Tell Me about the Fender Jazzmaster (MOD: Also Jaguar, etc.)

What do the slide buttons do at the top?

Controls “Lead” Circuit: Volume, Tone,
“Rhythm” Circuit: Volume, Tone
Pickup Switching 3-Position Toggle:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups
Position 3. Neck Pickup

(Lead Circuit)

2-Position Slide:
Up: Lead Tone Circuit
Down: Rhythm Tone Circuit

the mustang bridge trick is the common swap, i have this thing called a buzz stop on my jaguar which basically just holds the strings where they're supposed to be. (which is what the bridge should really handle but anyways...). some people like tune-a-matics on them. some people just put washers on the strings before the bridge. in any case, theres a couple fixes to keep the strings on board, but the thing will always have a kind of rattle that wont affect anything but may annoy some.

the pickups are not really like p-90s, though they are often incorrectly referred to as 'soapbars.' they are relatively low-output, mellow, and much less in your face than a p-90. they are unlike other fender pups. they're pretty good pickups, if you get real ones- the ones that come in imported jazzmasters are more or less trash. duncan makes some excellent replacements.

i generally like very low output pups. they sound clearer to me.

I haven't exactly kept it in a box - I've been rehearsing and gigging with the thing - but it's not been subjected to much worse wear and tear than, say, my Danelectro was, which just took it like a warhorse.

Thats a mighty interesting link you posted. Oddly, the two pickups I've been most interested in trying are the P-90 and the Charlie Christian... definitely let me know how those Novak joints stack up. If they're the biz, I'd have excuse to finally get a JM...

I will definately post my opinion of the tone produced by the Novak pickups.

Still need answer to my original question. What position does the circuit selector slide switch need to be in if you want both pickup activated? Obviously, toggle switch is in the middle position.

My Jazzmaster is a2003 and it's still mint. I can only base my opinion on a couple of weeks of ownership, but mine seems as solid as my Strat or Tele. And there's something about the JM that makes it more fun to play than any of other guitars I own.

Down. At least that's how it is on my '65 JM

if it's down, you put the toggle switch in the middle to have both pick-ups pickin' up. if it's up, then the toggle switch is cut out of the circuit altogether and the pick-up "mix" is controlled by how far one of those two funny little wheels on the upper part of the body is to the right or left (i forget which of the two wheels). it's a custom blend of the two pick-ups.

btw, just played two '66 vintage JM's at chicago music exchange, one of which sounded tinny and rattley, one of which sounded so warm and organic and lush it blew my mind more than a guitar has in a long time. but at $4000 i won't be walking out with it any time soon.

Here's a generally useful tool for Fender dating:

http://www.fender.com/support/dating/

http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/index.php

and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page (which will take a while) there's a really straightforward Jazzmaster switching diagram in pdf format. I would post it, but I'm not smart enough to know how to post .pdf format to Ilx.

As far as I can tell the Jag has one more fret (not important), a strangle switch (is this good? I like the sound of it), different PUs (any info about the characteristics of these would be interesting). How do the different circuit/pick-up combos compare?

Jim - you said yr old JM was way better than yr Jag. Any more thoughts?

Also, thoughts on the bridge. Are they really as dodgy as people say? I am happy to put in a buzz bar or a mustang bridge, but your thoughts welcome.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2363/1091/1600/may11guitar.jpg

What an odd wiring design.

I think the Jazzmaster/Jaguar body shape is really underused by Fender. I like the look without all of the extra switching. This Jaguar Baritone looks sharp and would be great as a two humbucker or P90 jazzmaster scale guitar. It would be like an SG with a Strat scale length.

ihttp://www.electric-guitar-review.com/images/Fender%20Jaguar%20Baritone%

http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0259505515

So incredibly good it hurts.

ihttp://www.fendereurope.com/news/images/Jag_Baritone_Special.jpg

http://www.fender.com/products/prod_images/basses/0259505515_md.jpg

Actually, we have one of those coming as well. They're fantastic. The Geddyleeidness I referred to is the Mod Shop style of that bass (badass bridge, etc.). My only actual critique of the bass is the black neck binding, which is legit, but still bugs me for some reason.

