NGD: 2012 Olympic White Vintage Modified Squier Jazzmaster!
Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:02 pm
Woooooo yay impulse buys.
Wanted to have something different and see how my setup interacted with Jazzmaster style pickups as opposed to the several other guitars I have owned with Humbuckers, and I have ALWAYS ALWAYS wanted a Jazzmaster. They're just so neat looking to me for some reason. Had the J Mascis Jazzmaster a few months back but had to sell it because I needed food and went over my head, so I was definitely wanting a Jazzmaster again.
Okay, onto the review:
The pickups themselves are really articulate and clear. A little on the bright side, but I expected that since they were single coils and not humbuckers. I seemed to play mostly in the neck position tonight, but I found myself switching back and forth as well. In the bridge I definitely rolled some tone and high end off, it just seemed way too bright for me but I like dark guitar tones anyways.
I used the tone circuit a few times, especially when I was using my Sovtek Muff, to go from a more overdrive type sound to full blast wall of sound. I didn't care for the serious drop in volume when rolling back the volume on the circuit. The volume seems to go wayyy too fast. But other than that its a pretty neat little circuit, especially if you don't feel like fidgeting around adjusting the pickup selector and tone/volume knobs all the time.
The construction of this guitar is spot on. I took it out of the box and was really taken back by how well crafted the guitar is. It is easily as well built as my MIM Jaguar, if not a little bit better. No rough frets, no paint blemishes that I noticed, nice smooth neck. Tore off the sticky plastic cover on the pickguard and immediately swapped the stock strings for 10's, just because I'm used to thicker strings. I did notice that the first three frets had a little bit of rust on them, but that's nothing a bit of 0000 steel wool can't fix. The rest of the guitar is solid. It doesn't feel like a toy. It's not quite as heavy as my Jaguar, but still has some weight to it which is really nice. I adjusted the string height just a tad, because it looked like the strings would and could have flopped pretty easily at the height it came to me in the box.
As far as quality of parts, I think the only thing I would end up replacing is the trem bar. It doesn't stay in very well and feels a little cheap. I might also end up replacing the pickguard for something a little more subtle like black or mint. I was VERY surprised with how well the guitar stays in tune with the non-locking tuners. I have this weird idea in my head that if tuners don't lock, the strings will automatically slip and go to shit way more quickly than locking tuners. I don't think I will heavily use the trem bar, however, just because I did for about 5 minutes and it kind of went out of tune. I kind of expected that though.
After I swapped strings I brought it up stairs and played it through the pedalboard I posted yesterday, into my Sunn Sceptre. It was awesome. A whole different level of clarity and articulation compared to humbuckers. While I love 'buckers for bringing the heavy, this brought heavy in a whole new way.
Ended up unplugging myself from the big board, and put together a small board (the one that I posted the other day) with just my Sovtek Muff and DMM. I was floored. Never had I been so happy with a setup.
I unplugged from that, and just out of curiosity took the Muff off and replaced it with a looper that I built that has 2 bypass loops, a Klon Buffer, and a SHO clean boost at the end. I plugged the DMM into the second loop adjusted for unity gain, and had at it. Using the SHO I boosted the Sunn Sceptre into a chunky overdrive and then fed the DMM into it. It sounded INCREDIBLE, I could seriously use that setup every day and NOT be sick of it ever. Heavy, angelic, soft, beautiful. Nuts.
FUZZLESS??
This guitar is great, and a serious value for the money. I really don't have any complaints about the guitar other than the awful tortoise impersonation on the pickguard. It was well worth the money and I don't regret it at all. The only thing I might do in the next few weeks is brush the first three frets with super fine steel wool to remove the surface rust.
In other words, buy one.
Wanted to have something different and see how my setup interacted with Jazzmaster style pickups as opposed to the several other guitars I have owned with Humbuckers, and I have ALWAYS ALWAYS wanted a Jazzmaster. They're just so neat looking to me for some reason. Had the J Mascis Jazzmaster a few months back but had to sell it because I needed food and went over my head, so I was definitely wanting a Jazzmaster again.
Okay, onto the review:
The pickups themselves are really articulate and clear. A little on the bright side, but I expected that since they were single coils and not humbuckers. I seemed to play mostly in the neck position tonight, but I found myself switching back and forth as well. In the bridge I definitely rolled some tone and high end off, it just seemed way too bright for me but I like dark guitar tones anyways.
I used the tone circuit a few times, especially when I was using my Sovtek Muff, to go from a more overdrive type sound to full blast wall of sound. I didn't care for the serious drop in volume when rolling back the volume on the circuit. The volume seems to go wayyy too fast. But other than that its a pretty neat little circuit, especially if you don't feel like fidgeting around adjusting the pickup selector and tone/volume knobs all the time.
The construction of this guitar is spot on. I took it out of the box and was really taken back by how well crafted the guitar is. It is easily as well built as my MIM Jaguar, if not a little bit better. No rough frets, no paint blemishes that I noticed, nice smooth neck. Tore off the sticky plastic cover on the pickguard and immediately swapped the stock strings for 10's, just because I'm used to thicker strings. I did notice that the first three frets had a little bit of rust on them, but that's nothing a bit of 0000 steel wool can't fix. The rest of the guitar is solid. It doesn't feel like a toy. It's not quite as heavy as my Jaguar, but still has some weight to it which is really nice. I adjusted the string height just a tad, because it looked like the strings would and could have flopped pretty easily at the height it came to me in the box.
As far as quality of parts, I think the only thing I would end up replacing is the trem bar. It doesn't stay in very well and feels a little cheap. I might also end up replacing the pickguard for something a little more subtle like black or mint. I was VERY surprised with how well the guitar stays in tune with the non-locking tuners. I have this weird idea in my head that if tuners don't lock, the strings will automatically slip and go to shit way more quickly than locking tuners. I don't think I will heavily use the trem bar, however, just because I did for about 5 minutes and it kind of went out of tune. I kind of expected that though.
After I swapped strings I brought it up stairs and played it through the pedalboard I posted yesterday, into my Sunn Sceptre. It was awesome. A whole different level of clarity and articulation compared to humbuckers. While I love 'buckers for bringing the heavy, this brought heavy in a whole new way.
Ended up unplugging myself from the big board, and put together a small board (the one that I posted the other day) with just my Sovtek Muff and DMM. I was floored. Never had I been so happy with a setup.
I unplugged from that, and just out of curiosity took the Muff off and replaced it with a looper that I built that has 2 bypass loops, a Klon Buffer, and a SHO clean boost at the end. I plugged the DMM into the second loop adjusted for unity gain, and had at it. Using the SHO I boosted the Sunn Sceptre into a chunky overdrive and then fed the DMM into it. It sounded INCREDIBLE, I could seriously use that setup every day and NOT be sick of it ever. Heavy, angelic, soft, beautiful. Nuts.
FUZZLESS??
This guitar is great, and a serious value for the money. I really don't have any complaints about the guitar other than the awful tortoise impersonation on the pickguard. It was well worth the money and I don't regret it at all. The only thing I might do in the next few weeks is brush the first three frets with super fine steel wool to remove the surface rust.
In other words, buy one.