Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

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Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by spencersmith » Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:53 am

i tried an American Performer JM and it had a nice neck. It sounded nothing like a JM though.
I'm not an aficionado or a purist, so please educate me.

With different pickups, could the Performer actually sound like a Jazzmaster?
Again, i'm not a purist - the bridge and tremolo are not essentials for me.
BUT - are they integral to the sound of a jazzmaster?

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Arthon » Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:59 am

spencersmith wrote:
Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:53 am
the bridge and tremolo are not essentials for me.
BUT -are they integral to the sound of a jazzmaster?
Yes they are.
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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Veitchy » Mon Apr 26, 2021 10:50 pm

I've played a couple of JM -style guitars with different pickups and in one case an entirely different circuit layout in them. All were built out of Fenders/parts and as such all retained the bridge, tailpiece, and scale length. To put it simply, they all sounded like Jazzmasters with different pickups. The bridge/tailpiece, scale length, and in my opinion the placement of the pickups relative to a Strat or a Tele give a Jazzmaster is timbre. Those are the integral elements to me.
Last edited by Veitchy on Wed Apr 28, 2021 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by tammyw » Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:52 am

I can't deny what's been said above, but I still think swapping the pickups and pots gets it more than halfway there. Even if it's lacking some of the other Jazzmaster subtleties, it's a huge improvement over the stock pickups.
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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Lost In Autumn » Sun May 02, 2021 4:39 am

the strat tailpiece will deliver a lot more sustain than a proper jazzmaster and there's no getting around the effect that has on the tone. 1meg pots and proper pickups will get you most of the way there.

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by bessieboporbach » Sun May 09, 2021 7:58 am

spencersmith wrote:
Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:53 am
i tried an American Performer JM and it had a nice neck. It sounded nothing like a JM though.
I'm not an aficionado or a purist, so please educate me.

With different pickups, could the Performer actually sound like a Jazzmaster?
Again, i'm not a purist - the bridge and tremolo are not essentials for me.
BUT - are they integral to the sound of a jazzmaster?
I find these questions very intriguing because they always inspire such definitive responses -- "nothing that is not a 1958-spec Jazzmaster will ever sound like a Jazzmaster," etc.

But on the other hand countless offset guitar aficionados point to Marquee Moon as the definitive Jazzmaster sound and apparently Tom actually played only one song on that album on a Jazzmaster ("Friction" IIRC) and the vast majority of the rest of it was a Gretsch with a Bigsby or some kind of Danelectro, including the title track.

This would seem to suggest that literally anything can sound like a Jazzmaster if you really want it to.

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by jvin248 » Sun May 09, 2021 9:19 am

.

Rank order:
-Pickups -- same alnico V rod magnets and bobbin used on other models
-Pots/caps/switching -- no rhythm circuit (many players tape the switch to avoid hitting it so really no loss), but are the pots 1Meg/500k/250kohm?
-Guitar ergonomics (where do you pick the guitar? Strat you must avoid hitting the volume knob so players pick closer to the neck pickup, the Tele bridge and saddles can be sharp so players pick between the bridge pickup and saddles where Twang hangs out on any guitar, JM tends to push the guitar to your left)
-The string behind the JM bridge to the JM tremolo can give sympathetic tones, some players even mod guitars to put a pickup back there.
-The extra string length makes the strings feel more slinky but also decreases sustain

If the guitar fits in your budget then you'll get most of the JM tones and functionality you seek, or not too far away to lightly mod (like putting in 1Meg volume pot if they ship with 250k).

.

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Embenny » Sun May 09, 2021 3:10 pm

bessieboporbach wrote:
Sun May 09, 2021 7:58 am
But on the other hand countless offset guitar aficionados point to Marquee Moon as the definitive Jazzmaster sound and apparently Tom actually played only one song on that album on a Jazzmaster ("Friction" IIRC) and the vast majority of the rest of it was a Gretsch with a Bigsby or some kind of Danelectro, including the title track.

