Why I haven't bought another Jazzmaster

I used to love the Jazzmaster, but one thing keeps me from getting another.

This is something I was asked in email, and it's something I can talk about at length, which is why I wrote this.

For a time, I was all about the Jazzmaster. In total, I owned 4 of them. Three Squiers and one Fender. But then I stopped and went Telecaster and then back to Stratocaster.

Why?

First I'll say the main reason is price, and I'll talk more about that in a moment. For now, let's just talk about the guitar itself.

The guitar was designed originally to be played as a sit-down instrument. Obviously, it can be played standing, but like most people, I practice played seated. The Jazzmaster does very, very well there. Unbelievably comfortable. That's the best part.

The worst part of the Jazzmaster is the grounding issue that can be difficult to fix, putting it politely. Every Jazzmaster built with the old style electronics has the problem I'm about to describe. What happens is that when not touching the bridge or strings with your hand, electronic buzzing noise happens. This gets annoying real quick. The reason it happens is because the bridge rests in two "cups", with two points touching at the bottom of each cup. This is a very small point of contact and not enough to get the pickups to shut up. The only way to fix this is to shield the entire routed area under the pick guard with copper shielding tape (aluminum foil won't work, it's not good enough), then run a small wire or extra piece of copper shielding to the cup closest to the volume knob. This provides the metal-to-metal contact that finally gets the pickups to shut up...

...until it fails at some point, and then you have to re-shield it. And you'll have to keep re-shielding it every time it fails after that.

Does the Jaguar have this same problem? No. Jag pickups have those little pickup 'shields' (they look like shark teeth) that prevent that issue from happening.

Even though I know the Jazzmaster has this issue, I'd still like to get another one at some point.

So why haven't I?

Price.

The only Jazzmaster made that has all the proper electronics for the lowest price is the Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster. It costs too much for what it is. The guitar used to be $275. It's now significantly more than that and not worth it.

Yes, there are other cheaper Jazzmasters, but they don't have the proper 2-circuit electronics and don't have the proper bridge or vibrato type either.

For a true Jazzmaster, you either have to buy the Squier, or part one together yourself.

Why haven't I parted one together? Again, price.

Parting together a Strat or Tele is cheap. Parting together a Jazzmaster is not. The bodies, necks, pickups, bridges and vibrato systems are all significantly more expensive to source. Why? Because the Jazzmaster is not as copied as Strats and Teles are.

I can put together completed Strats and Teles all day for under $150. I'm not saying you can build a fantastic guitar for that price. But I am saying you can have a complete working guitar for that price. There's no way to do that with a Jazzmaster.

And as far as used Squier Jazzmasters are concerned, good luck trying to find one for under $350. These guitars can't be had cheap, but it's not for the reason that you think. It's not that these guitars hold their value because they don't. It's because most used proper Jazzmasters are barely used and are still in like-new condition.

Actual used Squier Jazzmasters hardly ever show up for sale and I know exactly why. They wear out really easily. I know this from experience.

Even if you went so far as to part together Squier-to-Squier Jazzmaster parts off eBay, same result. You're going to easily spend over $300 to put together a complete working guitar.

Strats and Teles may be very common, but the advantage of that it's easy and moreover cheap to not only buy but also part guitars together.

Guitars wear out with regular play. Happens all the time. Replacing Strats and Teles is cheap. Replacing Jazzmasters? Never cheap.

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Published 2020 Jan 7