ilovefuzz.com

I just found out that the tremolo design is pretty rad and may be what I need to satisfy my tremming needs without having to deal with floyd nonsense.

Been peekin at a few models and trying to learn, but I'm not finding any real information about people who love them and why aside from "zomg sonick yuuth" or "j masics god" or surf players. :c

So, teach me to lust.

Personally, I love them because the bodies are super comfortable and the neck pickup sounds amazing. The necks generally have my favorite Fender C profile.
The tremolo is the most usable system that I have used and won't totally ruin you if you break a string.
I've gone through a Blacktop JM, a Warmoth that I put together and I currently use a '64 JM that is a dream guitar.
Now I have one the '60s Classic Jazzmasters on the way.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsFZCRuA4Qs[/youtube]

frankly, since I've gone offset [jag/JM] I haven't touched my other guitars all that much. The tremolo really is all that and a bag of chips. A jaguar, short scale, hot clear pickups is a screamer, amazing lead guitar. The JM is a little woodier, standard fender scale length comfortable in all aspects. Get one, throw a Mastery or Staytrem bridge on there and play the fuck out of it. I know we are talking about JM's but I keep being tempted by these: http://davesguitar.com/products/fender/ ... /thin-skin Totally different beast as far as sound, but so much fun to play! These are such a great deal on something with AVRI build quality for a cheap price.

How much do you want to spend? Offsets are one of the few vintage guitars you can still buy at reasonable prices. I have a 1965 Jag and a 1965 Jazzmaster. Both were found for about $2k. The JM was a refin, but everything else was original and had a really nice set up on the neck. The jag looks like it was almost never played.

Next to look at are older AVRI's. They jacked the prices up on newer ones. You can find a really nice AVRI or Think Skin JM for about $1200-$1400
At that same price point, I might consider building one. I built up a JM with the best parts I could find, for the top end of the used AVRI scale.Thread here: viewtopic.php?f=192&t=43658&hilit=slow+build&start=15 Also look at Kosta's JM. It's in a few threads. I tend to think assembling a guitar to your own specs is better than anything a factory will build.

There's a few new lines of JM's. I think the 60's Laquer and Roadworn look like decent deals. Made in Mexico, I think? If I couldn't afford or find an AVRI or vintage, and I didn't want to build, I'd probably look here. The nitro finishes are a really nice touch.

After that the next good value is CIJ. You'll get good craft that's got a lower price point because of electronics. American parts don't always fit. If you swap in electronics, you've got a great guitar. See this blog post comparing electronics: http://www.alphabetcityblog.com/2013/05 ... iring.html

Lastly is the squire line, which is not to be dismissed. The J. Mascis JM is a fucking blast to play. For like $300 bucks it's really hard to go wrong.

Outside of that, there are other builders:

Rhoney: started out doing offset tributes, but has moved onto making guitars that he dreams about. These draft off an offset heritage, but really go to new places. If I had the monies, I would be buying an Oceana with offset trem. http://www.paulrhoneyguitars.com

Kauer: shares a build space with Rhoney. Really fun and varied takes on the format with his Arcturus guitars.
http://www.kauerguitars.com

Bilt: The revelator really drafts off of the abandoned Marauder prototypes, but these dudes do tons of customizations. It seems like so much guitar for the money. I don't understand it. Maybe it's because they are based in Iowa. http://www.biltguitars.com/the-guitars/ ... or-ls.html

Danocaster: if you are into the relic thing, Dano makes some pretty amazing relic guitars. I am thinking about sending my 1965 JM that was refinned to him to make more awesomer. http://danocaster.com/guitar-gallerys-hidden/offset These are works of art.

Another one in the "if I had teh money" category is Deimel. I want one so bad: http://www.deimelguitarworks.de/home/fi ... -firestar/

Harvester goes a little more Italian: see HorseyBoy's guitar at the end of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=188&t=28890&hilit=harvester&start=285 For some reason the pic's of Backwardsvoyager's purple offset Harvester aren't showing up around page 15 of that thread…

Go for it. In some form...

Hyphen Nation wrote:

NSFW: show

frankly, since I've gone offset [jag/JM] I haven't touched my other guitars all that much. The tremolo really is all that and a bag of chips. A jaguar, short scale, hot clear pickups is a screamer, amazing lead guitar. The JM is a little woodier, standard fender scale length comfortable in all aspects. Get one, throw a Mastery or Staytrem bridge on there and play the fuck out of it. I know we are talking about JM's but I keep being tempted by these: http://davesguitar.com/products/fender/ ... /thin-skin Totally different beast as far as sound, but so much fun to play! These are such a great deal on something with AVRI build quality for a cheap price.