This would seem to suggest that literally anything can sound like a Jazzmaster if you really want it to.
I find tone to be a poor endpoint for judging anything related to electric guitars. In a time where few models or pickup variants existed, people still couldn't tell when Gilmour used a Les Paul with P90s vs his strat, or Verlaine used a Jazzmaster vs the hilotron Gretsch or lipstick Danelectro. In a mix, almost nobody can reliably identify anything, especially now that you have every manner of hybridized spec of scale length, woods, and pickups. What does a neck P90 in parallel with a bridge filtertron in an ash Telecaster with Bigsby vibrato and a 24.75" scale mahogany neck sound like? Nobody will ever, ever....EVER pick that out in a musical context. Ever.

The bigger difference to me is how a guitar feels to play. How it sits. How it plays. Its idiosyncrasies that make you play a certain way because you're feeling a certain way. Whether you like looking at it or it's a colour you don't like (seriously, I notice I look down more when a guitar is new or pretty, which has an impact on where my attention is being directed!).

In that sense, the Performer isn't a Jazzmaster, and isn't a Strat. The way a floating bridge and JM vibrato feel, the way they make you play differently to either lean into, or away from, the sympathetic BTB ringing, the angle of the neck and the bridge, the feeling under your hand while palm muting - all different compared to a strat vibrato.

Unless you're specifically strumming behind the bridge or writing music that emphasizes those drone tones (which are definitely a thing), I doubt the tone itself would be different enough for any Offset fan to be able to listen to a full mix with a bunch of effects and gain and reverb on there and said, "oh yeah, that's definitely a JM pickup with a strat bridge."

But I guarantee the degree to which you connect to the guitar, and how it makes you feel while you play it, will be different. Which one will be better for you? You have to test that and find out.

One of the reasons I ended up with so many guitars is that I like them all for different reasons. I can hear the tonal differences, but really, for any given song I could probably switch between 5 guitars and have the exact same impact on any listener other than myself. But they sure do make me feel different. My hardtail TOM Jag doesn't feel anything like my '62 to play. Even if I stuck identical pickups on there and played a song with no vibrato, the TOM had those sharp saddles under the palm and a springy feel with longer decay and no sympathetic ringing. The '62 has a smooth Staytrem under the palm, a different attack/decay ratio, and the sympathetic ringing. I could use either for anything, but write and play a little differently on each, even if they're unplugged.

We don't actually hear with our ears. We hear with our brains. There's a point where visual and auditory input arrive and are compared at a subcortical level (not at the level of conscious thought), because your brain is constantly trying to match sounds to what you can see in order to make sense of the world. That's why we suck at blind A/B tone comparisons. It's not because you "want" the Les Paul to sound one way and the strat to sound another way, but rather because your brain processes everything from sight to expectations while you're hearing sounds. If I say, "Watch out, this is trebly as fuck" before playing a the first chord of a tone demo, it'll actually sound a little different to you compared to prefacing it with, "listen to how meaty and chewy this tone is," because it's feeding different info into the parts of your brain that integrate all that information.

So, if playing the Strat-bridged Performer makes you feel like you're playing the coolest hybrid of your favourite Fender guitars ever made, it'll probably sound that way to you, and it'll certainly feel that way to you. Conversely, if the Performer is the "not a true JM, but I can't afford the AO I actually want" guitar to you, it'll probably sound like it's falling flat. Your experience is real, and far more different than any final tone differences.

So go ahead and play whichever guitar makes you feel he happiest and most creative, which sadly for those of us stuck ordering by mail in the pandemic, can never be known until you have it in your hands. I've had cheap guitars with "the wrong" specs blow me away, and expensive guitars with "perfect specs" leave me cold. It's kind of the name of the game for something as multifactorial as liking or disliking a guitar.
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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by BlueMelody » Sun May 09, 2021 8:36 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Sun May 09, 2021 3:10 pm
bessieboporbach wrote:
Sun May 09, 2021 7:58 am
But on the other hand countless offset guitar aficionados point to Marquee Moon as the definitive Jazzmaster sound and apparently Tom actually played only one song on that album on a Jazzmaster ("Friction" IIRC) and the vast majority of the rest of it was a Gretsch with a Bigsby or some kind of Danelectro, including the title track.

