NGD: AV '65 Olympic White Jazzmaster

[rbrcbr]

Hey everyone!

I finally picked up an AV65 Jazzmaster in Olympic White after GASing for one over the past 3 or 4 years. I saw a listing on the GC site for a black 62 reissue jazzmaster for $1299, but with no photo. I kept a tab on it over the next couple days, only to find a photo of a 65 OLY Jazzmaster in it's place. I jumped on it immediately, only to get a call a couple days later saying they had two jazzmasters, and the wrong photo was listed with the 62 (obviously). They asked me if I wanted the black 62 or the white 65 and that the 65 was $50 cheaper. Bingo! That was settled.

I went to pick it up today and it wasn't nearly as satisfying as I'd hoped, for a couple of reasons:

-non original plastic roadrunner case that shouldn't fit but does
-tuners swapped for what look like American Standard tuners. Bummer, I really like the vintage reissue tuners.
-no trem arm
-a dead neck pickup. Has some really really quiet output when you dig into it, but the bridge pickup works normally and is like 10 times louder

It's pretty worn out too, a bunch of checking on the front and back, yellowing in some spots on the finish, and dings galore. Weighed in right at 8 lbs flat. Whoever owned it previously played the hell out of it, which is a good thing. I can dig that, but was pretty bummed that when the store (Salt Lake City GC) called me to confirm which I wanted, they failed to communicate the numerous things going on with this guitar.

I talked to the guitar sales guy here in Atlanta and my buddy who was also working, and ended up getting refunded shipping plus $150 to cover the cost of either fixing the neck pickup, or replacing it entirely. Any thoughts on what might be wrong? I'm gonna get under the guard tomorrow and see what is going on.

Overall, this sort of has me curious as to what else was poached off this guitar, I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

I'll probably replace the tuners with originals, get a mastery kit, and call it a day. Otherwise, $1100 for a beat up, half working AV65? I'll take it. A damn good deal if I do say so myself.

I'll try to take some better quality photos tomorrow morning to catch the checking/color.

Some photos for now:









and here it is with my parts jazzmaster:

[aliendawg]

congrats! It's a nice guitar. I hope you don't discover any more problems with it. Too bad the original tuners are gone... Those really don't fit well

[sirspens]

I picked one of these up a month ago. It has been a pleasure to play and record with. Mine is kind of beat to hell, as well. That said, I couldn't be happier over any dollars I have ever spent.

I suspect you'll find the neck pickup is just shorting out a bit. Should be an easy fix. As to the tuners and trem arm, those can be picked up for far less than you got discounted.

Congratulations, and enjoy!

[gishuk]

The AVRI is a lovely but wow that semi hollow JM

[ludobag1]

nice and clean ,a friend of mine have one real beat up by use on stage ,yours seems new
too bad for tuners but it is good opportunity for the price

[bacca51]

Get some new tuners, and a gold guard and you're off!

[green_mario]

I suspect you'll find the neck pickup is just shorting out a bit. Should be an easy fix.

I agree, there's not much that can go wrong with pickups, either something is disconnected or shorting out. If you're even a little handy with a soldering iron you should be able to sort it out in no time (I'm sure the folks here could provide some guidance too if you post pics, I'd be happy to). Awesome score.

[rbrcbr]

Thanks everyone! I love that semi hollow JM, one of the best sounding/playing guitars I've ever owned, if not the #1 out of all of them.

I picked one of these up a month ago. It has been a pleasure to play and record with. Mine is kind of beat to hell, as well. That said, I couldn't be happier over any dollars I have ever spent.

I suspect you'll find the neck pickup is just shorting out a bit. Should be an easy fix. As to the tuners and trem arm, those can be picked up for far less than you got discounted.

Congratulations, and enjoy!

I suspect you'll find the neck pickup is just shorting out a bit. Should be an easy fix.

I agree, there's not much that can go wrong with pickups, either something is disconnected or shorting out. If you're even a little handy with a soldering iron you should be able to sort it out in no time (I'm sure the folks here could provide some guidance too if you post pics, I'd be happy to). Awesome score.

So far:
-The bridge pickup works fine, there is proper output at the jack
-the 3 way switch seems to function properly, I get output on the middle and bridge positions
-very, very low output from the neck, like 10 times quieter (but something is there)
-the pots work fine
-rhythm circuit also doesn't work

I got under the pickguard just now and it seems like everything is connected, in place where it should be. The wiring job looks like the standard, from the factory set up. Moving wires around isn't doing anything. What else can I do to try and isolate this? I'll try to post some pictures soon.

[rbrcbr]

[HNB]

Try putting the neck hot wire to the toggle to bypass the switch? You could also just connect the neck pickup to jack and see if that fixes the problem. There is a chance one or both of the rhythm section pots could be bad. One time I was working on a strat with just one pickup and couldn't get sound. It turned out the volume pot I was running through was bad. I swapped it out and the pickup worked just fine.

You could also multimeter it to see if the pickup is reading right.

[green_mario]

Good pictures and info. Good idea on connecting the hot wire straight to the output jack too (bypassing all the potentiometers and switches) as a check. I might also unscrew the neck pickup and inspect it to make sure the wires aren't becoming loose where they connect to the pickup (where the wrapped copper wire meets the cloth wire). I've had that happen on a pickup once. You could also reflow any solder connections that look questionable, or reflow the connections along the path from the neck pickup.

[HNB]

Another easy possible fix is to spray some electric contact cleaner in the pots and the rhythm switch in case there is gunk that is keeping it from getting good contact. I would spray it in the pots and rotate them back and forth a couple times also. Requires no soldering to give that a try.

[HNB]

I am pretty surprised they didn't drill the body for a bridge ground. It is just running on top of the body to the cup under the guard. I know it works, just surprised me to see it.

I am also surprised to see shielding plates in the bottom of the routs but nothing on the walls. No shielding paint or copper on the sides. Just under the guard and in the bottom.

[sunburster]

I am also surprised to see shielding plates in the bottom of the routs but nothing on the walls. No shielding paint or copper on the sides. Just under the guard and in the bottom.

It shouldn't be surprising. This is a '65 reissue, and in '65 that's how they did the shielding plates.

[HNB]

Ah I see. I guess that makes sense.