How much do you want to spend? Offsets are one of the few vintage guitars you can still buy at reasonable prices. I have a 1965 Jag and a 1965 Jazzmaster. Both were found for about $2k. The JM was a refin, but everything else was original and had a really nice set up on the neck. The jag looks like it was almost never played.

Next to look at are older AVRI's. They jacked the prices up on newer ones. You can find a really nice AVRI or Think Skin JM for about $1200-$1400
At that same price point, I might consider building one. I built up a JM with the best parts I could find, for the top end of the used AVRI scale.Thread here: viewtopic.php?f=192&t=43658&hilit=slow+build&start=15 Also look at Kosta's JM. It's in a few threads. I tend to think assembling a guitar to your own specs is better than anything a factory will build.

There's a few new lines of JM's. I think the 60's Laquer and Roadworn look like decent deals. Made in Mexico, I think? If I couldn't afford or find an AVRI or vintage, and I didn't want to build, I'd probably look here. The nitro finishes are a really nice touch.

After that the next good value is CIJ. You'll get good craft that's got a lower price point because of electronics. American parts don't always fit. If you swap in electronics, you've got a great guitar. See this blog post comparing electronics: http://www.alphabetcityblog.com/2013/05 ... iring.html

Lastly is the squire line, which is not to be dismissed. The J. Mascis JM is a fucking blast to play. For like $300 bucks it's really hard to go wrong.

Outside of that, there are other builders:

Rhoney: started out doing offset tributes, but has moved onto making guitars that he dreams about. These draft off an offset heritage, but really go to new places. If I had the monies, I would be buying an Oceana with offset trem. http://www.paulrhoneyguitars.com

Kauer: shares a build space with Rhoney. Really fun and varied takes on the format with his Arcturus guitars.
http://www.kauerguitars.com

Bilt: The revelator really drafts off of the abandoned Marauder prototypes, but these dudes do tons of customizations. It seems like so much guitar for the money. I don't understand it. Maybe it's because they are based in Iowa. http://www.biltguitars.com/the-guitars/ ... or-ls.html

Danocaster: if you are into the relic thing, Dano makes some pretty amazing relic guitars. I am thinking about sending my 1965 JM that was refinned to him to make more awesomer. http://danocaster.com/guitar-gallerys-hidden/offset These are works of art.

Another one in the "if I had teh money" category is Deimel. I want one so bad: http://www.deimelguitarworks.de/home/fi ... -firestar/

Harvester goes a little more Italian: see HorseyBoy's guitar at the end of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=188&t=28890&hilit=harvester&start=285 For some reason the pic's of Backwardsvoyager's purple offset Harvester aren't showing up around page 15 of that thread…

Go for it. In some form...

That was a bit of schooling!

Thing is. I've had strats, a tele, a floyd equipped Jackson. I had written off JMs as guitar for vintage geeks with a trem that won't work and dumb appointments. Until lately, when I've been itching to trem vibrato. See, I play 11s at standard tuning and thought "tuning stability" was a matter of locking trems. I sold my floyd years ago because I was impatient and angry, so I ended up changing striings on it twice befor saying "no more". Looked at Ibanez Zero Point system, semed smart, then accidntally clicked on a link for Jazzmaster floating trem. And then saw Fender had smarter trem ideas that don't involve routing 1/3 of the guitar out. Why don't people talk about this stuff!? its important!

I'll have to go JM over Jaguar because I prefer longer scale, like 27". Just feels right. and the 25.5 will feel closer to home.

Looking at the $500 Fender Standard Jazzmaster. It'll be at least 4 months before I buy anything. Just Researching. I already know I'll have to spend ~$40 on a new Trem, because I insist on having the slide stopper on there. I don't know about a Mastery bridge because I don't like the idea of not being able to adjust intonation on individual strings

Down the road I was going to put in a graphite Nut and locking tuners. Yeah I know that's dropping another $130 or so on it, but then it'll be ready for all the ill trem abuse I plan on. Of course, these upgrades can occur over time. And when its done I shouldnt ever need to think of such things for the next 30 or so years.

