Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

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Hans kung
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Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Hans kung » Tue Jan 08, 2019 7:09 am

I have a love hate relationship with the Johnny Marr Jaguar..... I'm curious to know why you like your Johnny Marr Jaguar?

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Kwyjibo » Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:12 am

I do adore it, but since getting my 65 jazzmaster thin skin, the marrguar's short scale has just felt super cramped. I still love it for all sorts of things, but the cramped frets, especially up the neck, can make playing certain stuff difficult, and I now find myself almost always reaching for the jazzmaster. At the end of the day, considering what Johnny plays, I think it does a great job and is a fantastic improvement on the original design. Just a bit more niche than a 25.5 scale length instrument.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Hans kung » Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:28 am

Kwyjibo wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:12 am
I do adore it, but since getting my 65 jazzmaster thin skin, the marrguar's short scale has just felt super cramped. I still love it for all sorts of things, but the cramped frets, especially up the neck, can make playing certain stuff difficult, and I now find myself almost always reaching for the jazzmaster. At the end of the day, considering what Johnny plays, I think it does a great job and is a fantastic improvement on the original design. Just a bit more niche than a 25.5 scale length instrument.
Thanks, I appreciate your perspective, because of my Hobbit hands the short scale is a real plus for me.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by my bloody television » Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:50 am

I thought you meant the man, not the guitar :D I have a love/hate relationship with him because I love his playing/style but I can’t stand his solo music

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Embenny » Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:53 am

my bloody television wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:50 am
I thought you meant the man, not the guitar :D I have a love/hate relationship with him because I love his playing/style but I can’t stand his solo music
Yeah, I thought it was gonna be about this too!

I adore the Smiths. I love what he brought to us offset fans with this Marrguar. And he seems like a genuinely cool guy, the polar opposite of Morrissey.

And yet, I haven't found any of his solo work to click with me. It's well-made but doesn't resonate, you know?

OP, what about your guitar do you hate?

I had a love-hate relationship with my first Jag for years. I eventually stopped wanting it to be a Les Paul Jr, which I realized was the issue...I had put P90 style pickups in it, taped the posts and installed a buzzstop, all in a search for more sustain and thicker tone...and I kept getting frustrated.

I just bought myself an actual hardtail guitar for those tones. And went back to letting my Jag be a Jag. And that's when I started adoring it.

Jags, JMs and Mustangs all have their own thing going on...once I started leaning into that instead of putting a square peg into a round hole, I became much happier. Over time, I stopped wanting those LP Jr tones anyway, and offsets pushed out virtually all other guitars from my stable.
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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Hans kung » Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:44 am

my bloody television wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:50 am
I thought you meant the man, not the guitar :D I have a love/hate relationship with him because I love his playing/style but I can’t stand his solo music
I thought the title would be attention getting.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Hans kung » Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:49 am

mbene085 wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:53 am
my bloody television wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:50 am
I thought you meant the man, not the guitar :D I have a love/hate relationship with him because I love his playing/style but I can’t stand his solo music
Yeah, I thought it was gonna be about this too!

I adore the Smiths. I love what he brought to us offset fans with this Marrguar. And he seems like a genuinely cool guy, the polar opposite of Morrissey.

And yet, I haven't found any of his solo work to click with me. It's well-made but doesn't resonate, you know?

OP, what about your guitar do you hate?

I had a love-hate relationship with my first Jag for years. I eventually stopped wanting it to be a Les Paul Jr, which I realized was the issue...I had put P90 style pickups in it, taped the posts and installed a buzzstop, all in a search for more sustain and thicker tone...and I kept getting frustrated.

I just bought myself an actual hardtail guitar for those tones. And went back to letting my Jag be a Jag. And that's when I started adoring it.