This would seem to suggest that literally anything can sound like a Jazzmaster if you really want it to.
I find tone to be a poor endpoint for judging anything related to electric guitars. In a time where few models or pickup variants existed, people still couldn't tell when Gilmour used a Les Paul with P90s vs his strat, or Verlaine used a Jazzmaster vs the hilotron Gretsch or lipstick Danelectro. In a mix, almost nobody can reliably identify anything, especially now that you have every manner of hybridized spec of scale length, woods, and pickups. What does a neck P90 in parallel with a bridge filtertron in an ash Telecaster with Bigsby vibrato and a 24.75" scale mahogany neck sound like? Nobody will ever, ever....EVER pick that out in a musical context. Ever.

The bigger difference to me is how a guitar feels to play. How it sits. How it plays. Its idiosyncrasies that make you play a certain way because you're feeling a certain way. Whether you like looking at it or it's a colour you don't like (seriously, I notice I look down more when a guitar is new or pretty, which has an impact on where my attention is being directed!).

In that sense, the Performer isn't a Jazzmaster, and isn't a Strat. The way a floating bridge and JM vibrato feel, the way they make you play differently to either lean into, or away from, the sympathetic BTB ringing, the angle of the neck and the bridge, the feeling under your hand while palm muting - all different compared to a strat vibrato.

Unless you're specifically strumming behind the bridge or writing music that emphasizes those drone tones (which are definitely a thing), I doubt the tone itself would be different enough for any Offset fan to be able to listen to a full mix with a bunch of effects and gain and reverb on there and said, "oh yeah, that's definitely a JM pickup with a strat bridge."

But I guarantee the degree to which you connect to the guitar, and how it makes you feel while you play it, will be different. Which one will be better for you? You have to test that and find out.

One of the reasons I ended up with so many guitars is that I like them all for different reasons. I can hear the tonal differences, but really, for any given song I could probably switch between 5 guitars and have the exact same impact on any listener other than myself. But they sure do make me feel different. My hardtail TOM Jag doesn't feel anything like my '62 to play. Even if I stuck identical pickups on there and played a song with no vibrato, the TOM had those sharp saddles under the palm and a springy feel with longer decay and no sympathetic ringing. The '62 has a smooth Staytrem under the palm, a different attack/decay ratio, and the sympathetic ringing. I could use either for anything, but write and play a little differently on each, even if they're unplugged.

We don't actually hear with our ears. We hear with our brains. There's a point where visual and auditory input arrive and are compared at a subcortical level (not at the level of conscious thought), because your brain is constantly trying to match sounds to what you can see in order to make sense of the world. That's why we suck at blind A/B tone comparisons. It's not because you "want" the Les Paul to sound one way and the strat to sound another way, but rather because your brain processes everything from sight to expectations while you're hearing sounds. If I say, "Watch out, this is trebly as fuck" before playing a the first chord of a tone demo, it'll actually sound a little different to you compared to prefacing it with, "listen to how meaty and chewy this tone is," because it's feeding different info into the parts of your brain that integrate all that information.

So, if playing the Strat-bridged Performer makes you feel like you're playing the coolest hybrid of your favourite Fender guitars ever made, it'll probably sound that way to you, and it'll certainly feel that way to you. Conversely, if the Performer is the "not a true JM, but I can't afford the AO I actually want" guitar to you, it'll probably sound like it's falling flat. Your experience is real, and far more different than any final tone differences.

So go ahead and play whichever guitar makes you feel he happiest and most creative, which sadly for those of us stuck ordering by mail in the pandemic, can never be known until you have it in your hands. I've had cheap guitars with "the wrong" specs blow me away, and expensive guitars with "perfect specs" leave me cold. It's kind of the name of the game for something as multifactorial as liking or disliking a guitar.
Great post!

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Caddy65 » Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:14 pm

bessieboporbach wrote:
Sun May 09, 2021 7:58 am
spencersmith wrote:
Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:53 am
i tried an American Performer JM and it had a nice neck. It sounded nothing like a JM though.
I'm not an aficionado or a purist, so please educate me.

With different pickups, could the Performer actually sound like a Jazzmaster?
Again, i'm not a purist - the bridge and tremolo are not essentials for me.
BUT - are they integral to the sound of a jazzmaster?
I find these questions very intriguing because they always inspire such definitive responses -- "nothing that is not a 1958-spec Jazzmaster will ever sound like a Jazzmaster," etc.