The tort that Fender uses looks like crap but Spitfire has a lot of depth and variation.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CO2_qosBmHm/?igshid=1jmhao90zif5f

I wonder how much it weighs. I’m guessing 15 pounds give or take.

I can't deal with it. Totally sets off my OCD over fingerprint smudges.

Took a chance on a Japanese Mustang 69. The neck is extremely comfortable, the most comfortable neck I've ever played in fact. The tremolo setup is definitely tricky though. It stays in tune if I bend up all the time and it stays in tune if I bend down all the time, but not if I mix the two. Luckily I prefer bending up anyway. It's definitely a great guitar for surf-style playing, techniques like palm muting and tremolo picking are quite comfortable to execute.

You know, if you were wanting to form some sort of evil prog-gaze band and didn't want to hold back - this Fender custom shop double neck Jazzmaster/Bass VI might just be the basis of your entire sound.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/5k4AAOSwxt1fd0AN/s-l1600.jpg

Accidentally double clicked that link and clicked Buy It Now, will let you know how I get on with it

someone get Takeshi from Boris on the line ASAP

For all those songs where you want the bass part to stop while someone is playing a guitar solo

seems I should look into the Jazzmaster...

― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, February 13, 2021

update: holy shit, I may be a "jazzmaster guy." what took me so long?

So that CIJ JM-66 I was talking about upthread four months ago? It looks like this now:

https://www.quartzcity.net/ilx/jm66dlx-a.jpg
https://www.quartzcity.net/ilx/jm66dlx-b.jpg

Everything came together spectacularly well. The Fender CuNiFe's were definitely worth the effort to track down even with the extra hassle in re-routing the body and a custom pickguard. I went through hours of YouTube videos of JM HB replacement pickups and none of them, even the outstanding ones, had the chunky/splat sound I've been obsessing over ever since Jason Pierce switched to '72 Telecaster Thinlines soon into Spiritualized.

Totaling all the costs, I spent slightly more than a current Fender JM Ultra. Like the Grease Rat in Mad Max said "Speed's just a question of money. How fast you wanna go?" When I was first figuring out what I wanted (other than the CuNiFe WRHBs) I was wanting a custom color, B&B neck, but after paging through other folks' Jazzblaster projects I kept noticing just how many screws were visible on the front: 25 when you add in the 8 from the pickups. All of these all-black or all-white pickguards look like it took a shotgun blast. A tortoise shell is great at disguising those and of course that led to $pitfire. I fucking love the result. I have a new #1.

Putting together a guitar out of internet-sourced parts and 15 minute YouTube videos has been an awesome depression-fighter. Recommend it to everyone.

Looks lovely and I agree about tortoiseshell pickguards.

Saddles look a little strange in these photos though, is there something unusual about them?

It's just the standard Mastery bridge for CIJs. I'm still tweaking things - the neck was initially shimmed a bit more than I was used to but I'm liking it. Should be great for .011s.

oooooooooweeeeeee

love this ET - thank you for the update and the hott pix!

I think I have a bad contact… neck pup cuts out when I engage the rhythm circuit but can be restored by tapping on the pickguard. for context, I am reluctant to take it off to diagnose bc I really like the strings I have on there now, so your DIY project gives me courage lol.

Putting together a guitar out of internet-sourced parts and 15 minute YouTube videos has been an awesome depression-fighter

I've done this a few times and concur.

it's gorgeous! i absolute love it.

rogermexico - tune down to slack and capo the strings at the 3rd fret or so. Then you can take the neck off and work under the pickguard etc.

Lovely guitar.

https://www.gearnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Fender-Traditional-60s-Jazzmaster-with-Wide-Range-CuNiFe-Humbuckers-1-2048x702.jpg

Coming soon to a grey marketer/eBay exporter near you:
Fender Made in Japan Traditional 60s Jazzmaster with Wide Range CuNiFe humbuckers

I feel like Fender Japan is looking at what people are building on the internet and just duplicating them. Naturally I'm just going to assume that they saw my build and knew how to get me uptight about it by adding a block neck but I'm happier with the 7.25" in my build.

OTOH, goddamn - what a great way to get into the Jazzblaster game! I'm going to be intensely jealous if there's a Fiesta Red or Lake Placid Blue run of it.

