I've now played a vintage jag

[Singlebladepickup]

This thing:

https://batonrouge.craigslist.org/msd/6154284971.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was bringing in my avri jag for a custom nut and saw it, the first vintage offset I've seen in person.

It has a thinner neck than my '62 reissue, it is much lighter in weight, and it was in as good or better condition than mine. It was really nice. The action was very low and even all the way up. The frets were even and felt nice. I barely had a chance to play it plugged in cause someone was blues shredding on some orange prs bird inlay flametop guitar.

Overall impression: the neck was nice but actually not as smooth and vintages as an old musicmaster they had. Neck didn't blow me away like I figured. I like my avri just as good in terms of playability, but the 66 neck was a looker. The owner was asking $3700. I don't know much about whether that's fair, but I personally didn't think it was x3 nicer than mine. I also think it's possible to make a parts jag that's nicer for like $1700, but I guess I'm not positive on that. Either way, it was super fun to play

[PJazzmaster]

I personally didn't think it was x3 nicer than mine. I also think it's possible to make a parts jag that's nicer for like $1700, but I guess I'm not positive on that. Either way, it was super fun to play

AVRI's are really good guitars. Vintage is nice but not necessarily "better". It depends A LOT on the neck shape and feeling and early CBS Jag necks are quite different in comparison to the standard AVRI neck. PU sound and output is a different story.
Parts jags are definitely cool and not too expensive. My favorite Jag neck is actually a Duo Sonic II neck

[somanytoys]

Damn, I wish I hadn't seen this post and followed that link. Now I know where that place is, even though I don't like to drive in that area much, so much congestion. Lots of nice things listed on the website, though.

It'll just be a kid in a candy store thing anyway.

[Singlebladepickup]

Somanytoys, go play their jag, the ric, the musicmaster, and the stratotone. They have a vibrosonic that I hear the owner is willing to give a deal on *cough*

[Despot]

The vintage versus new thing is always one that gets a few emotional responses!

I've had vintage/new versions of quite a few guitars - and vintage does not always equal x multiples better (in line with the increase in price).

However, vintage will give you some things that you're simply not able to get on some modern guitars. Certain pickups - be they Jaguar or humbuckers - go with certain years/types of construction. Even when really good modern replicas are made they're never really 100% the same as the original/vintage type, despite the fact that the vast majority of people would never be able to tell the difference. PAFs are one example of this - though these are probably the pickups that you're most likely to be able to replicate to an acceptable degree given the number of makers doing repros and how good/close some of them get.

But to stay within the Gibson family - the late '60s and early '70s T-top pickup is my favourite humbucker. There's nobody that I've seen (apart from Throbak who've recently started doing them) that make a replica of those pickups that sounds like the originals. So right now if you really want that sound your best option is to go find a vintage guitar fitted with them - or try to find vintage pickups from fleabay and hope that they're the right sound when you've put them into your guitar.

On the other hand I've owned two beautiful vintage J50 acoustics - and I replaced them with a modern Gibson true vintage J45. Why? Despite the J50s being incredible guitars, and sounding amazing ... that particular J45 sounds better. I've handed it off to people to A/B them and the new guitar just sounded ... better. It seems like sacrilege to say that a new Gibson would beat out a vintage example from the golden era of guitar making ... but in this particular instance, it does.

I've been through the mill on this over the years to where I now accept that the only rules that apply when trading/changing are a) get your money back in whatever you're doing and b) go for the better guitar, whatever the 'vintage'.

[Embenny]

I have definitely played vintage Fenders that I would not choose over their modern reissues. But I've also played (and bought) some that are peerless. Modern AV54/AVRI/CS guitars have a level of consistency never seen in the 50's and 60's. There are always some that turn out better or worse (for one's personal tastes), but the variation is slight.

Vintage guitars vary wildly, partly because QC was looser and more parts were handmade, but also because of the highly-variable conditions those guitars have seen over the past 50-60 years! I don't know whether being played regularly or not affects the instrument's tone over the years, but humidity and temperature sure do, as do things like whether the pickups have had any repairs (sometimes just 0.1k of windings need to be removed to repair a broken coil, but that's still going to affect tone slightly, for better or for worse).

I'm glad you're happy with your guitar. Some vintage guitars are, as you put it, "not 3x nicer" than an AVRI. I agree.