dissapointed, selling off my jazzmaster... :|

[sunburst80]

The CIJs dont need a neck shim, their angle is already higher than the AVRIs and vintage JMs. Sounds like a dead piece of wood, that just happens sometimes. Had a CIJ CAR Red JM that sounded very dead and i sold it, however the buyer was happy with it.
I also had a CIJ sunburst 3-4 years ago which was very light and the loudest unamped JM i ever played, too bad i sold it 

PS: My AVRI with lower string tension and low bridge height (i only use a thin neck shim) has more sustain and sounds a bit louder than my CIJ with higher tension (as said above, no shim at all but still higher bridge than my AVRI).

[pullover]

How is the TOM Bridge put in? If someone wrapped the entire legs of it in electrical tape, it might actually be decreasing sustain. You want to make sure you have metal to metal contact on the bottom of the bridge. Electrical tape around it will decrease buzzing, but you want to use just a thin piece of tape, not layers that will absorb vibration. Also, if the guitar sounds thin and tinny plugged in, have you tried raising the pickups?
My Jazzmaster has a TOM and almost as much sustain as my telecaster. If you don't know what strings you have on it, if they are the ones that came on it, they might be dead. Try a string change, and raise the pups.

[spacecadet]

The CIJs dont need a neck shim, their angle is already higher than the AVRIs and vintage JMs. Sounds like a dead piece of wood, that just happens sometimes. Had a CIJ CAR Red JM that sounded very dead and i sold it, however the buyer was happy with it.
I also had a CIJ sunburst 3-4 years ago which was very light and the loudest unamped JM i ever played, too bad i sold it 

Wow, I had no idea there could really be a difference in this.  I feel lucky now, my CIJ's almost as loud acoustically as my old Gibson J-60 acoustic that I sold a while back.  I actually play it acoustically more often than not; unless I want distortion, there's no need to amplify it when just playing in the house.

I don't know if I'd bother trying to salvage a "dead" sounding guitar.  I am one of those guys that thinks you can tell how good an electric guitar is by how good it sounds unamped.  Pickups can always be changed, and there's a wide variety of pickups available for the JM depending on what sound you want - or just get some custom-wound ones.  But the body is what it is; if you need to change the body, you may as well just buy a new guitar.  At least if you're dealing with a CIJ.

I'd sell that thing, personally.

[greenlander]

I agree with getting rid of it if you're unhappy. A dud guitar will always be a dud, no matter what alterations you make. You can't polish a turd. Changing pickups won't make a bad sounding guitar sound good, just differently bad. There are thousands of other Jazzmasters out there so IMO it's not worth struggling with one you don't like.

[idiotbear]

I'm sure a set of Duncans or Novaks would improve matters no end. The CIJ pups are generally pretty ill-thought-of around here. Personally I would also put the original bridge back in and get the guitar set up by a tech who knows and loves these instruments. If an offset is properly set up, you need nothing but the stock parts (except for electronics in the case of the Japanese guitars). I think there's a lot of defeatism re. offsets, because they're kind of different from most guitars. The bog-standard tech can't set one up properly for shit, which is why so many people complain about the bridge.

If you want the JM sound, you should play an instrument as close to the "real thing" as possible, IMHO. If getting it close to "classic" JM spec doesn't help, I think you're looking at a dud plank of wood. It does happen.

[pullover]

Dead wood on these guitars are pretty rare, there are a lot of quality assurance checks before it gets out of the factory. Getting rid of a guitar because it's not set up right, even though the neck and body feel good seems dumb to me. If you haven't exhausted all options like a proper set up with new strings, and finally new pickups, then calling it a lemon and selling it off seems wrong. It's possible that it could be a dead guitar (though unlikely), it's also possible that someone didn't know how to set up the trem has the spring too loose, or the strings are really old, or the pickups are too low, or the break angle of the strings is too low...

[1946dodge]

A Jazzmaster and a Jaguar often will sound dull if they aren't properly amplified. I find that both should have a little overdrive added and it makes a huge difference.
Also, the strings may be crap too. My strat sounds really shitty with old strings and when I change them it comes alive.
Perhaps you would be better with 10's rather than 11's. I have seen slightly lighter guage strings sound great on a guitar and only a little heavier sound lousy, as hard as it is to believe.
You may want to try a little compression before the overdrive too.

At one time I wasnt really excited about my JM and it is a vintage 64. I kept playing it and fiddlled with different string guages - once I had 13's on it and it didnt sound too good. I have 10's on it now and I love the sound.

Heavier strings do not always give better sustain.

Flatwounds I tried too, and the wound strings used to thud.

Try a few guages.

also, the pickups may be sucky. The soapbars on my PRS SE SoapbarII sound wonderful. Maybe you could put soapbars on yours - good ones.

[jeremy]

thanks for all the suggestions guys, it has given me much to think about and more possibilities to try before I get rid of it. I'm definitely of the school of thought that an electric should first and foremost sound great unamplified, so I will try some different string combos, shim the neck, tinker with the action, put the original bridge back in etc. hopefully I can get it sounding nice because I've really fallen in love with the look and feel of it - will keep you posted

[Surfoverb]

I must be crazy because Id much rather have a guitar that sounds good amped up. Ive had crappy sounding guitars unplugged that were balls-out beefy plugged in.(gibson sg) I just think it a spurious correlation that states bad unplugged guitar=bad plugged in guitar.

[thewizardofaz]

Try raising the pickups up under the strings. They may be too low..or too high. Experiment. If you're going to go the pickup route, I strongly suggest Lollars. They're amazingly good.

[ohm-men]

Really, ditch those weeny thin sounding tock pups. I mean every, but really every PU I tried in my CIJ and MIJ Jazzmasters where a HUGE improvement.
I mean the sound got really superb after the PU switch. I'm not a SD fan, but even the "vintage for Jazzmaster" are really good. Hot, QP and ofcourse the Antiquity I or II's.
Novak's are probably the best around and I heard good things about Lollar as well.

I mean you can try all with the stock pu's (I did, other pots, different pot values, other cap's, changed the trem to AVRI  etc....etc...still not a particulary good sounding guitar, even when shielded propperly)
I now even use a non shielded guitar with a set of Seymour Duncan Antuiquity II's in it, makes my Tele sound tiny....(and it has a QP in the bridge....)

And I really like the AVRI pups for Jazzmaster. I recently scoured a set that came from a '99 AVRI JM and I couldn't be happier....

Although I must admit if the guitar sounds "dead" when played accoustic, then the pup change will only improve it marginaly.

[matthew]

When I got my JM, I changed the pickups to AVRIs almost as soon as I got it - this helped, but it didn't quite have the tone I expected - sustain a bit lacking, but mostly "just not quite right" (that is the technical term).

I took some time to get used to the guitar, but after a few months it still didn't feel right. One day on a whim, I tried adding a small shim just to see what difference it made. Astoundingly, it made all the difference. It was only a subtle change, but now it has that 'something' that it was missing before.