Also been Looking at the J Mascis, which supposedly has p90 style pickups in it. I don't really know Dino Jr, but I heard of J before coming here, so there's that.

Something else that intrigued me is that the instrument was "made" for heavier string gauges. It ought to feel like home.

I know I'm getting ahead of myself but I think a Nashville Telemaster would be rad. First thing is to Quit being exclusively non-trem.

We probably traveled a very similar road to JM. I had written off strats. Years ago I had tried standard strats, then had a japanese fender with Floyd Rose/locking and it never was awesome. I shifted to hard tails for the better part of 15 years. Got a jag [big heavy gauge strings, awesome trem, screaming single coils] and was hooked. The shit is just stable.

For that price point look at a J. Mascis. It's a bit different than a standard JM. Apparently on that one, you want to look at replacing the bridge with a roller bridge. On other JM's, it sounds like you may want a stay trem. I know a lot of folks have them and love them. I've just had good luck with mastery so far. Haven't tried the staytrem yet, but people love it.

I would say get one and try it before you worry about replacing the nut or locking tuners. I kind of abuse mine, and bone or synthetic nuts both work fine. With vintage tuners, shit just stays in tune. I honestly don't worry about intonation on these. Fender figured something out with this trem system.

For $400, I feel like you should look at a Mascic. You can find a great japanese used for about $700 [give or take $100-or-so]. It may be worth saving up for the japanese ones.

As far as a nashville telemaster, this danocaster kinda give me all sorts of feels:

if you're looking for an affordable Jazzmaster i would absolutely recommend you try out a Squier J Mascis, i was on a similar hunt maybe 2 years ago now i tried out a few different models, japanese, blacktop, squier etc and to be honest i preferred the J mascis over every japanese and mexican model i tried regardless of price, if you like satin neck finishes the japanese ones will feel sticky and weird in comparison and the Mascis has slightly hotter almost-p90 style pickups that work very nicely for driving pedals. the stock japanese fender pickups are basically just rehoused strat pickups. it's something that doesn't really need modifications right off the bat so you could just get to know it and work out what you think it needs. i ended up modifying mine a lot less than i thought i would.
japanese fenders are awesome but they are very vintage spec so they are a bit more prone to the infamous issues with the trem and such, and to be honest i wouldn't rate the electronics higher than a higher-end squier.

the new standard jazzmaster you mentioned looks neat but you would be paying more than the J Mascis and missing out on the pickups and rhythm circuit, plus those modern style tuners are kind of a pain compared to the vintage style ones. depends what you're looking for i guess.

Holy shit, dat danocaster.

I have a CIJ.
Never really wanted a JM. I tend to like Fender style guitars though......strats and teles.
Just happened to work out a trade deal on it.

At first, I didn't like it much. I don't particularly like the straight up white/red combo either. (my dream color combo JM is ocean blue metal flake with tort)
It's always felt kind of awkward to me too. The vintage neck........small frets and small fretboard radius.........perceived larger body.......strings off the body farther than other guitars.
Shitty harsh bridge pickup and strings popping out of the vintage style thread saddles.
Replaced those parts with a Mustang bridge and installed Antiquities.
Recently, I replaced the Antiquities with Pickup Wiz pickups.....and I like it a lot more now. a bit more output and more low end.
I also tried Rose Picasso JM humbuckers, which were okay, but sorta took all the jazzmaster out of it.

I've been playing it almost exclusively lately and it's really starting to grow on me. To the point, where I don't really want to play other guitars anymore.

Great thread so far. One quick counterpoint to Hyphen Nation's killer initial post - I actually find the CIJ/MIJ stuff to have a higher build quality than the MIM stuff. I've owned, played, tried any and all flavors of these guitars, and generally speaking I think the following rubric holds a lot of water:

Vintage > AVRI > MIJ > MIM > Squier

Things I love about my Jazzmaster, personally:
- Super comfortable to play. The contours, shape and scale length are just comfortable.
- Rhythm/Lead switching. Really, really useful in a band context when playing with another guitar player. Great, fast way to get to many, many tones.
- String tension. I play 11s on almost all of my guitars, and the JM has a great feel for both first position chording and upper fret leads. Feels like you're really digging into something substantial, yet not a pain to play. (Probably as much a testament to Eddie's killer set-up and fret work at Totally Wired Guitars as it is to JMs, but I think the scale length and bridge placement on the body plays a role here.)
- Excellent upper fret access.

