JM build

[JTC111]

This will get put together sometime next week. 
Chambered JM swamp ash body.
Canary/ebony strat neck with 1.75 nut, which I finished with 3 coats of Tung oil.
For the pickups, I'm going with the Klein 1965 Epic Series.  Mailman should be showing up with those by the end of the week.

 

[Great Ape]

NICE!! A classic beauty!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Nice choices, looking forward to seeing her come together!

 

[zebra]

BRY Burst is a long-term favorite of mine - it just seems like what a guitar ought to be.  :icon_thumright:

 

[JTC111]

This guitar is a lot of "firsts" for me.  My first Jazzmaster.  My first sunburst (I own 25 other guitars, none are bursts).  My first black pickguard.  My first Canary neck.  And it's the first time I've finished a neck myself.

 

[MattF]

Very nice! Looking forward to seeing it finished! Welcome to the first time JM club. I rarely play my other guitars now...

 

[Cagey]

Nice! You're gonna love it. Very comfy guitars to play. The vibrato will drive you nuts, but you don't have to use it. You can tighten things up to where it's essentially a hardtail.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

The vibrato will drive you nuts, but you don't have to use it. You can tighten things up to where it's essentially a hardtail.

I'll be the voice of the opposing viewpoint, I love the Jazzmaster vibrato! It's among my favorites in fact, right there with my Bigsbys. It's perfect for the subtle warble and shimmer that I like, and the feel of the action is excellent. I've played the factory unit as well as the Mastery unit, and while the Mastery unit takes things to another level I originally fell in love with the factory version. Admittedly the broken-string-tuning-reset-latch-mechanism-thing is a bit odd and quite fiddly to set up properly; I'll say it was a well considered omission from the Mastery. Of course, these are just my opinions.

 

[Glimmer]

Well, I have no experience with other vibratos but, like Verne, love the sound and feel of the JM vibrato. I went with a Mastery unit and find it solid and smooth feeling, tuning-friendly, and a pleasure to use.

I realize it is one of the "quirks" that folks love to hate about the JM (like the pickups and rhythm circuit), but it's precisely these things that make that guitar interesting to me.

 

[MattF]

I second...err...third what Verne and Glimmer said. I love my JM vibrato. (It's a Mastery).

 

[Cagey]

There's no question that Mastery makes the best version of a Jazzmaster/Jaguar vibrato extant. I've worked with their offering as well as many of the originals, so there's no question in my mind. Still, what they've done is what's known as "turd polishing".

To their credit, they did the best they could with what they were given with the thought in mind to preserve the general appearance of that design for those who prefer their Jazzmaster/Jaguar guitars to look more or less like the original. Unfortunately, it's still a fundamentally bad design. They simply used better materials and better processes with closer tolerances to produce what's essentially the same dysfunctional device.

Of course, like the Bigsby, for some purposes it's still a viable option. If all you need is a mild vibrato, it'll work. You just have to be aware that you may need to make some on-the-fly tuning corrections every time you touch it.

 

[Re-Pete]

There's no question that Mastery makes the best version of a Jazzmaster/Jaguar vibrato extant. I've worked with their offering as well as many of the originals, so there's no question in my mind. Still, what they've done is what's known as "turd polishing".

To their credit, they did the best they could with what they were given with the thought in mind to preserve the general appearance of that design for those who prefer their Jazzmaster/Jaguar guitars to look more or less like the original. Unfortunately, it's still a fundamentally bad design. They simply used better materials and better processes with closer tolerances to produce what's essentially the same dysfunctional device.

Of course, like the Bigsby, for some purposes it's still a viable option. If all you need is a mild vibrato, it'll work. You just have to be aware that you may need to make some on-the-fly tuning corrections every time you touch it.

I'd agree with what you said there. But what some folks want is a Jazzmaster to look authentic with the vibrato efficiency of a Floyd Rose. Maybe Mastery should, for a joke, make a mounting plate in shape of the JM/Jag vibrato plate then put a FR on top!  :icon_jokercolor: :tard: :toothy12:

 

[rgand]

Very nice. Love the burst finish on it.

 

[DangerousR6]

NICE!! A classic beauty!

Indeed, and canary makes for a lovely neck... :kewlpics: