The Jazz Master

[ragamuffin]

Jazzmasters are quirky and definitely not for everyone. Personally I find the shape very comfortable and attractive. I think a lot of people probably like the shape more than the classic feature set.

The classic/vintage JM pickups are pretty cool, some of the new JMs have pickups with screw polepieces that just sound like bad p90s. The vintage style pickups have a great clean tone and play nicely with fuzz pedals.

I really like the feel of the JM trem system, for me it (feels) like the perfect middle ground between the very reactive strat type trem and the subtle/sluggish bigsby. As for practicality... idk, I've never used one extensively. I hear a lot of people say they like the won't stay in tune, but also plenty of JM junkies who say they're fine if set up correctly with some heavy strings.

 

[stratamania]

I am not keen on the shape or the electronics.

Rgands and Frown's JMs I do like for some reason as I mentioned earlier.

 

[Logrinn]

I didn’t use to be a fan of the shape either, but that was before I actually played one. Now my Jaguar (basically the same shape as a JM but with a short scale neck and different pickups) is my favorite guitar. It’s definitely the most comfortable guitar playing either sitting or standing. I’m going to order two more Jaguars for my next Warmoth’s.

Oh, and speaking of Jazzmaster and sounds - all the spaghetti western guitar parts are Jazzmasters. ”The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and so on.

 

[1960es]

Rick,

I mis-typed! I meant my second one was a Jazzcaster....not jazzmaster. Silly me.

Eddie

 

[Rick]

@60's.  What I'm building now is really more of stratomaster with a little breadwinner and SG thrown in ... so yeah, still would love to see some pics.

 

[Samhain]

Being the rebel I am, I love a JM design, but hate eveything else about them. 
So, mines Mahogany body, back route, TOM bridge, HH (dominion/36 anniversary)
Light oil finish. 
It’s beautiful and sounds fantastic.

 

[frown]

I think with traditional appointments they can look too busy. This coming from a minimalist fan, so excuse the bias...

Even Suhr have done a nice clean JM, as seen in their Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SuhrCustom/status/1145467114481946626/photo/1

I'm not a fan of the larger headstock that the genuine Fender models sport - hence a Warmoth build with a Warhead.

I'd love to see some more personal takes on a build, based on this offset model.

[ reference pics of mine at: https://imgur.com/gallery/qiWHn ]

 

[Rick]

Indeed.  Pics or they don't exist.

 

[bagman67]

I think with traditional appointments they can look too busy. This coming from a minimalist fan, so excuse the bias...

Even Suhr have done a nice clean JM, as seen in their Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SuhrCustom/status/1145467114481946626/photo/1

I'm not a fan of the larger headstock that the genuine Fender models sport - hence a Warmoth build with a Warhead.

I'd love to see some more personal takes on a build, based on this offset model.

[ reference pics of mine at: https://imgur.com/gallery/qiWHn ]

Frown, for my money you have the ultimate minimalist Jazzmaster implementation.  I get a happy frisson every time I see a photo of it.

 

[spe111]

What makes a Jazzmaster a Jazzmaster? Is it only the shape?

 

[Cagey]

Since you can make a guitar sound many different ways, and they all sound different even when made the same, the model name is its basic identifier. These days you do have to ask when somebody says [this model] because it doesn't really mean much on its own beyond body shape. Strat? What kind of Strat? Tele? What kind of Tele? All the name really describes is its shape and feel. I have two JMs and am working on a third, and they're so far from what you'd expect a JM to sound/behave like there's no comparison.  Frown's has replaced so many of the JM's crappy "features" that it doesn't even have a vibrato.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Not for nothing, but the fact that you don’t have a use for those features doesn’t necessarily make them crap. The great thing about this hobby/craft is that we all get to build things to our own preferences and share them. If we started declaring everything that was done differently than we’d do it as crap, then I think this community wouldn’t be as awesome as it is.

 

[Cagey]

You're right, of course. I get too worked up about that guitar sometimes.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I get it, me too, just for exactly the opposite reasons, haha!  :tard:

 

[Cagey]

I know a guy who's anti-Fender to the point of being irrational, regardless of model, like he was severely and painfully tortured with them as an child or something. Naturally, Gibson products are God's gift to the music world, no matter how dysfunctional. Whaddaya gonna do?

 

[TheGreatRedDragon]

What makes a Jazzmaster a Jazzmaster? Is it only the shape?

In the strictly technical sense, it's the shape. In the spiritual sense it's beyond that.

Technically, these two guitars are both Strats:

But one is what you would expect from the word "Strat," while the other is very much its own thing.

The Jazzmaster may be the guitar with the greatest muddlement of this idea, because it was a failure at what it was designed for and it has been adopted, after the fact, by a completely different subset of musicians who frequently modified vintage instruments to fit their very un-Jazzy tastes. Unlike a Strat, where the traditional configuration is by far the most popular, with Jazzmasters it's very common to see the rhythm circuit removed, the pickups replaced with humbuckers, and the trem blocked. Stripped down, hot rodded up, punked out is more or less the "default" Jazzmaster, although there are of course many fans of the classic setup (like me!).

 

[stratamania]

Unlike a Strat, where the traditional configuration is by far the most popular, with Jazzmasters it's very common to see the rhythm circuit removed, the pickups replaced with humbuckers, and the trem blocked. Stripped down, hot rodded up, punked out is more or less the "default" Jazzmaster, although there are of course many fans of the classic setup (like me!).

There are loads of modded Strat's around.

There are even ones with the pickups replaced with humbuckers, and the trem blocked. Stripped down, hot rodded up, punked out, sporting Floyd Roses, masquerading as Charvels etc.

 

[amigarobbo]

Technically, these two guitars are both Strats:

Sorry, it was quicker to fix your post than copy and past those address into a new browser window.

 

[TheGreatRedDragon]

Unlike a Strat, where the traditional configuration is by far the most popular, with Jazzmasters it's very common to see the rhythm circuit removed, the pickups replaced with humbuckers, and the trem blocked. Stripped down, hot rodded up, punked out is more or less the "default" Jazzmaster, although there are of course many fans of the classic setup (like me!).

There are loads of modded Strat's around.

There are even ones with the pickups replaced with humbuckers, and the trem blocked. Stripped down, hot rodded up, punked out, sporting Floyd Roses, masquerading as Charvels etc.

Oh yeah definitely. But I don't believe (and this is pure speculation/anecdotal) that they outnumber the traditional Strat, and haven't overtaken it culturally.

 

[stratamania]

Unlike a Strat, where the traditional configuration is by far the most popular, with Jazzmasters it's very common to see the rhythm circuit removed, the pickups replaced with humbuckers, and the trem blocked. Stripped down, hot rodded up, punked out is more or less the "default" Jazzmaster, although there are of course many fans of the classic setup (like me!).

There are loads of modded Strat's around.

There are even ones with the pickups replaced with humbuckers, and the trem blocked. Stripped down, hot rodded up, punked out, sporting Floyd Roses, masquerading as Charvels etc.

Oh yeah definitely. But I don't believe (and this is pure speculation/anecdotal) that they outnumber the traditional Strat, and haven't overtaken it culturally.

They did so in the 80s with Superstrats, lots of them, Valley Arts, Jacksons, Charvels, Ibanez, Hamer, Washburn, Pensa Suhr, modded Fenders, The Strat by Fender and so on. Also Schecters but a little closer to a Strat than a Superstrat. This vintage thing and relics etc is a fairly recent phenomenon.

At the time about the only people playing Jazzmasters were people like Johnny Marr.