Jags, JMs and Mustangs all have their own thing going on...once I started leaning into that instead of putting a square peg into a round hole, I became much happier. Over time, I stopped wanting those LP Jr tones anyway, and offsets pushed out virtually all other guitars from my stable.
I posted about my issues with the guitar extensively, in the Modifications area of this site, I was ready to do what you did, modifying the guitar, but I think you really have something here, letting the guitar be the guitar it's and just loving it for what it is, just like your children , thanks.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:01 am

He feels the same way about you, Hans.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:37 pm

I think my Marr is awesome just the way it is. Pretty great stock hardware, the best sounding Jag pickups I've ever played through, and truly useful wiring. It stands next to zero chance of being my one and only guitar, or even my one and only offset, but I could happily live w/ it as my only Jag.

The only hate I have for mine is the sticky nitro on the neck and body. I'd probably prefer a slightly more generous neck profile too, but I've got fairly large mitts and it works well for me as is.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Hans kung » Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:00 pm

Sid Nitzerglobin wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 12:37 pm
I think my Marr is awesome just the way it is. Pretty great stock hardware, the best sounding Jag pickups I've ever played through, and truly useful wiring. It stands next to zero chance of being my one and only guitar, or even my one and only offset, but I could happily live w/ it as my only Jag.

The only hate I have for mine is the sticky nitro on the neck and body. I'd probably prefer a slightly more generous neck profile too, but I've got fairly large mitts and it works well for me as is.
Well thanks for your take on it, previously it was posted that if you accept the Jaguar for a Jaguar, and not wanting it to be a Strat....then it's a great guitar.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Sid Nitzerglobin » Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:06 pm

Yup, it's great to have a versatile guitar, but OTOH it seems fairly rare for a super versatile guitar to have an abundance of unique character or be able to 100% fill the shoes of a different guitar type. The Marr definitely excels at Jag-ing to me, and not necessarily much else.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Hans kung » Tue Jan 08, 2019 2:14 pm

Sid Nitzerglobin wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 1:06 pm
Yup, it's great to have a versatile guitar, but OTOH it seems fairly rare for a super versatile guitar to have an abundance of unique character or be able to 100% fill the shoes of a different guitar type. The Marr definitely excels at Jag-ing to me, and not necessarily much else.
What kind of music are you using your Jaguar for?

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Embenny » Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:07 pm

Yes exactly, things like "short sustain" have a flip side of "string attack".

To me, this makes a Jag fantastic as a rhythm guitar - especially under heavy distortion or fuzz where chords more harmonically complex than a power chord smush into a muddy mess on a guitar like a Les Paul, the individual notes ring out with much greater clarity.

It's not like I can't play leads on a Jag - I'm not a blooz lawyer or Slash wannabe, milking full step bends for 10 seconds straight yelling "THE TONEZ! LISTEN TO THE FAT TONEZ!" so my jags do just fine for leads (especially with the series wiring mod like the Marr).

And for clean tones, I find the string attack of the Jag makes for a ton of clarity with things like fingerpicking (Travis picking/Chet Atkins type stuff). It's also fantastic for syncopated funk rhythms.
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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Hans kung » Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:53 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:07 pm
Yes exactly, things like "short sustain" have a flip side of "string attack".

To me, this makes a Jag fantastic as a rhythm guitar - especially under heavy distortion or fuzz where chords more harmonically complex than a power chord smush into a muddy mess on a guitar like a Les Paul, the individual notes ring out with much greater clarity.

It's not like I can't play leads on a Jag - I'm not a blooz lawyer or Slash wannabe, milking full step bends for 10 seconds straight yelling "THE TONEZ! LISTEN TO THE FAT TONEZ!" so my jags do just fine for leads (especially with the series wiring mod like the Marr).

And for clean tones, I find the string attack of the Jag makes for a ton of clarity with things like fingerpicking (Travis picking/Chet Atkins type stuff). It's also fantastic for syncopated funk rhythms.
I'm learning there is no one guitar for everything.

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Re: Love/Hate with Johnny Marr

Post by Jaguar018 » Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:39 pm

Hans kung wrote:
Tue Jan 08, 2019 3:53 pm
I'm learning there is no one guitar for everything.
I can use my Jag for everything (it’s not a Marr, but it’s pretty standard). I don’t do this however.

The main reason people get different guitars for different tones is because it’s a great excuse to get more guitars. Most of the gear details we dwell on and obsess over aren’t even noticed by the non-gear freak types

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