Been stalking this board for months, so I figure it's time to contribute something for once. Over the past year I've acquired an American Ultra JM and an aftermarket-relic'ed 60th anniversary Classic JM, extremely different-sounding jazzmasters so I thought I'd upload a tone comparison. Neither quite have the vintage JM sound to my ear; the anniversary classic looks and sounds lovely and Fender-chimey but has decidedly shrill tone (especially the bridge) and high output that overdrives a clean amp more than some humbuckers; I personally love the sound but it's a bit aggressive/shrill for some things, especially the bridge pup. Such a nice bite to it though. The Am Ultra's noiseless pickups are very dark and quiet in comparison, which makes the complicated switching not all that useful, as most settings make things even darker. It sounds/feels like a humbucker/single coil hybrid to me, not bad by any means and totally usable once you get your amp/pedals dialed in but I can't play it immediately after playing the Classic because it just feels lifeless in comparison; I'm going to try switching out the noiseless pups for pure vintage 65's soon. Everything else about the Ultra is fantastic though; fast-playing modern neck but with vintage vibes from the binding, extremely comfortable contoured body/heel, fantastic trem and mustang-esque saddles that are just the right height with no string popping and decent tuning stability, and I dig the chrome knobs. I just wish the pickups were more lively.
I just spent a few social distancing days in a cabin with little to do but jam and play with gear, so what better time to do a little recording? Here are some super-basic tone comparison clips of both guitars (and a telecaster-sounding Meteora just for funsies) playing through identical pedal/amp/mic setup with all the knobs and volumes set the same, and no post-processing. Guitar volume/tone knobs all maxed. Each clip is roughly the same little jam, mostly just noodling around some chords on the neck pickup: first cleans, then chorus, then overdrive (ending with bridge pickup), then a little lo-fi ditty.
American Ultra Jazzmaster
https://soundcloud.com/will-a-257584312/am-ultra-jm
60th Anniversary Classic Jazzmaster
https://soundcloud.com/will-a-257584312 ... classic-jm
Parallel Universe Meteora Limited
https://soundcloud.com/will-a-257584312/meteora-ltd
Signal chain: Guitar > always-on light compression (Walrus Deep 6) > overdrive (Barber Gain Changer on low gain) > vibrato/chorus/lofi (Chase Bliss Generation Loss) > Tone King Gremlin with volume at 3.5 threshold-of-breakup and attenuator at -9db > Rode NT-1a > Scarlett 2i2 > Ableton live.
Some cabinporn for good measure:
