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 Stratocaster scale is 25.5" from saddle to nut. This is only about 4% difference in scale. All Gibson guitars, Les Pauls etc, are 24.75". That's only a quarter of an inch difference between the Jaguar and the Les Paul. Far too often is the Jaguar referred to (and dismissed) as a "short scale" guitar. When in fact it is more of a medium scale. And as has been mentioned, not dissimilar to the standard Gibson scale. There are also smaller scales than 24" used for guitars as well. For example, the 22.5" scale necks used on 'student' Mustangs, Musicmasters and Duo-Sonics etc.

The fretboard radius is curved to 7.25" on a Jaguar, the same as alot of other Fender guitars. Some people complain about "choking off" on these radius. A problem which can always be solved by raising the action by a very small amount. If people are insistent on having the action so low, in combination with bending 8's two whole notes, then nothing can stop choking off on a 7.25" radius. A Japanese Jaguar special has a 9.5" radius fretboard.

Sonic Youth signature Jazzmasters: http://fender.com/sonicyouth/

The Thurston model looks kinda cool actually.

i'd quite like the lee ranaldo one!

My Jazzmaster is in my mom's closet in America and I miss it so much.

as a committed wide-range humbucker fan, the lee guitar looks amazing.

I guess what I really want is the Lee model with the green finish of the Thurston one.

Honestly though, shouldn't the signature models be just a box of Jazzmaster parts to build your own config?

Anybody know what they mean by "newly revoiced and improved Fender wide range humbuckers"? Did they actually use cunife magnets this time around? Curious bout what's actually under the hood.

probably overwound like every other bastardized fender pickup of the last 10 years :(

What y'all think of this jazz/jag bridge: http://www.masterybridge.com/home.html

My thoughts:
1) $HMMM.00
2) Posts are set or whatever and it doesn't swivel. They say it stays in tune w all kinds of divebombing: but how??
3) Otherwise, want.

Offset guitars website have many users of the mastery bridge. Most are totally positive about it, but there are a few reports that you MAY still need to use tape/glue etc to stop unwanted movement. I haven't seen or used one, but it seems a pretty expensive solution to me. I don't believe you can divebomb with it - i've certainly not read any reports that the range of operation is any greater than with any other jag or jazz trem/bridge combination.

I've just changed the bridge on my Jag to a Mustang bridge with tape-wrapped posts, and it's 100% stable. I think you may lose a little bit of trem range by locking the posts compared to a properly set up, fully floating system (I have my Jazzmaster with stock bridge for comparison), but I was having so many rattling and tuning problems with the stock bridge that I decided to switch.

Dude does some divebombing in a video on the website, actually.

Hmm - I'll have to look at that.

dude in one of my bands sprung for one of those mastery bridges, it's pretty sweet

Bumping to vent how much I hate setting up my Jazzmaster. I hope GZeus doesn't yell at me cuz I shimmed it with match sticks.

WTF

WAI?

(ahem: What about it?)

They look like the bullets from the "tooth gun" in eXistenZ.

I can see that they'd make a difference to a fixed bridge instrument, but on a Jazzmaster with so many other things affecting tone?

ahem: What about it?

Oh nothin really, just WTFing because I have an abundance of time, and basically what snoball said. Like it'd probably be way more effective to develop some G&L style saddle lock thing or something, or something to directly increase string>body transference, etc... Also LOL @ "man made ivory" angle for yr weird plastic parts.

I have decided that I need one of these things more than I need financial security

I guess sooner or later [...] this happens to everyone?

Are the Mexican Classic Player ones regarded as a pretty good bet with these (JM or Jag, haven't played them recently to work out which one I like best)? There don't seem to be so many Japanese reissue ones readily available anymore as per Dr C's annoyingly shrewd investment upthread. I'm not so interested in the affordable blacktop ones because they come in shit colours. Yeah.

The CP ones are like c£700 in the UK and $800 in the US; are US dealers allowed to ship these things to Europe? Does anybody know any good websites that do? Alternately, is trying to import from Fender Japan worthwhile?

The Classic players are variable. I have played a few, mainly Jags - one was a great sounding guitar but a couple were virtually unplayable because of bad set-ups and/or badly cut nuts. That can obv be fixed though. The CP Jazzmasters seem to have a good reputation - the one I played was a nice guitar.

