A Jazzmaster for Jazz.

[solfege]

This is great.

One thing I'll say though, if you're at all curious re: Jazzmaster pickups, the ones in the CV are not reflective of the breed. A proper JM neck pickup is a glorious thing, though maybe a bit too bright for your application. There's also lots of folks who could wind you one with an A3 or A2 magnet (I have the latter and it is smooth and sweet sounding).

Also, you might want to look into some of Bill Lawrence's designs if you're thinking about noiseless options (the wildepickups.com ones made by his wife and daughter).

[seenoevil II]

Welcome. It's fascinating to have a real, live, jazz person in our midst. Obviously, the "jazz" master has never spent too much time working in its intended realm. I must admit, it's a little jarring to see so much of what we lot love so much about the ol' JM tossed out off the bat to make it a proper jazz git.

I'll mention the obligatory factoid that the original rhythm circuit had a much woodier, darker sound than what you'll find on a VM guitar. I wonder what you'd if you did the also obligatory neck geometry corrections that are all but mandatory to get any kind of tight string tension. You really have to think of a JM as an arch top in terms of string travel. Shim that neck to get the proper break angle, then jack that bridge sky high. I will admit that running any kind of line on a limp noodle JM bridge sounds utterly miserable. They just don't lend themselves to the rapid string jumping sweeps of complex melodic/arpeggiated lines. Though, I'm curious what you make of the 25.5" scale for jazz.

I won't pretend to know anything about jazz. I like what I like. Mostly Teo, Dolphy, Mingus, Evans. Anything really "crunchy." I like messing around with crazy voicings and I have an affection for the notion of "cinema verite" in regards to recording and performing aesthetics. That is, I love when what you hear is what the musician did or does, and not an agglomeration of pedals and amps and etc (sorry, literally everyone here). I'm known as the "weird chord guy" locally, but amongst you lot, I'm sure I'm at best an "outsider artist" or perhaps an "idiot savant" (emphasis on idiot).

I know it would be an investment for an unknown outcome, but I wonder what you'd make of a vintage spec'd JM with a wound G set of 12's and a proper shim. Squier VM's are in the ball park, but you really can't take them as the standard barer for the form or function of an "actual" jazz master.

Lastly, I'll make a personal recommendation. I recently installed a set of Seymour Duncan staple P90's in my Guild jazz box. I love them precisely because they're a darker, more authoritative take on the the rod mag, wide bobbin jazz master sound. They have that same untamed edge of the jazz master pick up, but situated within a much more firm mid range and more broadly powerful output. They do them in a few p 90 configurations that I'm sure you could bodge into a JM somehow.

Anyway. once again, welcome.

[mcbrandt]

In my head I’m an amateur jazz guitarist, but really that just means I play mostly major and minor 7th chords. I don’t really know any standards. But I get just as good of a jazz tone from my jazzmaster than any other guitar I’ve had. I couldn’t do without the tremolo though.