Custom vs. Budget Upgraded Electric Guitars

Despise that bridge, though.

I know - I just need to get one. Don’t know why I’ve avoided it for so long.

Thanks for the resource, Anders!

I figure a (mostly-) self-built guitar will hold literally no value outside of what the parts could be sold for, but there's that appeal of having something that actually fits exactly what you're looking for.

There’s definitely a lot to be said for retail, since you get to have a hands on experience with the instrument.

I think the grinding sound of he bridge is just part of the Jazzmaster sound. Does the mastery bridge still have that?

I've built guitars and played guitars from just about every manufacturer. Honestly, buying something you LIKE PLAYING is #1. Playability can't be oversold. Pickups can be changed to get tones you want, but playing a guitar that fits your hands well just can't be beat.

That said, tonewoods are bullshit. Most of the innate tone is the pickup and the string combination. The rest is technique.

I think the absolute best bang for the Fender buck is the Squire Classic Vibe series. I've told the story here a few times, but here it goes once again..

My cousin and I were looking for a Tele for the studio. I was prepared to pay $$$ for a real Fender american tele, but when we drove around to the guitar shops and played them, none of them were really feeling good to either of us. A lot of them had real issues with finish. It was quite disappointing honestly. I've been playing Ibanez as my main guitars for a long time and I had gotten used to how well they are made for the price and I felt totally underwhelmed with Fenders.

Anyway, my cousin saw a sunburst tele sitting on the wall and he grabbed it down before realizing it was a Squire. He almost put it back but we decided to play it.

It was RIGHT. Everything felt good. Stock setup was actually decent too. Sounded fine. Played nice. Was 400$ and not 1500$.

I bought it.

I put a fender custom bridge pickup in it and now it's one of my favorite guitars to play and I've had no less than a dozen offers from musicians to buy it. Many of them liked it better than their Fender Teles.


Oh and to further stick a knife into jazzmaster bridges.. Don't. Just dont.

I do a lot of indie bands and they LOVE jazzmasters for some reason even though NONE of them use anything but the bridge pickup. HATE the bridge. It's constantly slightly out of intonation no matter how much you work on one. Most end up using one of my other studio guitars instead just to get takes that stay in tune.

A great setup guy is worth his weight in gold.

I find it hard to judge guitars by the store setups. Sometimes... often? They take em outta the box, tune em up and hang it. Rare that any store does a full blown setup.

Even if they do my own preferences lean towards heavy strings & higher then typical action...

Like my main rides are Les Paul's with 11s... when I go into a store and grab a fender or Ibanez with floating trem & 9s it bums me out.

A couple of semi-similar things here. I've nearly built two telecasters from scratch. But the projects are not finished, so I can't report really on them. I botched the necks so I'll have to buy necks from someone else. It's hard to build a guitar without proper training and guidance. But the bodies, fingers crossed, might be OK and I have all the other parts on hand. Something on the back burner that I'm somewhat eager to resolve, to find out. I love guitars.

I got a Squier Affinity Jazzmaster HH for like, 199 bucks or something, just an absolute dogfood cheap guitar. I refinished the neck (hated the finish that came on it, sticky) and put in all new electronics. Bridge is the stock hardtail strat-style. Boring, but I like it. At first I had EMG pickups in it (robschnapf wondered about this on instagram, and he was right.) Eventually settled on some high output Dimarzio pickups in this beast. It's sort of a "Jazzblaster" guitar in the style of Lee Ronaldo or maybe Kurt Kobain. I added a coil split push pull pot to both pickups. This guitar does rock, there's no doubt about that. It feels a little cheap, looks a little cheap, but like somebody else was saying, you plug it in, and it rocks. Has the Jazzmaster rat-rod vibe. I also added locking tuners. The Jazzmaster body does something, it has a heavy tone, no matter what else you do.

I'd like to have a fancy vintage style jazzmaster someday, that's a crapshoot like jeremy said, "what the hell is going on with these Fender Jazzmaster guitars?" A bunch of flea market nonsense with all kinds of price points. That's why I got in at the cheapest level. But the American Professional Jazzmaster is really appealing to me. I doubt I could afford it, but it seems like the right thing.

You might also look at the G&L ones, they're supposedly built right. Maybe kind of bizzaro not to say Fender on the headstock, but worth a look anyway. George and Leo, Leo was there for a while.

I had a friend that was crazy about the Mastery bridges. He talked about them too much which made me hate everything about them. But if I can divide the actual product, from that person and their personality, there might be something there, for me personally, separate from the hype. The price would be a put-off, but hey, if it's the best thing, maybe it's worth it?

I have another friend, who's a bit more respectful, that says the J Mascis Squier is pretty much hard to argue with, out of the box. So I have that in the back of my mind too...not expensive. There's a second person I used to know who has played the same guitar. Both gigging guitarists, bandleaders.

But I commend you for asking the Jazzmaster Question. There's no one answer. People have taken them in wildly different directions. Sort of like the quest for a "Klon" pedal or a tube screamer. It's whatever you make of it, and that's what's great about it.

I think the J Mascis Jazzmaster is a solid way to go.
Swap out the trem.
I really like Descendant Vibrato and/or the Stay Trem.
I always change the volume pot value from 1meg.
That value makes em to bright in my opinion.
250k works and if you want it a little brighter, 500k.
Did this to my 63 Jazzmaster and love it.
It still sounds like a Jazzmaster with the one advantage of it relating to your strat and tele better.
You don’t have to readjust the amp and turn down the treble.
The pot value gives it Just a little haircut off the top.

I have been working with a local Luthier to get a small run of higher spec'ed Custom line Strats made with a few personal tweaks.
Its been a going for a while now due to shortage of supplies out there. But there's a lot to know and a lot of finer points that really only a guitar maker could appreciate in higher spec'ed guitars.
It's harder to get nicer reasonable priced well made guitars in Australia. Things like boutique Nash guitars and MJT's and Kelton Swade, Suhr etc are all big $$$$ here.

A little late on this but as somebody who did this whole dance about ten years ago and modded the shit out of a J Mascis JM, seriously just get one of those.  Stock, it is a great instrument.  Put in a Wilkinson roller bridge or modified Mustang bridge (or Mastery or StayTrem if you want to spend more $$ for marginal improvements) and you're good to go.  I put in a USA trem at some point and it was honestly exactly the same as the stock trem so I sold it and went back to the stock trem.  The stock pickups are more P90 style than Jazzmaster and that's not a bad thing (less bright).  But really go find one and play one - they have the best neck going right now too.  

A lot of this is understanding that your trying to build a guitar not just assembling the best parts. It’s a lot like building a hot rod, the best parts may look good on paper but when you drive the thing you don’t care what’s on any part it’s how they work together.
knowing what you like and works gets a lot further than any catalog.