But on the other hand countless offset guitar aficionados point to Marquee Moon as the definitive Jazzmaster sound and apparently Tom actually played only one song on that album on a Jazzmaster ("Friction" IIRC) and the vast majority of the rest of it was a Gretsch with a Bigsby or some kind of Danelectro, including the title track.

This would seem to suggest that literally anything can sound like a Jazzmaster if you really want it to.

Sorry, but I have never even heard of Marquee Moon and have been playing Jazzmasters since I bought a new one in 1964. To me, and most others around my age, the definitive Jazzmaster sound is the lead guitar on The Ventures ‘Walk Don’t Run’ album in 1960.

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:47 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Sun May 09, 2021 3:10 pm


I find tone to be a poor endpoint for judging anything related to electric guitars. In a time where few models or pickup variants existed, people still couldn't tell when Gilmour used a Les Paul with P90s vs his strat, or Verlaine used a Jazzmaster vs the hilotron Gretsch or lipstick Danelectro. In a mix, almost nobody can reliably identify anything, especially now that you have every manner of hybridized spec of scale length, woods, and pickups. What does a neck P90 in parallel with a bridge filtertron in an ash Telecaster with Bigsby vibrato and a 24.75" scale mahogany neck sound like? Nobody will ever, ever....EVER pick that out in a musical context. Ever.

Yeah, on a recording I doubt you would be able to tell the difference between almost any guitar in the end. First of all, the fact is, electric guitars sound very much alike no matter what they are made from. Why wouldn't they?

On Marquee Moon, whatever guitar is was went into an amp, was recorded with at least one microphone (I don't think they took it direct), and there could have been pedals involved or onboard effects (spring reverb).

Then there would have been the mixing process, where EQ and compression very possibly were applied, other treatment is still possible.

At some point all of this was put into a mix, and I doubt that the mixing engineer's focus was to make sure that everyone could tell what brand guitars were on it. That person made sure that everything was in the right place.

And of course there was yet another mastering stage, at which point EQ and possibly further compression as well as other factors would have been applied.

Marquee Moon was also an album with singing, so that was the focus. "Walk Don't Run" was an instrumental that was fresh in its time because it featured the new sound of Fender guitars and amps. People hadn't heard that shit before, but by the time of Marquee Moon that would have been incredibly dated.

I'm a big Who fan, and a big fan of Pete Townsend in general, still it was something of a surprise to find out that he used a 1959 Gretsch Chet Atkins hollow body guitar in the studio on some of The Who's biggest albums such as Who's Next and Quadropheniza.

So if you like the guitar, you can make it be whatever you need it to be in the studio.

But what is important is how you connect with the guitar, and that's why I would never accept a Jazzmaster that didn't have that tremolo unit on there, and I suck at tremolo and never use it. But while anyone listening to the Jazzmaster would never care about what guitar it was but only if they liked the music, still that tremolo changes the Jazzmaster sound in a way that I can hear. I know that sound, it inspires me and it's what I have heard for the last 25 years. I would never, ever be happy with a Strat tremolo on there, although I like that tremolo and I like what it does to the sound of a Strat and I like how it feels- I like Strats.

I have talked about this for years here and elsewhere, so apologies if any old timers on this forum are bored silly by this. But the length of string behind a Jazzmaster bridge isn't just inert, dead string, it adds a lot of subtle harmonic quality to it. The concept is called a "third bridge" .

That article has this quote:

On a standard guitar, the string is held above the soundboard by two nodes: the "nut" (near the headstock) and the "bridge" (near the player's right hand on a standard guitar). A player sounding a note on a standard guitar vibrates a single portion of the string (between the nut and the bridge or between their fretting finger and the bridge).

In contrast, a third bridge divides the string into two pieces. When played at one part of a string, the opposed part can resonate in a subharmonic of the struck part, depending on a predictable mathematical ratio of the strings' lengths. On harmonic positions the created multiphonic tone is consonant and increases in volume and sustain because of the reciprocal string resonance. The sound is comparable with the sound of bells or clocks ("yielding bell-like resonant sounds...enabled the guitar to more resemble percussive instruments like bells, gongs, and chimes"). Landman published a clarifying 3rd bridge diagram related to this subject in 2012 (and a more elaborate version of this diagram in 2017).


Granted, the Jazzmaster is a pretty crude third bridge (especially compared to something like this), still it's a big part of the sound and feel of the instrument to me.

