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Hey Guys,
So recently I have been getting into Jazz music quite a bit and wanted to play some on a electric guitar, but the problem is I don't know which one to go for. My budget is max 400 bucks, I think now would be a good time to look since the holidays are coming up so lots of discounts!! I went to guitar center a few times and I really liked the Squier by Fender J Mascis Jazzmaster, Rosewood Fretboard - Vintage White . It costs about 399 right now, after discount. What do you guys suggest?
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12-03-2015 12:00 AM
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You can play Jazz on any guitar if you like what you found and it's in your budget that sounds like a good guitar for you.
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+1. There's a recent post with a smokin SG you should watch :-)
Originally Posted by docbop
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I would suggest a squier tele just gotta find the right one
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mascis jazzmaster despite its name, might not be most peoples choice for a true "jazz" guitar...but it is a very solid, well made guitar..one of fmic squiers best...has tune-a-matic bridge and p90 in jazzmaster covers pickups..a nice guitar
unless you are ready to go to a more traditional jazz hollow body style guitar (at given budget) like one of the ibanez artcores or even an epi semi hollow, i'd think that be a good start...
mascis jm is great bang for the $$
luck
cheers
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There's a minty Epiphone Joe Pass on CL locally for $350. That'd be my recommendation.
I would also look at a Squier Tele--the Vintage Vibe Custom or Thinline would be a good choice.
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Go to Guitar Center on line used and type "Hollow," sort by price. You will see pages and pages of suitable guitars.
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Squier vintage vibe butterscotch tele! Can't go wrong as a starter, plus super easy to upgrade pups. Enjoy!
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+1 a nice little git there. I had one like that in my garage sale (with upgraded pups) last week for $150 and couldn't sell it. A friend offered me $125 and I took it. Originally Posted by Michaelmm
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I agree regarding the Squire Vintage Vibe telecaster. Amazing bang-for-the-buck, and a really nice jazzy tone from the neck pickup with the tone rolled back a touch!
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I've thought about the Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster also because it has
the very tall frets and with the tremolo it's essentially a tailpiece guitar
both of which I feel will make the strings more pliant for my weak hands.
I don't have the scratch to burn and I'm reluctant to take on a heavy plank
I can't try first (none available near me.)
I've got no idea how it might sound, but couldn't resist chipping in; best of luck!
P.S.: nice to meet you
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Look for some of Jazzbow's posts on this forum. He has had a Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster and loved it. In fact it appears in a very recent thread. You could message him for further insight.
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It is a lot harder for an inexperienced(on the jazz front) guitarist to get the traditional "jazz tone" out of a solid-body guitar like a telecaster. I don't doubt that those with experience such as docbop can sound like jazz on a telecaster but I wonder if it is the best choice for someone getting into jazz?
I first started getting into jazz while studying under Irish jazz guitarist Phil McDermott. I was studying guitar and he was my teacher, at the time I would only play Hendrix on strats(terribly, I might add). After about a year I finally started caving... Started to really feel the "bug" when it came to jazz. So I went to the local chain music store, which is the only instrument store in the city, kind of like Guitar center. They had almost nothing but Strats, Teles, SG's and LP's, but I spotted a conspicuously orange hollowbody, an Ibanez AF 75. I decided to try it and immediatelly fell in love with the feeling. It was so much more resonant, and you could feel the entire guitar responding and making sound next to your body, unlike the Strats to which I was accustomed. It was only $350 but I had to ask my father to borrow some of it, because I was only making $400 a month next to studying. We went in, and because we have been loyal customers for years we got the price down to $290.
It became my main guitar and helped me evolve exponentially as a musician. My affection for the guitar was always how... organic it felt to play. Despite the thick poly finish, it really responds well and is a fantastic deal.
I asked my teacher about strings and he told me about flatwounds. Bought some, also loved the feeling of those. I use 12's on this guitar which is now my secondary guitar and 11's on my main guitar, which is a Gibson ES-139.
I will say this: the ES-139, while my favorite guitar in the whole universe at the moment, DOES need to be paired with the right amp to get a "legitimate" jazz sound. It doesn't go well with JC-120's IMO but is a dream with my Peavey Stereo Chorus 212. The AF-75 on the other hand, sounds like a jazzbox with any amp. Have to hand it to Ibanez.
Additionally, they are very strong. Above is a picture of me using it on its first gig. I think I'm soloing on Blue Bossa in the picture. Anyway, only minutes before the concert I was standing backstage with it "strapped on" as in the picture, at chest height. I wasn't holding it and somehow my strap fell off, and the AF 75 dropped from chest height right on the floor. It messed up the clip-on tuner(pictured as well) which now doesn't display properly, but the Ibanez not only kept in tune, but didn't even get a ding or scratch. I'm 6 foot 1 so it's a drop which would easily kill off my Gibson.
You can hear Pat Metheny talk about his Ibanez guitar here, I believe he mentions their strength:
I will always recommend Ibanez hollowbodies to those inquiring, because of how great my personal experience with them was. And as I'm sure you'll discover, many professionals use Ibanez hollowbodies. Many here on this forum, and I also saw a lot of them at the University of Stavanger Institute of Music and Dance. For me, it was integral in musical development because with it came a different way of approaching music.
Here's another picture of me and my teacher playing a duet of Metheny's "James" on my graduation exam/concert. It's a tiny picture because I used it as a signature on a different site.
