I posted this comparison of my favorite 64 to the Marr in another forum a few months after getting the Marr. Unfortunately, finances forced me to sell the 64 but I'm still enjoying the Marr.JamesSGBrown wrote:Just out of interest, has anyone got any opinion on the Marrguars vs actual vintage Jags? I love my staytrem'd Marr so fucking much, but I've never seen a vintage Jag in the flesh, never mind played one. Thinking of saving up hard for a '64 but in the meantime I'd love to hear of comparisons (also considering another Marr in black)
A mini JM vs 64 comparative scorecard from a purely personal taste standpoint. For entertainment purposes only. No guitars were harmed in the development of these comparisons.
Neck - A tossup. Not as different as I was expecting from the reviews. JM is just a bit chunkier near the headstock.
Appearance - Slight edge to the JM for the flash factor but extra points to the 64 for the matching headstock and yellowed Oly White.
Tone - +1 to the 64. Love those pups. The 64 is a pound lighter and a bit more resonant.
Controls - +1 to the 64. JM has the better pup selector. Big JM deduct for no rhythm circuit and two strangle switches. Rarely use the high pass strangle switch and miss the rhythm switch. Someday I may take the time to figure out how to rewire the two JM upper bout slider switches to somewhat replicate the vintage rhythm circuit. I know I'm in the minority on this one.
Hardware - Slight (temporary?) edge to the 64. Both have Mastery bridges but I'm pretty sure the stock JM bridge is an improvement over the vintage bridge. The Mastery trem is stiffer than the vintage one but I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't an adjustment for that. (edited to add: simple external adjustment screw for this) Mastery makes a first class product.
Other - +1 to the 64. Hard to deny the pre-CBS vintage vibe and the feel of the old neck. The faint flower power sticker tan line is kind of "late 60's time capsule" cool in a weird way.