So to answer the question, could the American Performer Jazzmaster sound like a Jazzmaster? Sure, it would sound close enough that no one listening to the record or even live would ever be able to tell. But so would a Telecaster, or a Stratocaster, or a Firebird, or even a Les Paul.

But if I was playing the guitar, instead of just hearing it, I would know.
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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by bessieboporbach » Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:18 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:47 pm
mbene085 wrote:
Sun May 09, 2021 3:10 pm


I find tone to be a poor endpoint for judging anything related to electric guitars. In a time where few models or pickup variants existed, people still couldn't tell when Gilmour used a Les Paul with P90s vs his strat, or Verlaine used a Jazzmaster vs the hilotron Gretsch or lipstick Danelectro. In a mix, almost nobody can reliably identify anything, especially now that you have every manner of hybridized spec of scale length, woods, and pickups. What does a neck P90 in parallel with a bridge filtertron in an ash Telecaster with Bigsby vibrato and a 24.75" scale mahogany neck sound like? Nobody will ever, ever....EVER pick that out in a musical context. Ever.

Yeah, on a recording I doubt you would be able to tell the difference between almost any guitar in the end. First of all, the fact is, electric guitars sound very much alike no matter what they are made from. Why wouldn't they?

On Marquee Moon, whatever guitar is was went into an amp, was recorded with at least one microphone (I don't think they took it direct), and there could have been pedals involved or onboard effects (spring reverb).

Then there would have been the mixing process, where EQ and compression very possibly were applied, other treatment is still possible.

At some point all of this was put into a mix, and I doubt that the mixing engineer's focus was to make sure that everyone could tell what brand guitars were on it. That person made sure that everything was in the right place.

And of course there was yet another mastering stage, at which point EQ and possibly further compression as well as other factors would have been applied.

Marquee Moon was also an album with singing, so that was the focus. "Walk Don't Run" was an instrumental that was fresh in its time because it featured the new sound of Fender guitars and amps. People hadn't heard that shit before, but by the time of Marquee Moon that would have been incredibly dated.

I'm a big Who fan, and a big fan of Pete Townsend in general, still it was something of a surprise to find out that he used a 1959 Gretsch Chet Atkins hollow body guitar in the studio on some of The Who's biggest albums such as Who's Next and Quadropheniza.

So if you like the guitar, you can make it be whatever you need it to be in the studio.

But what is important is how you connect with the guitar, and that's why I would never accept a Jazzmaster that didn't have that tremolo unit on there, and I suck at tremolo and never use it. But while anyone listening to the Jazzmaster would never care about what guitar it was but only if they liked the music, still that tremolo changes the Jazzmaster sound in a way that I can hear. I know that sound, it inspires me and it's what I have heard for the last 25 years. I would never, ever be happy with a Strat tremolo on there, although I like that tremolo and I like what it does to the sound of a Strat and I like how it feels- I like Strats.

I have talked about this for years here and elsewhere, so apologies if any old timers on this forum are bored silly by this. But the length of string behind a Jazzmaster bridge isn't just inert, dead string, it adds a lot of subtle harmonic quality to it. The concept is called a "third bridge" .

That article has this quote:

On a standard guitar, the string is held above the soundboard by two nodes: the "nut" (near the headstock) and the "bridge" (near the player's right hand on a standard guitar). A player sounding a note on a standard guitar vibrates a single portion of the string (between the nut and the bridge or between their fretting finger and the bridge).

In contrast, a third bridge divides the string into two pieces. When played at one part of a string, the opposed part can resonate in a subharmonic of the struck part, depending on a predictable mathematical ratio of the strings' lengths. On harmonic positions the created multiphonic tone is consonant and increases in volume and sustain because of the reciprocal string resonance. The sound is comparable with the sound of bells or clocks ("yielding bell-like resonant sounds...enabled the guitar to more resemble percussive instruments like bells, gongs, and chimes"). Landman published a clarifying 3rd bridge diagram related to this subject in 2012 (and a more elaborate version of this diagram in 2017).


Granted, the Jazzmaster is a pretty crude third bridge (especially compared to something like this), still it's a big part of the sound and feel of the instrument to me.