Best of luck on your journey!Last edited by mr quick; 12-03-2015 at 08:26 AM. Reason: $400 a month, not week.
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I couldn't agree with Marwin more on Ibanez. They make some really respectable models with appointments / features only available on much higher end guitars, and if you're not disinclined to buying used and are patient there are some terrific deals out there on gits that were "already modded" :-)
Depending what country you're in selection may be limited so Gretsch, and Epiphone are also good choices in your price range.
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You can get a brand new Epiphone ES-335 Pro for 399 at AMS or Guitar Center. Excellent guitar for the price with a lot of tonal range thanks to the split coil feature. Thanks to the thin profile neck it is very easy to play and overall has a good balance. I bought one as a cheap, carry to work, haul around to practice on guitar that has enough volume un-plugged to be heard above normal noise conditions. They come in 3 basic colors and also have a Sunburst Tea finish which is really nice. Seems to be well built and with a set of round wounds plays very well. If the 335 body is too big for you look at the 339. Same configuration, smaller body. My 335 is the one on the right of the couch.
Good luck.Last edited by Al Br.; 12-03-2015 at 09:22 AM. Reason: added photo
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This would be a good choice:
Ibanez AF75 - Vintage Sunburst | Sweetwater.com
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I would recommend an Ibanez Artcore also. Very nice and highly playable archtops for a very small investment.
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If you can stretch it to $550, Look for an Epiphone Emperor Regent. The great thing about this guitar is that it is superior when played unplugged. The acoustic sound of this guitar is really nice. When plugged in, it has a nice woody sound that makes it versatile for all types of Jazz playing. Cant go wrong with an Emperor Regent..
JDLast edited by Max405; 12-03-2015 at 11:34 AM.
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Second-hand MIM Telecaster, or that Jazzmaster you are looking at would be just fine. String it up with .11-.48 or .12-.50 strings (I recommend the latter), and enjoy. [When the Telecaster came out, .12 gauge was basically a light-gauge string.]
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If you like the J Mascis Jazzmaster you should get it. I haven't seen one in person, but they get rave reviews. If you decide that you want to upgrade, or that you don't want to play jazz guitar (or guitar at all), then you might have a wider pool of buyers than selling a used entry level archtop.
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After fighting with archtops for decades, I would suggest a Tele! It doesn't get that classic chunk-chunk comping sound, but if you aren't wedded to the classic jazz sound or look, a Tele is versatile.
My preference has over the years moved from humbuckers to single coils, but you can immediately get a fatter sound from a neck humbucker. I wish there was a Squier with a neck HB I could recommend. The ones I know either have a hot pickup or cheap wide-range-humbuckers, which I'm not wild about.
Could someone recommend a less expensive T-style with a neck HB that can work for jazz? One that comes to mind is the G&L Tribute Bluesboy:
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Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
Squier makes a "vintage modified deluxe" and a "vintage modified custom" which both have neck humbuckers and are $299.
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Ibanez & Epiphone both have numerous good choices in your price range.
Used market will get you even more guitar for the $$ if you luck into the right one.
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A few months ago I bought a very lightly used Fender Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar HH from a local chain used music store, Music-Go-Round. The body is sunburst with a comfy 24" scale rosewood board neck. It came with two Duncan-Designed humbuckers made to resemble a Seymour Duncan 59 neck and a JB bridge. They were pretty good for cheapo factory units but I had my guy install a set of Duncan Phat Cats I had lying around. As for jazz tones, I was going to replace the D'Ad Xl 110 wounds with a set of Chromes but it sounds and plays so nicely that I haven't done it yet. This is the first short scale guitar I owned and, with the pretty large frets and fairly slinky strings, it is the easiest to play electric I ever held. Fit and finish is very good. It has a stacked volume/tone pot for each pickup and they work perfectly with no noise. I was really impressed with the quality of this Indonesia made guitar. It cost me $169. I'm looking for others in the same series just to stick some other pickups in.
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Yep, the J Mascis Jazzmaster (JMJM) is a great all round guitar. Those pickups are P90 types so they can go all mellow on the rhythm circuit to balls out rock with the lead circuit. I love the 43mm width at the nut and as a whole the neck is chunkier than a standard Fender styled neck. Originally Posted by abag15
I bought my JMJM back when they first came out. I needed a guitar that could switch from mellow to rock without faffing about with two different guitars.
It wasn't perfect, I tweaked the rhythm circuit for more mellow tones with a phat b'stard cap.
I did a thread on the tweaks here...
https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guita...ts-set-up.html
Unfortunately the pictures are no longer available but you might get something from the text.
At the moment I'm involved with a band for a charity event and we're doing 3 x 30 minute sets.
So I have to cover top 40 pop tunes from 60's to date and a smidge of jazzy blues numbers.
The JMJM with a Cube 60 and some pedals and I can get all styles and tones.
As a stand alone guitar for that smoky jazz tone it will do a version of it but it ain't no ES175.
But once you get those fingers educated and find your tone then it doesn't matter what guitar you play!
But I think you'll get a kick out of the JMJM , it's not sproingy like a conventional Jazzmaster; the P90 type p/ups make the difference for me.
I also changed the pot values on the lead circuit from 1meg to 500k volume and 250k toneLast edited by jazzbow; 12-03-2015 at 05:10 PM.
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