Best Jazzmaster Available Right NOW

[buhumoth]

fwiw i bought a danocaster and it's the best guitar I've ever played. the goddamn neck is amazing.

[worra]

Reviving this thread a bit because I'm also on the hunt for a Jazzmaster. My budget is right around the 1k mark and it seems like my options are: MIJ/CIJ, Road Worn, TVL. Anyone have any opinions between those three? I'm going to play a used road worn tomorrow, seller has it priced at $825 but is "negotiable". I'm in the SF bay so prices for everything are slightly inflated. The TVL looks incredible but I think I'd have to swap that top switch for a 3-way knob, which I'm fine with.

[odontophobia]

General consensus is that MIJ will be due for a hardware/electronics swap of some sort.

[tremolo3]

CIJ/MIJ Jazzmasters have strat-type pickups in Jazzmaster covers. I love the neck pickup on mine and wouldn't swap it for a "true" Jazzmaster pickup, the bridge pup in the other hand... I don't use it, but I've never liked bridge pickups except Tele ones.

Pots, switches, tuning pegs and vibrato are absolutely fine, vibrato system might need a setup tho.

[worra]

Went home with this road worn for a little under $750

[waltdogg]

das nice.

[repoman]

I still have the TVL and can still recommend pouncing on one of those if you find one used/like the color. I go through guitars a lot buying and selling used gear and I've put the TVL up for sale a couple times, but then I sit down and play it and immediately pull the ads. Pretty much all my guitars have a revolving door of issues but the TVL is always trouble free and just sounds right every time I plug it in. I have a MIJ tremolo on another offset and it doesn't feel anywhere near as loose and smooth as the AVRI on the TVL, could be just a spring tension thing or something though. It still feels stiff and somewhat uncomfortable with the adjustment spring set for very low tension.

The only thing I don't like about it is how smooth the polyurethane finish is, it can become irritating to play sitting down after a while because it has a tendency to slip away from you which doesn't happen on my other offsets with lacquer finishes. I've contemplated spraying the body in nitro to give the surface a bit of tooth to it/less shine. Or some grip tape.

[popvulture]

I have an AVRI thin skin and love it... chiming in to say that I think the TVL is as close as you can get to the AVRI level of quality, both in terms of build and sound. They're awesome guitars. When I was at Chicago Music Exchange this summer, one of the guys there told me that they were expecting an order of TVLs in a black color scheme, which would've been fucking rad, but never seemed to surface. Maybe someday? Anyway, I think those are great buys regardless.

The professionals are pretty cool, but they have that sort of satin neck finish that was previously found on the am standard line and the CME hardtail JMs. It all comes down to preference—I vastly prefer the feel of a lacquered neck, but plenty of people like em.