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So, my parents have offered to help me out in buying a new guitar for my birthday. I manage to save $1200, they pay for the rest (at $600 already ).
But anyway, I have until september and that gives me a while to contemplate and i thought I'd get some opinions.
Criteria:
no more than $1800
cool.
My first thought was of course a jazzmaster. I love everything about them, but I want to consider EVERYTHING. (also, it'd be cool to hear some favorite color/guard choices for JM's)
Thanks a lot guys.

*I should also add that my other guitars are a TC 90 Thinline and an old Kay speed demon.

well, the obvious questions are: what kind of stuff do you play, and what kind of sound do you want? i could recommend two or three dozen cool guitars in the $800-1800 range, but with no idea of what you do or what you want i'd be shooting in the dark. you like single-coils? humbuckers? want a vibrato? solid body, semi-hollow, hollowbody? help me out here.

Why not try a nelson? Hes got a sick blue attache on sale right now for a grand. That gives you 800 bucks with which to buy some new pedals or maybe an amp or.....ANOTHER GUITAR!





....Tell me thats not fucking COOL.


Alright follow me on this. So you spend the grand, get the nelson....with that remaining 800 bucks you could get....A BASS VI!!!!!



The schecter is 599 so that gives you 200 bucks to play around with....you could get......A FUCK OD!!!!!!




OOOOOR with that 200 you could get....the sick algal bloom thom has for sale for $115


AND A LAVA CURLY CABLE!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!!


Thats just the start though man....if you really want a NICE jazzmaster...those sonic youth jazzys come up for a grand all the time. Keep your eye on http://www.hellomusic.com/ec/Home.aspx Also i think holy schikes was selling his upgraded thurston jazzy for around that. Dunno if he still has it but its worth a try. If you arent all about having an american jazzmaster...definately look into a CIJ or a classic player which come up for 450-700 all day. The cij go for a little bit more owing to proper trem placment (important to me but your opinion may vary) but the classic players are nothing to scoff at. If you dont mind if it says fender on the headstock....look into the J. Mascis jazzmaster squier has out. Ive played them and brother of mine are they sweet. With the kind of money you have to throw around you could easily secure a mascis jazzy (in sept im willing to bet there will be many used ones on the market for cheap) and swap out the pickups for some novaks and change the pots and have enough left over for a new amp and some pedals or alot of pedals or a really bitchin amp or some more guitars etc etc.

If youre really set on a jazzmaster keep a lookout on offsetguitars.com and shortscale.com . Both of them i think require you to post abit to have access to their BST sections but they are filled with fender fanatics and they have sick deals all day. Lot of kooky vintage stuff. They are honestly the best place to look if you want a vintage offset in player condish for a good deal.

Honestly man with that kind of scratch man.....the differences between a thousand dollar guitar and an 1800 dollar guitar are going to mainly be...whether or not your willing to buy a used guitar. I urge you to look at something used in the 1000-1300 range and spend the rest on a different style guitar or expanding your rig. Unfortunately new fenders are just not as good a deal as they used to be but used you can get a keeper all day for cheap. Theres even custom options in your price range if you want something REALLY special. Check out

http://www.walshguitars.com/
http://paulrhoney.com/
http://crestonguitars.com/
There is a guy on the forums that goes by andrewdoeshair that builds really awesome fully custom pieces for reasonable prices. Heres a link to a build process of one he did for aen from dwarfcraft!
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... =8&t=53238

Get a Johnny Marr Jag.
You'll never miss the JM

Offset perfection

i have and can recommend the thurston moore jazzmaster--about $1,500 new. i'll agree with gunner recall--i've ordered a johnny marr jaguar but haven't received it and can't comment.

as spaceritual shows, there are many variations of the offsets. the main considerations of importance to me were the fingerboard radius (i prefer the 7.25), the bridge (the stock bridges are not well regarded), the switches (some of the stock configurations are awkward and perhaps unnecessary), pickups (many opinions here), and country of manufacture (sorry, i'm a usa snob--why else get a fender?). i had been holding out for decades on jms and jags because i didn't like the hardware configurations. the recent signature models (thurston moore and johnny marr) fixed exactly what i didn't like and kept what i did. except i don't like rattails, so i don't even put in the bar. but i'm really digging the jazzmaster sound and i can't wait to get the jag.

it's well worth hitting some music shops and try to play as many guitars as you can. if they don't have the exact model, they should have some with similar specifications for comparison. you may end up spending the entire $1,800 on one guitar or you may find one half that price that you like the best. have fun!

