Has anyone tried one of the the new classic player jags or jazzmasters? They have a little hotter pickups and a tune o matic bridge. Ive been looking for a nice dedicated surf guitar and i think this might be the answer my tele has no bigsby and my 5120 is a little tough to play surf on. So far ive been looking at a dyna pro jet(a bit too expansive),a corvette(pickups probably not suited for surf) and then one of these new jags or jazzmasters.
Classic player Jazzmaster
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Oct 23, 2008 12:19 p.m. TwangOmatic:
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Oct 23, 2008 12:30 p.m. cat mensch:
I have tried both. I thought the Jazzmaster was an excellent sounding guitar -- bright, twangy for miles, yet woody and full through a reissue Fender DR. I was able to get a nice jazz sound as well. I wasn't crazy about the setup on the one I tried, and the need to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod would be a pain for me. Seemed a nice deal for a quality instrument.
Didn't dig the Jag as much, the short scale lost something timbrally, but I think those just aren't my cup of tea anyway.
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Oct 23, 2008 1:48 p.m. bonedaddy:
I've got one of the MIM Jags; I think that's the classic player model. I absolutely love the guitar. I a/b'd it with the reissue models, and liked it better. But then again, I'm not a purist, so for me it was sound, tone and utility that won out over 'authenticity', per se.
Through my DRRI, it sounds great. I also like it through my Swart STR.
I really like the vibrato arms on them too; like a cross between a bigsby and a strat vibrato.
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Oct 23, 2008 1:55 p.m. dignan:
Any idea what breed of pickups they come with? Specifically, I wonder if the Jazzmaster has US-style pups, or the gimped CIJ types.
edit: Wondering if the coils are wide n' flat or tall n' skinny...
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Oct 23, 2008 1:58 p.m. bonedaddy:
That's a good question Dignan. The pickups on the player series seem to be pretty hot. But they work well. Probably closer to the Seymour Duncan replacement pickups.
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Oct 23, 2008 5:40 p.m. TwangOmatic:
I love the vibrato arm too i was really surprised when i played one of the vintage reissue jags since i thought i hated all vibrato's other than the bigsby.
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Oct 24, 2008 8:40 a.m. superbadj:
Dignan, from what I've read, they're closer now in construction/tone to a P90 than classic Jazzmaster pickups.....taller and skinner in the winding than the classic flat, wide jazzmaster pup.
I'm really not sure why they'd change the pickup style, but my guess is that it still sounds pretty good...just hotter, and... different.
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Oct 24, 2008 3:15 p.m. seadevil:
The Jazzmasters are excellent guitars. I played one and thoroughly enjoyed it. I wonder how heavy you can go on the strings, though. The Japanese ones didn't seem capable of handing any gauge higher than 11's.
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Oct 24, 2008 4:29 p.m. dignan:
Seadevil, what do you mean? Something to do with the neck/bridge/tailpiece? I've got flat 12s on mine.
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Oct 24, 2008 6:50 p.m. TwangOmatic:
That's a good question seadevil i definitely plan on using the heaviest flats i can handle but since its a longer scale i probably can't handle any more than 11's anyway.
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Oct 24, 2008 7:47 p.m. seadevil:
A friend told me that either the openings for the strings in the tailpiece were too small or that the trem spring wasn't strong enough for heavier strings - I forget which. If that's not the case, I'm glad to hear it. He may just have been ignorant about how to adjust the tremolo.
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Oct 24, 2008 8:30 p.m. dignan:
The CIJ spring is stiffer than the US, that's true.
