I just picked up one of these. I’ve always wanted a Jazzmaster; I do like the physical design, and am a big fan of single coils. However every single one of them that I played I never liked, and I think that the price for an AVRI one is just too much. Some of the older CIJ ones were ok, but still I didn’t really gel with them, and for the price meh…. I hate the vintage ones, and the price for a vintage Jazzmaster is ridiculous. Basically I thought for what you were spending you weren’t getting a very well built or good sounding guitar. Many of you will disagree, that’s fine. This is only my opinion.

I came across a few forum reviews of the guitar, and they were stellar. These are reviews from some rather picky guitar buyers. Anyway someone decided to sell theirs so I figured I might as well pick it up. It came with some extra goodies as well, the price was very reasonable, and I could easily re-sell it if it was crap. These guitars are on back order for a couple of months right now. My friend at GC claims he probably won’t be able to get one untill March. Keep in mind that’s just an estimate, he may be able to get one sooner.

So here’s my review:

Neck: The satin finish is very nice. IMO this is a much needed improvement. What is the quality of the neck wood? I don’t know yet, you really have to give this some time to see how floppy it is. Right now is a good test though, the seasons are changing and the radiators are kicking on. If I have to adjust the relief on my neck quite often, then I’ll know that the maple was not high quality.

Fretwork: Ridiculously good. The fretwork on this guitar is better than almost anything from Fender I’ve seen in a long time. It is simply amazing. Honestly this craftsmanship rates right up there with Fender Master Built guitars, well made Gibsons, PRS’s, and small company luthiers.

Nut: Cut perfectly, no need to do any adjusting here.

Fret board: Looks fine, nothing stellar, but not cheap either. Looks like a good piece of rosewood. Workmanship regarding tapering and capping looks very good.

Relief: Perfect, came this way.

Neck pocket: Very good, nice and tight and no pillowing of the neck plate. IMO it looks like they made sure it fit properly and that the wood carved around was sanded perfectly.

Pickups: I can’t say anything regarding the stock pickups right now; it came with Seymor Duncans in it. However I do have the stock pickups, but haven’t put them in because I’m quite happy with the Seymor’s right now. So unfortunately N/A

Adjusto-matic Bridge: Very nice, I haven’t noticed any burs on any of the saddles, and I definitely prefer this over the other bridge on Jazzmasters. I personally think the original bridges are a piece of shit, and a Adjusto-matic was definitely a long overdue improvement, but that is just my opinion.

Tremolo: These tremolos are by nature rather noisy with the arm jiggling around in there if you want to hold on to it and do the My Bloody Valentine thing. However I do like the subtlety of these tremolo’s compared to others, it’s not a sensitive as lets say a Floyd Rose or a Strat style. It does keep in tune, and I have certainly whammied the hell out of it. I’ve dive bombed it about as much as you can dive bomb these things, and it will go back in tune without a problem. I’m not sure what’s reinforced about the arm, it seems like any other Jaguar, or Jazzmaster tremolo arm, but apparently it’s reinforced somehow. I had to do some tweaking to get the tremolo lock button to engage properly. Not a big deal at all.

Paint: I’m not a fan of the purple sparkle, however the paint job is very pro like you would expect. I could not find any sloppy work done with that. The poly urethane was nice and even as well.

Pick guard: The anodized aluminum is pretty cool, and it will affect the tone. I like the way this guitar sounds, and the sum of all of its parts plays a roll in that including the pick guard.

Switches:

Rhythm / lead switch: meh .. I don’t really dig it, but it does give more options. As long as it doesn’t fuck with the signal path that’s fine. I just don’t like it personally. Some of you may dig it, and perhaps one day I may like it. To me it sounds too muddy when it’s engaged. That could be the from the Seymor’s though.

Pickup selector: Seems fine.

Volume and Tone: Volume knob is fine, and the tone pot has a nice frequency sweep. It does seem if you tone it all the way down it can get a little muddy. We’re talking around 2 here, which is surprising because I find the tone knobs on most strats completely useless after 7. After 7, mud … Here we’ve got a nice smooth sweep with it tapering out at around 2. After that it gets a little too mushy.

Overall:

This guitar is listing for $839 bucks, and if you go to a GC or somewhere else you’re obviously going to get it for much cheaper. Even if you pay $839 for it you I think you are getting a very good guitar. I think that this is far superior to the AVRI that came out, and much better than the older CIJ’s and vintage ones for sure. The change in fret wire will make playing this guitar really easy. Bending notes is very smooth and effortless. I don’t know how many of these they produced right off the bat. From what I’m gathering from anyone who has gotten their hands on one, loves it and is quite surprised by the quality of workmanship. This is signed by J himself, and I have no idea how many he signed. But this batch seems very good, and I recommend one of these if you’re interested. The idea of having a J Mascis guitar IMO is kind of cheesy. However you shouldn’t let that stand in the way of a quality guitar which this obviously is. Also it isn’t really that obnoxious of an artist series guitar screaming “fan boyâ€

i want one. thanks for the review. ive had two mustang re-issues for a while now and ive allways wanted a jazzmaster. why not get the signature of my favorite guitarist ever? and its more affordable than any ive come across.