Bone nut (approx. 42mm): The Standard uses a synthetic nut; the Pro uses bone. Bone is denser than synthetic materials, which improves sustain at the nut end of the string, produces clearer intonation on open strings, and allows a more precise setup. The difference is most audible on open chords and in how the open strings sustain relative to fretted notes.
• Locking tuners: The Standard uses vintage-style non-locking tuners; the Pro uses locking tuners. Locking tuners grip the string mechanically, eliminating the winding around a post that is the most common cause of tuning instability. The result is faster string changes and more reliable tuning stability, particularly when bending or playing aggressively.
• Figured flame maple veneer top with binding: The Standard has a plain finish; the Pro adds a bound figured flame maple veneer top. The veneer is a thin decorative layer — it is not a structural component and does not function as a solid maple top would — but the figure in the maple and the cream binding give the instrument a visual specification that is more typically associated with mid-to-higher-price instruments.

PJD Origin Humbuckers — Bridge and Neck

The Carey Origin Pro uses two PJD Origin humbuckers, both wound with Alnico V magnets and enamel-coated wire. The two pickups are voiced differently by design:

The bridge humbucker is voiced at medium output — higher than a vintage PAF, lower than a high-output modern pickup. This gives it usable clean headroom at lower amp volumes while responding well to overdrive at higher gain settings. It is balanced rather than aggressive: suited to players who move between clean, edge-of-breakup, and overdriven tones within a single session.

The neck humbucker is voiced at vintage PAF-style output — lower than the bridge pickup, with more warmth and less compression in the low-end. PAF-style neck pickups became the reference for clean jazz, blues and rhythm tones in the late 1950s and 1960s, and the Origin neck pickup sits within that character: open, detailed, and with a natural warmth that works particularly well for clean chords and melodic playing at moderate volume.

The three-way toggle switch selects bridge alone, both pickups in parallel (middle position), or neck alone. The middle position combines the two pickups' output and produces a slightly scooped, blended character that sits between the bridge's brightness and the neck's warmth.

Carey Pro vs Carey Standard — What Changes at the Pro Tier

Who Is the Carey Origin Pro For?

• Players who want the full Origin Pro specification — roasted maple neck, bone nut, locking tuners, dual PJD Origin humbuckers — in PJD's Carey body shape rather than the St John
• Guitarists drawn to dual-humbucker instruments who want a neck pickup voiced for clean and blues playing without compromising the bridge pickup's ability to drive an amp
• Players who prefer a satin-finished neck for feel and find gloss necks too resistant under the hand
• Buyers who want the visual specification of a figured maple veneer top and binding at the Origin Pro price point, with an honest understanding of what veneer contributes compared to a solid maple top
• Players who already own or have played the Carey Standard and want to understand what the Pro tier adds in practical terms

Specifications

Expert Advice at Angkor Music

At Angkor Music Melbourne we stock PJD Guitars across the Origin range — Apprentice, Standard and Pro — in both the Carey and St John body shapes. If you want to compare the Carey Pro against the St John Pro in person, discuss the Sea Blue finish, or get advice on which Origin tier suits your playing and budget, our team can help.

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