Rhett Shull on Jazzmasters

[SSquirrel]

Rhett compared a variety of current Jazzmasters offerings. Curious how folks will reac† to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWj06F70l4

[JSett]

I think it's wild that you can get so many options now. A lot of us here remember when Vintage, MIJ & AVRI were the only standard options.

Shame he calls it a tremolo instead of a vibrato though.

[SSquirrel]

I think it's wild that you can get so many options now. A lot of us here remember when Vintage, MIJ & AVRI were the only standard options.

Shame he calls it a tremolo instead of a vibrato though.

To be fair that's pretty common and a lot of folks would still call it a whammy bar. I did notice the Am Vintage II 1966 models weren't part of the list. He probably would have better pricing differentiation if he skipped the Ultras for those models, and he would have gotten more of the vintage sound he likes. Zero surprise he has the Squiers in 2nd. That isn't uncommon when he does these deep dives on guitar models. Squier and Epiphone both just make really good guitars and I know when I was younger (I'm 47), buying a Squier or Epi (besides a model like a Casino) was just throwing your money away bc they were so terrible. Speaking of, I need to re-buy a Casino sometime, but a Bass VI and a 2nd Jazzmaster is on the list first. Used to have a Squier Jag, altho Olympic White looked more like Refrigerator White iMO. Squier has that weirdness to the classic colors so often.

[fuzzjunkie]

I think it's wild that you can get so many options now. A lot of us here remember when Vintage, MIJ & AVRI were the only standard options

My first 2 Jazzmasters were vintage. This was late ‘80s - early ‘90s before the MIJ reissues. A friend grabbed one of those and I remember trying it out. It looked great but didn’t sound like the vintage JMs. We didn’t know it at the time but I guess the pickups are wound differently?

I really don’t know. I have heard they are basically Strat pickups in JM form, but I don’t know if that is true? I stuck with the vintage JMs after that until I got a “purple” J Mascis. Purple is my favorite color and I like sparkles. I ended up selling it too because it was “purple” in name only, I didn’t like the jumbo frets, or the TOM bridge. The pickups sounded okay, but still more Strat than my ‘63 JM.

I haven’t ever tried any of the AVRI models because I was put off by both the MIJ guitars. They look great, and they might sound great too, but I have a vintage version and don’t need another JM.

[MrShake]

I finally shelled out for my "dream guitar" in 2008, which was a brand new, US-made Fender Jazzmaster.

The sparkly Mascis CIJ was available, as were, I believe the EC and Sonic Youth models. And the Thin Skin LEs were out in occasional batches. Other than country of origin, each of those had something (radius, electronics, finish) that made them not for me, but cool stuff.

But all of those were few and far between, and as a prospective buyer, my options overall were basically "vintage, CIJ, or AVRI". Today's market is nuts.

I still can't believe there are good Squier offsets, and it's been long enough there are plenty of used ones floating around out there.

[marqueemoon]

The RSD bridge is not available a la carte.

The Custom Shop sounded WAY better than the others. Upgrading pickups on the Vintera would likely get it pretty close though, so I agree with his pick.

[mekhem]

The RSD bridge is not available a la carte.

That was my first reaction when I heard that.... "He" could probably get one... "We" cannot without buying the whole package...

[Gav Haus]

It was a great time capsule of all the reasons I sometimes want to swerve offsets these days. Low on facts, high on error, the Everyman plays the soup de jour guitar and offers hot takes to other MOR viewers. Which is of course all fine, it just rankles me and I know it shouldn’t.

It’s like bootcut jeans with square-toed dress shoes in video format.

[JSett]

I think it's wild that you can get so many options now. A lot of us here remember when Vintage, MIJ & AVRI were the only standard options

My first 2 Jazzmasters were vintage. This was late ‘80s - early ‘90s before the MIJ reissues. A friend grabbed one of those and I remember trying it out. It looked great but didn’t sound like the vintage JMs. We didn’t know it at the time but I guess the pickups are wound differently?

I really don’t know. I have heard they are basically Strat pickups in JM form, but I don’t know if that is true? I stuck with the vintage JMs after that until I got a “purple” J Mascis. Purple is my favorite color and I like sparkles. I ended up selling it too because it was “purple” in name only, I didn’t like the jumbo frets, or the TOM bridge. The pickups sounded okay, but still more Strat than my ‘63 JM.

I haven’t ever tried any of the AVRI models because I was put off by both the MIJ guitars. They look great, and they might sound great too, but I have a vintage version and don’t need another JM.

My first two were vintage too, but I bought them as a teenager from a pawn shop and didn't know, or care, about those sorts of things. It wasn't until about 7 or 8 years after I sold them (back to the pawn shop, for rent and weed money) and I bought a new MIJ off the shelf in 2008 that I started figuring out what I had back in the 90s and regretted my actions*

Oh well.

*routing for humbuckers and sticking Super Distortions in

[Mechanical Birds]

It was a great time capsule of all the reasons I sometimes want to swerve offsets these days. Low on facts, high on error, the Everyman plays the soup de jour guitar and offers hot takes to other MOR viewers. Which is of course all fine, it just rankles me and I know it shouldn’t.

It’s like bootcut jeans with square-toed dress shoes in video format.

Yeah. I learned nothing, noticed lots of mistakes. He played some cool riffs though