My 3 month old American Vintage Jazzmaster

[Bruce]

After going through all of the known issues with this guitar here is what has been done and what still isn't resolved. Please chime in remembering I am 67 years old. PS. My hearing aids work well.

Mastery bridge installed reason: Playing my first gig with the guitar, the A string starts fretting out due to bridge saddle screws working loose.

Result: Bridge saddle srews still looesen, just not as often.

Buzz Stop installed to add more break angle to keep strings from loosening on expensive bridge.

Result: Works!

Guitar sounds too twangy with round wound thick and thin gauge that dealer installed, at my request, before shipping guitar: Install pressure wound set of 11's, better, but still twangy.

Tremelo arm starts falling out when getting out of my chair to show off on a solo. After viewing the U Tube fixes of a hammer, a hose clamp or a UK collet and arm (not available in USA) I gave Fender a call. Try some teflon tape, send girlfriend from gig to house for tape, works till the end of gig and the arm is removed along with the tape falling to the floor. Getting desperate, decide to restring with expensive strings from Austria and try the hose clamp at same time. Squeeze collet like in video and one finger breaks off. Call Fender for replacement under warranty, not sure if they have a replacement. Try #4 clamp anyway, never going to work.

Install expensive strings, retune, check intonation and string radius: all dead on. Shove tremelo arm back in .............................the guitar sounds great and the arm hasn"t fallen out yet! Any solutions on the arm, other than buying that Mastery unit that isn't shiney like the OEM.


Thanks,
Bruce from Payson

[Unicorn Warrior]

As far as the guitar being too bright, you could go with 500k pots over the stock 1 meg. I've never done this, but the next traditional JM I own, I will likely be doing this.

Jazzmasters and jaguars are just very bright by nature. Switching the pots should darken the sound a bit. Even then, people still say they're brighter than most guitars.

The trem arm requires quite a bit of pressure to pop in. It shouldn't fall out. One good hard push and it pops in. Otherwise, get a staytrem collet, much cheaper than mastery. Although you will have to find one secondhand or get one of our U.K. Forum members to purchase for you as the guy doesn't ship outside the U.K. anymore.


The other issues I can't speak of..I'm terrible with set-ups/technicalities

[Peckhammer]

+1 on the 500K pots, and consider using audio log taper pots, not linear. I used these on all my offset builds.

[Debaser]

Bruce,
I typically keep my AV65 tone control on '4' or '5'. This is basically what it sounds like with a set of 300k pots. Does that minimize the twang? If that just makes things too dark, turn up the tone to taste. You also might want to try flats. I like Thomastik Swing jazz 11s, last a long time which makes up for the high price. I think the stock bridge has less twang than a Mastery, which is the other option. You could easily get back most of your money spent on the expensive bridge.

I'm sure it's been covered to death everywhere, but the screw thing is handled with a drop of nitro lacquer (aka clear nail polish) on the offending grub screws. Easy to break the seal for adjustments, and the solids left behind tend to gum up and prevent the screw from vibrating back down, so less need to re-apply.

I'm in the same boat with the arm thing. My other JM has the same Fender trem plate, that arm works perfectly. The AV started drooping the day I received it. Planned on getting two Staytrem arms but then heard the bad news. So now I'm hunting for a used Mastery vibrato or some sympathy from UK members here or elsewhere. Also, there is a highly polished Mastery vibrato available that looks pretty nice

[arkivel]

After going through all of the known issues with this guitar here is what has been done and what still isn't resolved. Please chime in remembering I am 67 years old. PS. My hearing aids work well.

Mastery bridge installed reason: Playing my first gig with the guitar, the A string starts fretting out due to bridge saddle screws working loose.

Result: Bridge saddle srews still looesen, just not as often.

Buzz Stop installed to add more break angle to keep strings from loosening on expensive bridge.

Result: Works!


Thanks,
Bruce from Payson

Perhaps you have one of the older Mastery bridges or a new one that is simply defective. The screws should not loosen. Some of the old Mastery bridges had problems with saddle screws loosening but the screws are apparently better machined now. Apparently Mastery will replace screws if you contact them. If that fails you could always put a little loctite or nail polish on the screws as well.

[Danley]

After buying a sixties vintage bridge each for my Mustang and my Jaguar I'm not looking back. The tolerances are much tighter, so the saddles don't rattle and the grub screws don't loosen like the modern versions. Even the intonation springs are stiffer.

[Colnago]

Wow, sounds like a real piece.

[monsterdonkey]

I just leave my trem arm in when I put the guitar away. I use an SKB case and nothing has gone wrong yet. I imagine it slackens the tension on the neck a little but the guitar comes out of the case in tune. The Sonic Youth guitar tech has an article somewhere that suggests just leaving the arms in. As for the collet difficulties, yeah that sucks. Staytrem collets are great if you can find one. I use a Mastery vibrato on one guitar and it’s great. Mastery recommends leaving their arm in too. If you decide to leave your arm in once you get your original collet sorted with one of the traditional fixes, it may prevent or slow the same problem from happening over and over.

[Horsefeather]

Why is this not the standard solution?

G&L is always good for fixing Fender's f-ups.

https://g-l-online-store.myshopify.com/ ... arm-socket




Upon further reflection, I realize this isn't as simple as I originally thought. As the hardware gets mounted to the rocking piece under the top plate. However, I think it could still be made to work, with proper clearancing of the hole in the plate. Although I realize not everyone is going to want to do that to their expensive original guitar parts.

[timtam]

Why is this not the standard solution?

G&L is always good for fixing Fender's f-ups.

https://g-l-online-store.myshopify.com/ ... arm-socket




Upon further reflection, I realize this isn't as simple as I originally thought. As the hardware gets mounted to the rocking piece under the top plate. However, I think it could still be made to work, with proper clearancing of the hole in the plate. Although I realize not everyone is going to want to do that to their expensive original guitar parts.

Interesting idea. Is there a superior aftermarket trem arm mounting other than Staytrem's arm / collet that can be successfully retrofitted to existing trems for those who don't like what they have ?
BTW this is what the major Fender trem models (locking) - both screw-in and push-fit - look like from underneath ....
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... 5#p1525263

[Gevalt]

I'll say it 'til I'm blue in the face

BLUE LOCTITE

G.D. Johnny Marr doesn't even know what it is! All your problems solved for less than $10!

Carry on.....

[gusgorman]

I'd recommend either Flatwound Strings (another vote for Thomastik Swing jazz 11s) or Pure Nickel Strings to tame the brightness.

I put some roundwound strings on my CIJ (with Novaks) and took them off after about 30 mins (ie NOT Pure Nickel roundwounds)

At the moment I'm using the Thomastiks. I still rarely put the tone or volume above 8, but you can get a whole range of sounds without it sounding excessively bright.

Pure Nickels is a good option if you want to stick with roundwounds.