So to answer the question, could the American Performer Jazzmaster sound like a Jazzmaster? Sure, it would sound close enough that no one listening to the record or even live would ever be able to tell. But so would a Telecaster, or a Stratocaster, or a Firebird, or even a Les Paul.

But if I was playing the guitar, instead of just hearing it, I would know.
Re: the "third bridge" stuff, in that respect a Jazzmaster/Jag is absolutely no different than a guitar with a Bigsby or even a trapeze tailpiece. They all have a length of string between the bridge and tailpiece.

In fact a JM/Jag vibrato works almost exactly the same as a Bigsby. The only real difference is where the compression spring is.

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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:05 pm

bessieboporbach wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 5:18 pm


Re: the "third bridge" stuff, in that respect a Jazzmaster/Jag is absolutely no different than a guitar with a Bigsby or even a trapeze tailpiece. They all have a length of string between the bridge and tailpiece.

In fact a JM/Jag vibrato works almost exactly the same as a Bigsby. The only real difference is where the compression spring is.
Well, the only Bigsby I have ever owned* was a B7, which I had on a Les Paul. I did not find it similar to a Jazzmaster tremolo unit in how it worked or how it sounded.

For one, this kind of Bisgy has the string wrap over the top of a bar, then under yet another bar, then over the saddles. This second bar certainly helped the Bigsby, but it also more or less functioned the same as a Buzz Stop would. There was absolutely no resonance or overtones from the string back there that I could ever detect.

This was it:

Image

And of course the Jazzmaster tremolo unit has the strings in a straight shot from the plate that anchors the strings to the saddles. Considerably different I would say.

Now, there are certainly other kinds of Bigsby units out there, and I don't pretend to have any knowledge of them. The only thing I really got from that Bigsby- although I wish I still had it, if just for looks- is that I have no real talent or interest in vibrato units of any kind. It's just not a technique that I've ever cared about.

The only reason I like the Jazzmaster tremolo unit is because of how it changes the sound. I feel the same way about a Strat type unit, a nice steel block in there really adds a lot of nice bit of its own kind of resonance.

I guess the only other thing that I can say is that I have owned two guitars with a trapeze tailpiece, an Epiphone Casino that I gave away and I have a Gibson ES-330.

Actually, the reason I picked the 330 and not the better known 335 (although I later bought one) is because I really wanted the trapeze tailpiece, which I thought would add harmonic excitement like the third bridge on a Jazzmaster and Jaguar does. I don't feel that it really does that, though. I mean, I don't care, I love my 330, but I just never really felt that it added sound to the proceedings like a Jazzmaster has. This is just anecdotal, though.

Maybe if I converted the guitar to a Tune-O-Matic arrangement I would notice what was no longer there, though.





*I guess I did have a Bigsby Palm Pedal for a while. That thing completely sucked.
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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Embenny » Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:14 pm

I think they probably meant the kind of bigsby I have on my Gretsch, which looks like this one:

Image

I've got that model in black, and there's plenty of BTB resonance going on, possibly more than my Offsets, due to the combination of the long length, a steeper break angle, and the body being chambered and very resonant.

It's probably why I feel so at home on that guitar. It's got a lot of Offset-like mojo despite being built so differently in many ways.
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Re: Performer Jazzmaster - could it SOUND like a Jazzmaster?

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:19 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Thu Jun 17, 2021 6:14 pm
I think they probably meant the kind of bigsby I have on my Gretsch, which looks like this one:

Image

I've got that model in black, and there's plenty of BTB resonance going on, possibly more than my Offsets, due to the combination of the long length, a steeper break angle, and the body being chambered and very resonant.

It's probably why I feel so at home on that guitar. It's got a lot of Offset-like mojo despite being built so differently in many ways.
Right... I've never had a Bigsby like that, I don't know what it adds other than what I can imagine based on what you say.

Sweet guitar, though. Shit. That's really beautiful.

I think I gotta get some Gretsch stuff. Reading that article about Pete Townsend's Country Gentleman and a failed trade I had been offered a couple weeks ago has really got me interested. I don't know all that much about them.

Regardless, to get back to the point, sure... a Jazzmaster tremolo unit might be not much different in behind the bridge resonance to a Bigsby B whatever that one is, or a trapeze tailpiece.

But it sure the hell is different from a Strat unit, although I like them both.
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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