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thoughts on the Squier Jazzmasters


Faldoe

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Quote Originally Posted by Faldoe

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ever played a MIJ JM? comparison thoughts? The neck on my mid 90s MIJ was thin - I liked that,

 

So far, all the reports I've heard that mention the necks on the Squiers say they're on the regular to slightly chunky side... frown.gif OTOH, while the Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster's neck could be described in similar terms, I still found it quite comfortable to play.


http://www.harmonycentral.com/docs/DOC-2241

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Quote Originally Posted by Phil O'Keefe

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So far, all the reports I've heard that mention the necks on the Squiers say they're on the regular to slightly chunky side... frown.gif OTOH, while the Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster's neck could be described in similar terms, I still found it quite comfortable to play.


http://www.harmonycentral.com/docs/DOC-2241

 

hmmm eerrr. Also I'm not sure if I'm a fan of jumbo frets or not.
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The necks are definitely chunkier than an American Std neck, which makes it feel narrower to me, but I don't think it is. Could be. The frets are not quite polished up to American Std, uh, standards.

I thought the Duncan pickups were bright but the tone controls worked well and spaghetti western/spy movie sounds were happening.

As far as holding tuning, it slid off the bed onto the floor (in a gig bag) but remained in tune, and shipped from SoCal to Oregon and was in tune on arrival. The bridge did "ping" and such.

My biggest issue, I guess, is that the whammy bar has no detent. You just push it in. It hangs loose if you like, or push it in further to keep it in one place, but there are no threads or springs or clips.

Cheap geetars are a bazillion times better today than back in the day. You kids are spoiled rotten.

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Quote Originally Posted by evets618

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The necks are definitely chunkier than an American Std neck, which makes it feel narrower to me, but I don't think it is. Could be. The frets are not quite polished up to American Std, uh, standards.

 

The frets on the Squier J Mascis felt a bit gritty to me. I mentioned that in the review.


As far as the Mascis neck, it was called a C shape by Squier, but it almost felt like it was bordering on a very soft V shape. It's not a real V, but the shoulders were definitely shallower, which made it easier to play and, to me at least, made it feel like a thinner, narrower neck than it really was.


 

Cheap geetars are a bazillion times better today than back in the day. You kids are spoiled rotten.

 

Preach it brother! This stuff is light years beyond the Hondo II's kids were playing when I was young. Then again, there were always Duo Sonics and Mustangs... but back then, I didn't want a "student" guitar. Now I know better. redface.gif At least I knew enough back then to avoid the Hondos. icon_lol.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by HeartfeltDawn

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Can't speak for the JM but my Squier Jaguar sounds better and plays better than both my CIJ Jaguars did. The neck isn't thin nor horribly chunky. Really good player and an absolute bargain at the price I paid for it.

 

really? pickups are better as well?
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Don't mean to totally derail, but how do the Squier JMs fare against the Blacktop JM's? I know they've got a lot of deliberately different features, but the used Blacktops are coming down to Squier JM prices and I wonder if there's a huge difference in the quality of the body/neck/fretwork/hardware.

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I like mine. Wasn't sure at first. I have the J. Mascis model, switch out the pickguard to a mint green one, which I think looks great. The neck on the Mascis is great, low satin gloss, not as fat/chunky as my Tele, but that's a CS model. Frets were great, no complaints at all. I changed out the pots to CTS 250k I think. Probably 500k would have been better, but one thing this JM is not now, is noisy and brittle. When I'm on only the neck pickup, I get almost no hum at all, very quiet. It's not the lightest instrument in the world, I'm guessing close to 9 lbs. My biggest complaint early on was that it would not stay in tune well. I had changed the strings to .11s, as a lot of people suggest. After a while, I took them off, used some nut sauce on the neck and the bridge, went back to .10s, and now the tuning is very stable. A winner for $400 I would say.


NPD-PuppyandPickguard028.jpg

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I've wanted an offset for sometime, but didn't ever feel like dropping the coin. This fit my needs perfectly, the Mascis JM. I concur with just about everything said so far on it. I will add that my electronics have gotten a bit dodgy, but I've dropped quite a bit of sweat on it at shows. The 3-way switch could use a replacement, but I'll just keep banging on it til it starts working again. :D

 

IRG, I like your style, bud...

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Ah, makes sense. Ash is my preferred fender tone wood, but I'd guess that'd make a very heavy guitar.

 

Hmmm. The basswood Squier JM I had was heavier than my alder AM Std Strat. Maybe about the same as my ash Tele, though. Bigger body on the JM. It's a bit tricky finding a case or bag to fit.

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