If you like teles, the G&L ASAT can't be beat. Fucking amazing guitar.

wsas3 wrote:If you like teles, the G&L ASAT can't be beat. Fucking amazing guitar.

I've only played one ASAT and i lurrrrrrrrved it. There just arent any dealers near me to try one out

and dubkitty i pretty much play anything. I've never really been a fan of humbuckers, i'm pretty much looking for solidbody, I don't really like super thick necks.

Gunner Recall wrote:Get a Johnny Marr Jag.
You'll never miss the JM

Offset perfection

I really love the look of that jag! but I've always heard Jaguars are really trebly (or at least the demos i've watched, but that may just be crappy quality?)
are they very trebly or can they be balanced?

You can eq it sepefately, but thats the guitars design, and if you're messing with that initial design, I'd just shoot for something else. The necks are also shortscale, and I cant stand that.

OK, in that case, here are some guitars that i really like that you might dig.

Tokai Les Paul Special. these go by the model designation "LSS." you can find them on eBay new and used in the $800-1000 range...i saw one from Ishibashi the other day with free shipping. i own one which is a MURDEROUS guitar. P90s in your face all day long.

Gretsch Duo Jet. one of the most underrated guitars around. this single-cutaway chambered solidbody vaguely resembles a Les Paul, but has an archtop-style bridge and typically sports a Bigsby vibrato. Duo Jets come with two types of pickups: DynaSonics are fat single-coils e.g. Cliff Gallup with Gene Vincent, Duane Eddy, or George Harrison on the first Beatles record; FilterTrons are narrow-field humbuckers e.g. mid-60s Harrison, Stephen Stills, Who's Next, Brian Setzer.

Fender AVRI Jaguar. yes, they're trebly...they're designed to be. but you can roll off the tone controls, and some of the settings are intended to tame the treble. and those crisp treble tones are just the thing for rhythm parts that are clear and defined. i find the Jaguar much more versatile and useful than the Jazzmaster, and the AVRI is beautifully executed.

i also really like the Telecaster with the wide-range humbuckers...it's a lot brighter and snappier than you'd expect a guitar with humbuckers to be. i didn't think it was redundant to me, and i have three PAF-style humbucker guitars. Jason plays a vintage guitar like that with Spiritualized, and it doesn't sound like a "humbucker guitar."

but for the last year and a half i've been all about my Tokai Les Paul Standard. i know you aren't much interested in 'buckers, but i'd be remiss not to mention how great it is. less than $900, and easily worth twice that. i believe i'll go get her out right now.

Treble is certainly part of the sound, but I never find it overbearing/too treble-y.
Keep it mind JM's can also be very bright/treble-ish.

If you want a jag I recommend the Marr...he basically took the AVRI and did all the custom mods you'll probably want to do down the road (including adding super pricey custom BKP's). All for the price of an AVRI.
As for JM's, I'd go AVRI. The Sonic Youth ones are just too stripped down for me for the price you pay. The CP jazzys change a number of things that some may argue make it less "jazzmaster-like".

There aren't many times in your life that you can justify a $1800 guitar...if you can go for it!

I'll keep that in mind mr. Recall.
Thanks for the input guys. We're taking a family trip to nashville next week, so there should be a plethora of music shops at my disposal. I'll be sure to seek these suggestions out to try.

DallasLemonade wrote:We're taking a family trip to nashville next week, so there should be a plethora of music shops at my disposal. I'll be sure to seek these suggestions out to try.

If you're travelling by automobile, I'd suggest seeking out music shops in out of the way places. Sometimes they've got things priced a little lower. Prices at guitar shops in cities can be a bit higher. Also, play as many guitars as you possibly can. Sometimes you'll really like something that you never thought you would.

Chankgeez wrote:

DallasLemonade wrote:We're taking a family trip to nashville next week, so there should be a plethora of music shops at my disposal. I'll be sure to seek these suggestions out to try.

If you're travelling by automobile, I'd suggest seeking out music shops in out of the way places. Sometimes they've got things priced a little lower. Prices at guitar shops in cities can be a bit higher. Also, play as many guitars as you possibly can. Sometimes you'll really like something that you never thought you would.

I'll keep that in mind sir
also Gunner Recall, I just saw the Johnny Marr jag in the copper-ish color...shit it looks good

If it means anything to you, I as well am saving up for a Marr Jag, its a real players guitar, unlike most sigs that are more for collections. If your trying to decide between a JM and Jag, I would say Jag all day. Here is the Marr vid if you haven't seen it, super informative about what he did.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPoUB9qBdg4[/youtube]