Never owned a Jazzmaster...

[weebles]

Are the American Specials the only JM's Fender makes with a hardtail? Been trying to find something a little cheaper, but with no luck.

[popvulture]

Are the American Specials the only JM's Fender makes with a hardtail? Been trying to find something a little cheaper, but with no luck.

Are you set on having a non-trem model? I have played one or two of the American specials before, and they were ok. I'm not sure what years they were, but they weren't brand new... I will say this: I played one of the Chicago Music Exchange exclusive Am Specials last week, and thought it was total garbage. It was heavy (thick poly, I'm guessing), had shit sounding pickups, bottom of the barrel tuners, and that awful neck finish that's satin but always feels super plasticky to me.

I think if you're looking for one that's got a lower price point, I'd consider the road worn or the 60s lacquer, or if you wanna go really inexpensive, the Mascis.

Also played a TVL at CME and was really impressed. ALSO, one of the guys who worked there told me they're soon releasing TVLs in all black

[kosta]

TVLs in all black

[louderthangod]

I've been wanting to get a Jazzmaster for a long while. My double-neck EGC is a Jazzmaster shape but I'd like an actual JM. If I could find a Thurston Moore model I'd probably grab it but they rarely seem to come up for sale. I like the simplicity of just the volume knob and the lack of the bass/jazz circuit. I've considered putting together a Warmoth but I'm worried that if the neck needs shims or something I wouldn't do it right and I've cleaned up nut slots before but I've never put a nut on a guitar and I'd want it done right but it feels a bit like cheating to have someone put it together but that would also be expensive. All of this indecisiveness has me going years without actually owning one.

EGC makes a cool looking jazzmaster but he doesn't make jazzmaster style pickups and even if you put on some antiquities it's still going to sound very different because of the body and neck materials. Too many choices.

[cheesecats]

Are the American Specials the only JM's Fender makes with a hardtail? Been trying to find something a little cheaper, but with no luck.

yes. i have the first american special (it has humbuckers) and a recent one from chicago music exchange (walnut, with american vintage '65 pickups, the tuners are fine, and i love the neck). iirc, the first one was relatively inexpensive (around $900, but with a gig bag) and the newer one is $1,300 (but with a proper g&g case). the original ones pop up on ebay from time to time.

[popvulture]

If I could find a Thurston Moore model I'd probably grab it but they rarely seem to come up for sale.

Ha, that's so weird—a few years ago they were everywhere. I'd hold out, as I'm sure some will pop back up. I really like those and almost bought one. The finish is cool looking, plus nitro=bonus. My only gripe is the lack of tone knob—I feel like JMs can be super glassy and being able to dial that back a little is imperative. But, easy addition (I'm guessing it's routed under there?). Sounds like you'd be a-ok with just the volume knob though, so no worries there! Keep lookin

[weebles]

Are the American Specials the only JM's Fender makes with a hardtail? Been trying to find something a little cheaper, but with no luck.

Are you set on having a non-trem model? I have played one or two of the American specials before, and they were ok. I'm not sure what years they were, but they weren't brand new... I will say this: I played one of the Chicago Music Exchange exclusive Am Specials last week, and thought it was total garbage. It was heavy (thick poly, I'm guessing), had shit sounding pickups, bottom of the barrel tuners, and that awful neck finish that's satin but always feels super plasticky to me.

I think if you're looking for one that's got a lower price point, I'd consider the road worn or the 60s lacquer, or if you wanna go really inexpensive, the Mascis.

Also played a TVL at CME and was really impressed. ALSO, one of the guys who worked there told me they're soon releasing TVLs in all black

I'm not set on non-trem, but I never use it on my Mascis, but do love the feel of the body style. Just wondering what else was out there.

[louderthangod]

If I could find a Thurston Moore model I'd probably grab it but they rarely seem to come up for sale.

Ha, that's so weird—a few years ago they were everywhere. I'd hold out, as I'm sure some will pop back up. I really like those and almost bought one. The finish is cool looking, plus nitro=bonus. My only gripe is the lack of tone knob—I feel like JMs can be super glassy and being able to dial that back a little is imperative. But, easy addition (I'm guessing it's routed under there?). Sounds like you'd be a-ok with just the volume knob though, so no worries there! Keep lookin

I definitely missed out. I never use my tone knob except on my VI's when I want more of a faux-bass tone but on my guitars I use the volume knob a lot. My EGC Flying V just has a volume knob and no tone and I've never missed it.

[Andrew]

I really wish that I didn't get rid of my Mascis JM so soon, I really liked it so I probably should have stuck with it and replaced the electronics

[popvulture]

I think if someone wanted to go the route of modding/upgrading a Mascis, it'd probably be smarter just to build your own JM from parts. You could also probably score a used partsmaster for somewhere around the same amount of money or a little more, as they're not going to have particularly high resale values. That'd most likely get you better parts to start with, then mod as needed.

I think the Mascis are cool, but best left alone and used as they are--otherwise I'd think they might end up being a money pit with all the things that'd be worthy of upgrading.

[louderthangod]

I was just looking at the now discontinued but still pretty cheap (usually around $600) Fender pawn shop offset special...essentially a jazzmaster with a slightly different shape and some different pickups and semi-hollow.

[popvulture]

Whoa, don't think I ever saw one of those. Pretty cool! I'm usually not super into the blending of classic forms, but that's pretty foxy.

[UnicornTrap]

I just got my first jm a week or two ago. I have mainly played SGs so this is a different beast for sure. It is a warmoth body/neck with fralin pickups that I had found and paid a fair price (imo... cheaper than a mexican fender new). Anyway, it is a lot of fun to play, but damn the bridge will need to be replaced. I thrashed it hard tonight, and some of the top springs were practically coming out. The high E falls out of the saddle a lot too. I will probably have to take the staytrem or mastery bridge plunge, but i'm un-decided yet on which one to go with.

[popvulture]

Just get a Mastery, no question.

First and foremost, JM/Jag bridges are absolute trash—I consider myself a pretty light player and even then I was knocking the strings all over the place on my Jag. The Mastery fixes that problem completely. Equally if not more important though, they DRASTICALLY improve the sound of guitars. My Jag was already a really, really good sounding vintage guitar, and at first I was a bit hesitant about replacing the bridge. That seems silly in retrospect, because it required no mods and I was shocked at how much better the Mastery made it play and sound.

[Phosphene Audio]

I don't have one and the main thing that I find attractive about them, lots of string length on the wrong side of the bridge, I have eon another guitar. They do look cool.