NGD AVRI JAZZMASTER

[andy]

I finally found a great, local deal on one of these. They don’t show up too often in my area and when they do they’re typically overpriced. This is from 2002. It’s totally stock (including the fugly pickguard). Not a ding or scratch on it. It must have sat in its case for a long time. The pickups seem pretty thin sounding. Any feedback on AVRI pups? I think I’m going to put flats and a wood saddle on it. Anyway, here’s a crappy iPhone pic

[spacecadet]

I don't think anyone really complained about AVRI pickups until the AV65's came out and were a clear improvement. But I have both and I think the AVRI's sound pretty good, they're just a bit more compressed compared to the AV65's.

I have Antiquity II's in my CIJ and I think the AVRI's sound better. There are a lot of options if you want to upgrade the AVRI's, though, but I'll bet many of them wouldn't really be worth the money. I'd probably just put the Pure Vintage 65 pickups in if you don't like the AVRI's.

[daysleeperjeff]

Nice snag!

The early AVRI’s had those different looking Tortoise guards. I actually like that much more than the stock one that was on my AVRI from 2005. It was dark brown with very little definition. I swapped it with a Spitfire guard with more red in it. I like that better.

I like my AVRI pickups a lot. Haven’t played enough AV65’s to compare accurately though.

[oid]

The pickups are actually what sold me on this guitar, by far my favorite of the JM pickups, have not tried the 65s yet though. I do find them to be a bit boring and unresponsive sounding with light strings, the 10-46 set I had on there while my hands adapted to the longer scale were quite thin sounding, the 12-54s I generally play are great and very responsive to finger picking, possibly more so then any other pickup I have played. Have yet to try flats on it, have a set waiting in my cart for my next string order though.

[andy]

So I did a setup on it today and messed with the pickups heights. They were really close to the pickup before the change. They are way less in your face now. More balanced too! Really digging this guitar!!

[Pogue Mahone]

Wood saddle....Im not sure I understand how you'd go about doing that, have you seen this done on a jazzmaster before?

[andy]

Nah I haven’t seen it done but I’ve made parts for other guitars in the past. I have some spare jag bridges laying around so I can interchange as needed.

[oid]

I have been fiddling with wood/bone saddles on my AVRI off and on since I got it. I have done a friction fit bit of wood that replaces the saddles and inset either individual saddles or a single compensated acoustic style saddle into this. I am currently working on an ebony and lignum vitae bridge to replace the whole thing, some brass will likely work its way in there as well. Have to do a fret job before I can finish it up so I can figure out the height since this will be a non adjustable bridge.

I will dig about and start a thread if I still have my experiments, or I will do it when I finish up the current bridge. Curious to see what you come up with.

[realmarco]

dunno about the jazzmaster but the bridge i got on my AVRI '65 bfender Jaguar is crap in terms of tuning and intonation stability

replaced the vibrato and bridge for mastery and now it does stay in tune after 3 chord strums

[andy]

I have been fiddling with wood/bone saddles on my AVRI off and on since I got it. I have done a friction fit bit of wood that replaces the saddles and inset either individual saddles or a single compensated acoustic style saddle into this. I am currently working on an ebony and lignum vitae bridge to replace the whole thing, some brass will likely work its way in there as well. Have to do a fret job before I can finish it up so I can figure out the height since this will be a non adjustable bridge.

I will dig about and start a thread if I still have my experiments, or I will do it when I finish up the current bridge. Curious to see what you come up with.

Very cool! I’d love to see your experiments.

[andy]

dunno about the jazzmaster but the bridge i got on my AVRI '65 bfender Jaguar is crap in terms of tuning and intonation stability

replaced the vibrato and bridge for mastery and now it does stay in tune after 3 chord strums

Yeah the struggle is real with these bridges. I have fixed some up in the past (typical Teflon tape or Loctite kinda thing) but I just want to experiment with a few ideas. I have some scrap aluminum around that I might make a bigsby type saddle out of. Then it could sit in the bridge plate and be adjusted for intonation.

[Lamar Fandango]

Congrats on a fine guitar. I tried out quite a few Jazzmasters (vintage, Japanese, AVRI, AV65) and settled on a ‘99 AVRI. I put in some ugly saddles and it’s been a clear winner.