yeah, really... the neck was slightly fatter than the MIJ and felt really nice, the TOM bridge is way better than the standard bridge and the pickups sounded much better with distortion.... of course this is all personal taste stuff. Never played a jazzmaster version though.
sounds like we just have different taste. i hate tom bridges and have no problem with stock jazz/jag bridges. i actually like them more than mustang bridges. but i use 11's on jazzmaster scale guitars and 11's or 12's on jag scale. i also don't like hot pu's. all of those are fixable though. the deal breaker for me was the trem. its too close to the body and has the stupid threaded arm.