Jag or JM: how did you choose your first one?

[adrian]

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I apologize if such a topic has already been made.
I am curious to know which was your very first Fender offset that you owned, and why did you choose one over the other - was it the price, the look, the different sound (I started playing again after a while and I realized that I can’t tell the differences in sound between Jag’s and Jazzmasters, Father forgive me for I have sinned ), the switch controls or lackthere of?

Looking forward to read your stories!

[adamrobertt]

For me, Jazzmasters are the most beautiful guitars ever designed. Jags are cool too, but I go back and forth between hating all the chrome and liking it. Also the Jazzy's slightly softer curves look nicer IMO.

Also, I went for a JM because I like the full scale, the switching, and the pickups better. I have owned Jags and liked them, but if I had to choose one and never again have the other, it'd be a Jazzmaster.

[Ceylon]

I started out with the Jazzmaster because that's what all my idols at the time were playing. Sonic Youth predominantly, but also J Mascis, My Bloody Valentine, Robert Smith, Thom Yorke, Tom Verlaine, you'd see them on stage with Nine Inch Nails, them and a bunch more. You weren't exactly spoiled for offset choices back where I live in 2010 though so I'd probably have sprung for a Jaguar as well if that had shown up first.

Then I sort of gravitated towards the Jaguar later on, because despite my big hands and my occasional tuning down to a C, I really enjoy the shorter scale, and I love the looks, and I like switchy switches. The VM series was great in how it made a still quite rare guitar easily available and cheap enough for someone just wanting to try one out.

I think I will always have at least one of both now. I'd probably still have gotten a Jazzmaster eventually even if I'd started out on the Jaguar.

[Singlebladepickup]

Always loved the look of the Jag with all the chrome and switches, and bought a jag when I fell out of love with humbuckers. Only have a parts JM and a Jaguar bass now, neither have chrome

[Jaguar018]

Originally chose Jazzmaster because I thought they looked cooler with the big pickup covers. A couple of years later I got a Jaguar because it was in my favorite color at the time: Sherwood Green. Eventually the Jaguar became 'my sound' but all of my decisions were strictly based off aesthetics.

[I knew I preferred single coil guitars after a bad experience with a humbucker guitar I bought in college based on looks: a Gibson Explorer]

[marqueemoon]

When I started looking I was mainly a Tele player, and the 25 1/2” scale of a JM felt most natural to me.

Tone-wise I just prefer a JM, especially now that I’ve gotten very sparing in my use of effects.

[dc]

sorry about duplicate posts, not sure what happened there

[dc]

sorry about duplicate posts, not sure what happened there

[dc]

I started out with the Jazzmaster because that's what all my idols at the time were playing.

given offsets' ubiquity today, it's weird to look back on how *not* a thing they were 20 years ago. obviously the pre-vintage-market (read: cheap) JMs and Jags had been adopted by a subset of 70s-90s alt-rockers many of us dig and were all over records we owned, but you kind of needed an elevated level of awareness even to know that. i'd trace broader (or at least my own) awareness to Fender's introduction of the AVRI line around 1998-99 or so, when ads started to appear in the guitar magazines showing the line in OTM, i think a vintage white and whatever the other first run of colors were. i distinctly recall one of the mags did a big article on them and extolled their virtues -- wish i'd kept that issue!

around that same time i saw Luna and Sean Eden was playing a sunburst JM, so i bought ... a sunburst JM. i suppose we're all kind of impressionable that way, at least on some level

[algeriet]

I got hugely into Dinosaur Jr and the Smiths and wasn't whatsoever vintage-spec oriented at all around that time. Just wanted a sweet offset. The Johnny Marr Jaguar appealed to me, but was out of my price range at the time so I got ahold of a Lacquer 60's (the Fiesta Red ones) and upgraded it with a Staytrem back when you could still get one ordered abroad without any issues. This was around 2016.

That guitar was really good actually, my friend even went so far and claimed it was an anomaly from the Mexico plant. I remember rounding the fretboard ends with a screwdriver (the rounded part) and also played a gig in Malmö with it at this venue called Grand, until finally one day realizing that I wanted to put my capo on the seventh fret to play Dinosaur Jr without feeling cramped. Sold it and some other guitar stuff and got my AV65 in three tone sunburst. Placed the Staytrem on that one. Finally when the Lake Placid Blue Johnny Marr model was released I got one (I believe mine was the second to arrive in Europe, and a Instagram buddy of mine in the UK getting the first one) . Really enjoyed the Marr, but decided to move to Berlin and got rid of non-essentials and that one had to go. I'm on my second JM now (still got the AV65), and I don't think I'll be getting a Jaguar anytime soon. 25.5" for me henceforth methinks.

[Larsongs]

I got a Jazzmaster first because IMO it's a more versatile Guitar..

I got an AV65 JM first. Then an AV65 Jag & later a JMJM...

[marqueemoon]

around that same time i saw Luna and Sean Eden was playing a sunburst JM

One of my favorites as well. He gets a huge range of sounds out of a JM.

[Larry Mal]

All I knew about them was a black and white picture in Ralph Denyer's book:



So when I saw one, I was surprised. I had thought that they were pretty much obsolete, you never heard of them or anything. I didn't expect to ever see one, I had never heard of a guitar player who used one, and the guitar store employee seemed to hold it in low regard (this was the store that later became the high end Eddie's Guitars here in Saint Louis).

I picked it up and played it, ten minutes later I had put it on layaway. I had found what I didn't even know I was looking for. I sold all my other guitars very shortly thereafter. This was in 1993 or something, I still have it.

[tune_link]

I got a JM first only because that's what was available to me. Although I'm sure there are lots of options for guitars if you go to Nashville, the rest of TN...primarily in Knoxville and Chattanooga back in the early 00s were not places where you could easily find offsets. I had only had a Strat and an SG (neither of which I still own) at the time. The range of sounds I was able to get out of the JM made it my go to guitar from back then until now. I love Jaguars and will always try to keep at least one of them around. I have four Jazzmasters now of varying quality so I guess it's probably pretty clear that's the one I prefer if I have to choose. I'm just now opening myself back up to the possibility of getting another Strat or a Tele or something.

[adamrobertt]

All I knew about them was a black and white picture in Ralph Denyer's book:



So when I saw one, I was surprised. I had thought that they were pretty much obsolete, you never heard of them or anything. I didn't expect to ever see one, I had never heard of a guitar player who used one, and the guitar store employee seemed to hold it in low regard (this was the store that later became the high end Eddie's Guitars here in Saint Louis).

I picked it up and played it, ten minutes later I had put it on layaway. I had found what I didn't even know I was looking for. I sold all my other guitars very shortly thereafter. This was in 1993 or something, I still have it.

Aren't a lot of his dates off? Jazzmaster came out in '59, not '57... Jaguar came out in '62 not '61, the Mustang came out in '64 not '66... the Starcaster came out in '76, not '75...