spacecadet wrote:otis wrote:Sunburster, what were those bad stories?
One of them was probably mine, which I posted about here in a thread that eventually went something like 22 pages.
Nothing on mine was unfixable, but it came from the factory with both the bridge and pickups screwed all the way down to the body and still had action that was about an inch high. I had to put in three shims to get it playable and raise the pickups and bridge to normal heights.
My bridge was also buzzy as hell and since I don't like using any kind of gunk (I use Loctite on the screws normally, but this bridge had buzzing springs), I ended up just replacing it.
Lastly, a few of my nut slots were way too high and others way too low, which made the guitar really tough to play and simultaneously buzzy at the nut. Nut slots are one of Fender USA's bugaboos in my experience, they rarely get them totally right. At least the ones on my AVRI were basically evenly spaced, so I was able to fix just the height with some fill and a file.
After all that, the guitar is fine. In fact it might be my favorite playing JM that I own now. My bridge wasn't misaligned like yours, though. I think that might have been something I would have had more of a problem with.
Oh also, my neck has no date stamp. Like they just forgot to put one on. Does yours?
Yes, I thought about your black AVRI and its numberous issues as well. I even tried to find the thread yesterday, but I couldn't.
The bridge-buzzing issues are familiar; the key is to find springs that are long enough, or to switch them between saddles.
On a Mastery too, the springs can produce a buzz, but lesser so if the saddles are steep enough. I'm writing this now, but I guess everything is sorted out by now, 5 years later.
The nuts are indeed a very tricky part on the AVRI's I had. Often they're not deep enough, or too deep, or spaced unevenly. I hope this one is properly cut (interspace seems ok in the pictures).
Every AVRI Jazzmaster I had needed setup work. I can live with that, as long as the fundamentals are ok. I feel that with this uneven bridge, it might get a bit more difficult (I'll need a Mastery and I don't have a spare one at the moment), but after the Mastery is a fact, I could have an ideal setup, just like my Costello has.
In the hands of a first time Jazzmaster owner, or someone who wants the original offset-bridge, this might be a troublesome guitar, and that shouldn't be the case with a Vintage Reissue Fender.
I'll have to wait and see, maybe everything is solved with using another saddle-thread, as Sunburtser suggests...
Anyway, spacecadet, could you point out the thread of your AVRI NGD?
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