What's so great about Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Turnaround, Jan 3, 2019.

  1. segue

    segue Psychoacoustic Member

    Location:
    Hawai'i
    Kathy Marshall
    "Queen of the Surf Guitar" from Southern California

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  2. Reid Smith

    Reid Smith Forum Resident

    Location:
    N Ky/Cincinnati
    The late Chicago bluesman Magic Slim was always seen with his Jazzmaster playin the blues.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2020
    budwhite likes this.
  3. BDC

    BDC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tacoma
    You lucky dog!
    Cool I own an Emerald Blue G&L Legacy with alnico's I picked up new in 94, absolutely love the neck and haven't messed with the setup since it was done by an in store tech at the time of purchase.... Also love the pickups, and bought an extra bridge pickup I have in a box just in case. I also have a strat I built and put a alnico G&L pickup in the bridge.....I love their alnico's, either the Duncan's or G&L built ones. Their Leo designed Field Coil pickups are awesome too IMO, though I don't own any..

    I own Gibson/G&L/Rick/Charvel/Taylor and 4 killer builds, about 15 axes in total....If I could only own 1 it wold be my G&L Legacy, or some version of a Strat........Strats IMO are the greatest electric guitar ever designed, and I say that without hesitation, not even close......

    I also have a 3 year old US G&L ASAT classic.....

    The popularity of Jazzmaster/Jags/Mustangs started with Kurt Cobain who bought them because they were reasonable good guitars that could be had cheap in the late 80s and early 90s......
     
  4. samsondale

    samsondale Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tenafly, NJ, USA
    Ed Bickert is a great jazz player whose main instrument (to my knowledge) was a tele.
     
  5. samsondale

    samsondale Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tenafly, NJ, USA
    Saw this after I made the same point. One of my favorites.
     
    FashionBoy likes this.
  6. Guitarded

    Guitarded Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montana

    He was so late to the party it is kinda funny to reaad this.
     
  7. douglas mcclenaghan

    douglas mcclenaghan Forum Resident

    Yep. Late seventies...
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    linklinc and rockerreds like this.
  8. Brian Hoffman

    Brian Hoffman Obsessive fanatic extraordinaire

    Location:
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    True, but it would probably be accurate to say that he precipitated a resurgence in popularity in offsets after a slow decline.
    For me, it was this guy (Kevin Shields) that put me on a Jazzmaster quest which culminated in snagging one of the blonde MIJ models back in '94.
    [​IMG]
     
    Jet Age Eric likes this.
  9. Guitarded

    Guitarded Forum Resident

    Location:
    Montana
    Don't forget J. Mascis and J. Marr.
     
  10. ROFLnaked

    ROFLnaked Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Another one that's painful to recount from the what-was-I-thinking dept:

    In the mid/late 80s I had the good fortune of discovering a Nov '64 Jaguar at the local mom & pop music store in my small college town for $130 or $150. It was sunburst and in ragged-but-right yet all-original condition. A cool, twangy guitar for sure, but the body shape and all those rollers/switches seemed weird to me and just didn't "fit" as well as my frankenstein Telecaster--comprised of a castoff '67 Esquire Custom neck, a '64/'65 black body, and a mishmash of 50s/60s Telecaster parts--that I was playing at the time. In a dour moment while home from school on Xmas break, I gave the Jaguar to a friend from childhood who had only just started learning guitar on a trasher acoustic. A year or two later I discovered that he had lost interest...and had in turn given it away to someone else.

    I parted out the put-together Telecaster @10 years ago on the popular auction site and made a ton of $$ on it, so that equals out the Jaguar gaffe.

    Or so I try to tell myself.
     
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  11. Lownote30

    Lownote30 Bass Clef Addict

    Location:
    Nashville, TN, USA
    Actually the pickup selector works better. You can't change my mind about the dreaded Telecaster. Oddly, the best ones I've heard are the Nashville Telecasters that have a 3rd pickup. Even then, I'm happier with a Strat any day.... P.S. no need to be so snide. I know how guitars work. I can take one apart and put it back together in 30 minutes easy.
     
  12. Lownote30

    Lownote30 Bass Clef Addict

    Location:
    Nashville, TN, USA
    That's great. I still don't like 'em. They remind me of downtown Nashville. They aren't usually used for jazz.
     