They've done it before, the Lee Ranaldo signature model:
http://fencedinarea.com/Images/Gear/Fender_LeeRanaldo_02_150814_med.jpg

Different pickups though. Fender "revoiced" their then current WRHB to sound like the old ones. There's a very detailed discussion about all this on https://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=107104

I am not going to play a Fender with humbuckers

Not on a boat, not with a goat

I will not do it, sorry. Cool if that's your thing but if I want to play a guitar with humbuckers it will not be anything on Leo's platform

boo my Tele Custom is my favourite guitar

I'm just more comfortable with a Jazzmaster or Jaguar than anything else, if I needed a drop C 7-string with EMGs I'd find a way to do it in one of those.

fender honors 60 years of the jaguar by releasing an "ultra luxe" variant with....dual humbuckers, through-body stringing, a tune-o-matic, and (worst of all, a sin to end all sins) 25.5" scale length

https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/60-anniversary-jaguar?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20220414_Jaguar&utm_term=fender&src=email15DT041422&smtrctid=ffa5dba0-b6db-484d-a883-09fc217e39eb&c3ch=ecommemail&c3nid=20220414_Jaguar

"honouring its rich legacy by systematically erasing every single design element specific to the Jaguar"

if you buy this guitar you go through a time warp and become the rhythm guitarist of a forgettable, thursday-esque 2000s emo band.

Lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkibmgLoRa0

A real Jagblaster with the offset bridge and vibrato and the new Cunife Wide Range Humbuckers would be fucking awesome and the total amount of retooling needed by Fender would be updating CNC files to rout the bodies and pickguards for the humbuckers.

Or if supplies are limited on those, just put in regular humbuckers, whatever.

or Firebird pickups

burn the heretic

Could always just get a CIJ Fender Jaguar Special HH - at least you'll have a 24" neck and 7.25 radius to start with.

or if you want a longer scale,
https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--huFLClf9--/f_auto,t_large/v1619740724/nl7pxhnvufgeqm8hjkmf.jpg

Offsets without the offset bridge and vibrato are crimes against god IMO. Pickups, scale length and headstocks are negotiable but those two things are required.

Also semi-hollow offsets that do away with the forearm curve, bad very bad.

squier makes a shoreline gold and a fiesta red HH jaguar that I've thought about buying used to convert to an actual jaguar but neither has the proper bridge or trem routing and one has a stupid strat jack on the front

My friend has an unstained dark wood jazz master, it’s a thing of beauty

There's a Jaguar partscaster on Reverb with Super Distortions that's oddly compelling - I mostly hate the idea of a maple neck with black blocks, especially on an offset, but it winds up looking pretty good on this one.

Good review of the AVII Jazzmaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr9_sa_fsLo

yikes. never been in the market for a usa-made fender but they have seemed to have a decent rep for a long time now, certainly not with qc issues like that

yeah wow those am vintage series were always prided on being super mint

I have a squire jagmaster. It was the vista series from the 90s. Wonderful neck. Great vibrations

I have a squire jagmaster. It was the vista series from the 90s. Wonderful neck. Great vibrations

https://guitarsforidiots.com/2019/10/02/under-appreciated-guitars-the-squier-vista-series-jagmaster-according-to-mckinley-kitts-of-flor/

I had a 62 reissue. Cool looking guitar but I ended up not liking it and sold it a few years later. That one did hold its value though. I guess I am pretty much a Strat guy for my surf tremolo guitar action.

Jazzmasters are funky instruments and definitely not something that is ready to go out of the box. The vintage style bridge and it's location can be a bit tricky. I'd definitely file it next to the Firebird banjo tuners, a Bigsby and any guitar with a Floyd for stuff you got to figure out how to deal with if you want to play one on a regular basis.

Fender seems to have sold a boodle of the Squire J Mascis models and people seem to like them.

couple of honeys hanging at my place
https://i.imgur.com/d2ZKdIj.jpg

That red matching headstock looks sharp.

Cheers. I was never a Candy Apple Red fan but that one is 35 years old and has darkened up nicely.

Roy Clark is the best...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT2PTetKMU8