I ended up buying a CP Jag HH, which I got for £375 + a fuzz face in part-exchange. I wasn't really looking for one, but it was an unbeatable deal. It too, had a badly cut nut and took a lot of work to get stable. I still haven't gigged it as I'm not 100% confident in the tuning stability. I might replace the tune-o-matic type bridge with a roller bridge, which seems to be a popular mod.

What you have to know is that the pickups on the classic player series are hotter than the CIJ or AVRI Jags and JMs. My Jag never really sounds clean but it certainly growls with crunch or fuzz. The coil split really works well, with loads of tones available. Full single coil is quite Jag-like, although a bit chunkier. You can't quite get the classic Jaguar tones with them.

There are now the MIM Blacktops, which seem to have had good reviews, but I think they look hideous and are very far from the orginal designs. There are Squiers on the way too, but I wouldn't touch them. My advice would be to look out for a 2nd hand CIJ, or if you can afford the extra, then try to get one from Ishibashi in Japan. I've heard good reports about their customer service and you'd have access to all kinds of custom colours that we don't often see in the UK. Or, if the hotter pickups don't bother you, then try some Classic Players, but watch for quality problems.

Hunt down a j. Mascis unless the sparkle purple or tunamatic is a dealbreaker.

Those things look pretty cool but I already got a sparkly signature model type guitar and I think I want something a bit more traditional/non-affiliated.

Thanks a lot for all that Dr C, I was starting to lean towards CIJ so that kind of confirms it for me. Ishibashi seems to have become a bit more of an expensive proposition these days so I might just keep an eye out for cheap second hand ones here and bite the bullet on importing later in the year if nothing turns up.

I was winning a Japanese white Jazzmaster for £500 on Ebay with 30 seconds to go and then two people piled in while I was elsewhere and it vanished for £627; I could have Bought It Now for £625. This is the end of the world.

Don't worry, they do come up quite often. Other ideas:

1) Call Pete Cooks. They are not listing any CIJs on their website, but may still have some left, or be able to get some.
2) Andertons have a CIJ 66 reissue (blocks and binding) model on their website. It's £700 though, but they do normally negotiate. I got a great deal on an AC30 there.
3) Macaris still has one or two quite recently.
4) Regent Sounds - I think they can still get them and may have one or two left. I work quite near Denmark Street and could look if you like.

Absurdly, the punchline to that Ebay situation was that the winning mystery bid was actually some spectacular counter-gazumping by my own girlfriend to fend off the late interloper. Hopefully she will let me play it.

The possibility of getting a good deal on an AC30 certainly still appeals though, once I've got out of the poorhouse.

Oh cool - didn't you realise at the time? So you have the guitar then? If so that's great news - I think you'll love it. Mine is my absolute number one guitar, I alternate between it and my CIJ Jag for gigging - they're both great guitars but the Jazzmaster is the one I couldn't live without. It's absolutely stock apart from a Mustang bridge - a lot of players claim that the stock CIJ pickups are no good, but I'd violently disagree with that. It's true that they're not the same as the vintage or AVRI pickups, as they are narrower and more Strat-like, but they sound fantastic to me.

Yeah, it was a private auction so all I could see was that I'd been outbid by two other people in the last minute while I was working late. Wifey put up with about an hour and a half of my psychopathic brooding before coming clean, concerned that I might sell a kidney to import one from Japan before she could spring the surprise.

I haven't actually collected it yet so I don't know how well it's been looked after, but I'm glad to hear you're happy with yours in its original state, cos after springing money I don't have to get it I'm a bit too cleaned out to be thinking about AVRI pickups or buzzstops at this point.

Yeah I'm playing this thing with old strings and the stock Japanese pickups through a shitty, beat up Roland Cube-60 and it still sounds pretty great to me

Fender Japan is making all the cool stuff right now. I really like the look of this Jazzmaster HO hollowbody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyFI21QFe4Q

That Jazzmaster hollow-body kind of looks reminicent to a a Reverend Flatroc with that double binding.

It looks cool though.

Ocasek's pink Jazzmaster on the beginning of "My Best Friend's Girl" is the ur-sound of all Jazzmasters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKuAPXd-M7U

That's a cool clip. Sounds good and right up on the band. You can see that Ric has the Jazzmaster in the middle position and that Elliot is flipping back and forth between the neck and bridge pickup on the Tele.