  13. cporcp

    cporcp Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kentucky
    I loved the S-500.
     
  14. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    Apologies if this was posted before

     
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  15. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    Gonna bump this with a cool list: 13 great Fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster guitar player moments | MusicRadar

    I love this entry (Elvis Costello's "Watching The Detectives"):
    Costello traded in his new Telecaster for a Jazzmaster and used the guitar for his 1977 debut. Attracted to its brutish sonic character, Costello’s tremolo has a wider-than-usual travel to effect his signature sound, going so far as to inspire this song’s intense reggae-meets-spy movie sound.
     
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  16. NJ Englishman

    NJ Englishman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    While most of Led Zep I is indeed Tele, I believe that for ‘You Shook Me’ he used a Flying V.
     
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  17. ExHead

    ExHead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Elsewhere
    Nice story. I can’t imagine trading a Tele for a Jazzmaster! But maybe it was a crappy Tele
     
  18. Dr. Luther's Assistant

    Dr. Luther's Assistant dancing about architecture

    Location:
    San Francisco

    This is incorrect. Costello used what he described as a "really bad Telecaster" on the entirety of the debut album, My Aim is True. (He said that the strings rode really high above the fretboard.)

    The first released studio recording that would have him playing the Jazzmaster is Watching the Detectives -- which, while included on the US release of the debut album, was released as a stand-alone single in the UK, and was recorded five months after the My Aim is True sessions.
     
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  19. Lownote30

    Lownote30 Bass Clef Addict

    Location:
    Nashville, TN, USA
    That makes sense. It certainly sounds more like a Gibson than any Fender.
     
  20. Stone Turntable

    Stone Turntable Independent Head

    Location:
    New Mexico USA
    I stand in awe of the incomprehensible nerdery of this thread.
     
  21. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    You are right. I caught the error about the song being his "debut" right off, but still enjoyed seeing this particular song cited.

    The writer did get some basic facts right: Traded Tele for JM; Did freaky, iconic JM meltdown on early single.
     
  22. BeauZooka

    BeauZooka Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle
    Is it good or bad that I understand EVERYTHING in this thread? :agree:
    Guitar nerdery knows no bounds.
     
  23. Turnaround

    Turnaround Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    -
    OP here. I started this thread asking what is so special about the Jazzmaster (or Jaguar) that you cannot get from other guitars.

    These two YouTube videos have useful things to say about why they would use a Jazzmaster in particular over other guitars for certain sounds or purposes. (Many Youtube videos just have a guy playing stuff you could do with other guitars, and never specifically show what that guitar can do that a Strat or Tele cannot.)

    I do think the guy in the first video glosses over some very significant drawbacks of the Jazzmaster, which people do not always understand until they live with one (like I did). FYI, the guy in the first video is playing a Shelton Electric Instruments offset guitar customized for him.

    Guitar: All about Jazzmasters with Mike Adams aka Puisheen


    Aaron Sternke: BASICS: What Does a Fender Jazzmaster Sound Like? (American Vintage 1965 Jazzmaster Demo)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StvgU30-3Gg
     
  24. For me, I just love my new Jazzmaster ukulele. It sounds great, plays great, works well with my arthritc fingers, has a pickup and at least it looks like a guitar.
     
  25. Turnaround

    Turnaround Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    -
    OP here.

    Guitar tech and musician Mike Adams has a really excellent YouTube channel (under the name "Puisheen") focused on setting up and modding offset guitars like the Jazzmaster and Jaguar. The channel's review videos and "on the bench" videos also throw out a lot of information about setting up offset guitars and aftermarket parts (like pickups and bridges). It's a real treasure trove of useful information and know-how that is specific to offset guitars, whose bridge, trem system and pickups are very different from other Fender guitars. I'm not sure there is anything else like this out there.

    Youtube Channel: Puisheen



    Digging around, I also found some articles this guy has written in the past about how to set up offset guitars (some links below). He also has some excellent articles and videos for Guitar.com (including on their Youtube channel).

    DIY: How to Set up Jazzmasters & Jaguars
    Michael James Adams
    26 essential mods for Jazzmasters, Jaguars and other offset guitars
    Tech Talk: Which offset vibrato should you choose, Mastery or Descendant? | Guitar.com | All Things Guitar
    How to fix a Classic Player Jazzmaster trem-lock
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2021

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