Love. My. Jazzmaster.

Ugh, the Japanese ones have nice necks, I guess, but I'd take any other Jazzmaster first. And as a rule, I love Japanese Fenders. But all the other makes I've tried were much more impressive. Japanese you have to replace the pickups AND the bridge.

Hyphen Nation wrote:We probably traveled a very similar road to JM. I had written off strats. Years ago I had tried standard strats, then had a japanese fender with Floyd Rose/locking and it never was awesome. I shifted to hard tails for the better part of 15 years. Got a jag [big heavy gauge strings, awesome trem, screaming single coils] and was hooked. The shit is just stable.

For that price point look at a J. Mascis. It's a bit different than a standard JM. Apparently on that one, you want to look at replacing the bridge with a roller bridge. On other JM's, it sounds like you may want a stay trem. I know a lot of folks have them and love them. I've just had good luck with mastery so far. Haven't tried the staytrem yet, but people love it.

I would say get one and try it before you worry about replacing the nut or locking tuners. I kind of abuse mine, and bone or synthetic nuts both work fine. With vintage tuners, shit just stays in tune. I honestly don't worry about intonation on these. Fender figured something out with this trem system.

For $400, I feel like you should look at a Mascic. You can find a great japanese used for about $700 [give or take $100-or-so]. It may be worth saving up for the japanese ones.

As far as a nashville telemaster, this danocaster kinda give me all sorts of feels:

i have been checking out the Danocaster site for the past two weeks.
BAD IDEA!

aen wrote:Ugh, the Japanese ones have nice necks, I guess, but I'd take any other Jazzmaster first. And as a rule, I love Japanese Fenders. But all the other makes I've tried were much more impressive. Japanese you have to replace the pickups AND the bridge.

Although, the CIJ MIJ JMs have gone up in price, the bridge is $30 tops, and used JM pickups are around $100-$150 depending on your taste.
If you can snag a cheaper CIJ or MIJ, it's a pretty good deal.

Sorry. Seems like ILF ate my previous entry. I'll try again

Hyphen Nation wrote: I would say get one and try it before you worry about replacing the nut or locking tuners. I kind of abuse mine, and bone or synthetic nuts both work fine. With vintage tuners, shit just stays in tune. I honestly don't worry about intonation on these. Fender figured something out with this trem system.

For $400, I feel like you should look at a Mascic. You can find a great japanese used for about $700 [give or take $100-or-so]. It may be worth saving up for the japanese ones.

I'll play a bit before actually going hard replacinig things. However with me the longer I put off things like locking tuners (which is for easy string changes mostly) the more stupidly sentimental I get. Nooooooo mah mojoooooos-like.

Both Mascis and standard have features I like and some I don't, so I figur the one I'll be modding most, should get first and go ahead and start on some of the upgrades. It also depends on availibility, too.

It'll be a while before I buy one, but mark my words I'm getting a jazzmaster this year.

The Squier Mascis is dead stable with lots of abuse with the stock TOM bridge.

Don't assume you have to put a roller bridge on it, or swap anything.

I've had mine since they first came out three or so years ago and I have had no reason to change anything. It's a magical guitar (and I could care less about the dude or his music, but I know a good guitar when I see it). Not sure I'd put them as P90s after comparing them for the last few months to my Casino...but they're hotter, meaner JM-type pickups and sound damn good clean or otherwise.

Big plus (outside the terrible "one size fits all" color scheme which I abhor but again, not messing with the magic) is no skunk stripe on the neck. I know, I know. It's petty but it's a huge thing for me on the other Squiers.

And compared to the MIJ/CIJ stuff I've played (and I still have my '69RI domestic market Mustang), I'd take the current Squier stuff any day of the week. I really would. Sure the fit and finish is a little nicer on the '69RI, but everything glorious about the Mustang is more there in spades on the half-price Squier version. I keep the '69RI just because...that and I don't care enough to sell gear - but it isn't worth to me what the Squier Mustang is, let alone 2x or more.

Modern MIM stuff that's not bottom-line (Blacktop) I'd take over a MIJ any day of the week as well to be honest. If nothing else, you won't be compelled to change the electronics and they have the feel right now that the factory is mature in a good way.

Also, before changing any bridge etc. - play with it a while. Prior to the offset revival, it wasn't something anybody ever complained about. They were what they were - you loved them, warts and all, and learned to set them up.