$200 Telecaster vs. $200 Jazzmaster
You didn't have the option of getting guitars like this for so cheap a few years back, but now you can.
I remember when Squier introduced both the Classic Vibe and Vintage Modified Series guitars to market. They were priced very well. I bought a few Jazzmasters (I currently own 2) and a few Telecasters (I own 2 of those also).
CV and VM Squier guitars today has risen in price significantly. For example, I got my '72 Thinline Tele right before the price increased to $450. Great guitar, but not exactly cheap anymore.
But then there's the Affinity Series from Squier. This is where you go when you want Fender style guitars cheap.
It's August 2018 as I write this. The Affinity Telecaster has been around for a while but got some slight updating, and the Affinity Jazzmaster HH is something that didn't even exist until 2017, so that's still fairly new.
For those that know the Squier brand, you're probably asking yourself "Isn't the Bullet Series cheaper?" Yes. But a Bullet Tele is an on-again/off-again thing where availability is concerned (my Bullet Tele is more or less a Guitar Center only thing), and the Jazz is Affinity only at this price point.
The guitars
Take the Squier Affinity Telecaster in Competition Orange and the Squier Affinity Jazzmaster HH in Black.
Both of these guitars have 2 pickups, 3-way switching, 21-fret necks, 6 inline sealed tuners and are hardtails (no tremolo).
What differs between the two are as follows:
- Jazzmaster has thru-body strings, Telecaster is top-loading.
- Jazzmaster has dual humbucker pickups, Telecaster has two single-coil pickups.
- Jazzmaster has an offset waist construction, Telecaster has center waist construction.
- Jazzmaster has contour cut in the rear of the body, Telecaster is a slab body.
The sound of the guitars is very different from each other. Telecaster has low-output single-coil twang while the Jazzmaster's humbuckers have greater output with less twang compared to a Tele.
Telecaster offers more choice
There's really only one problem with the Jazzmaster offering. Two colors (black or white), one neck choice (maple neck, rosewood fingerboard).
With the Telecaster, there are 8 color choices (2-Color Sunburst, Arctic White, Black, Butterscotch Blonde, Competition Orange, Race Green, Race Red, Slick Silver), and 2 neck choices (1-piece maple or maple neck, Indian Laurel fingerboard).
However, ultimately the decision boils down to whether you want humbuckers or single-coil, and whether you prefer a center waist or offset waist body guitar.
Jazzmaster is the better sit-down guitar
The Jazzmaster body shape (a design dating back all the way to the late 1950s) was designed first as a sit-down guitar.
This doesn't mean you can't play it standing as you obviously can, but it does have a shape that is more comfortable playing seated compared to a Telecaster.
This also doesn't mean you can't play a Telecaster slab shape seated. I do it all the time. But I'll be the first to admit that the Jazzmaster shape with its offset waist construction and nice contouring makes it the better sit-down guitar.
Which is more mod-friendly?
The Jazzmaster is the more mod-friendly because all electronics are housed under the pick guard, whereas with the Telecaster you have 3 areas to deal with (rear plate, pick guard, control plate.)
For things like swapping out pickups and such, the Jazz HH is far easier to deal with.
Which is better?
I give my nod to the Telecaster for these reasons:
1. More color choice.
Having 8 colors and 2 neck styles to choose from is nice.
2. Easier to fit in a gig bag or case.
The Jazzmaster may be the same 25.5" scale length as a Telecaster, but the overall length is longer, meaning it does not fit in regular-size gig bags or hard cases. I learned this the hard way.
Telecaster, on the other hand, fits in any guitar bag or case.
3. Slightly lighter in weight (usually.)
Jazzmasters are usually right around 8 lbs (3.6kg) and Telecasters are usually around 7lbs 10oz (3.5kg.)
This is not that much of a difference, but when every ounce counts and you want light, Telecaster is usually the lighter of the two. I say usually because sometimes an oddball Tele gets sent out of the factory that's over 8 lbs for whatever reason. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Similarly, sometimes you get lucky with a Jazzmaster and get a light one. My Sonic Blue JM is such an example, as I'm pretty sure it's about 7.5 lbs (3.4kg.)
Now of course, the easiest way to get a light electric guitar is to go semi-hollow. But where the cheap solid-body is concerned, the Telecaster is usually lighter than the Jazzmaster.
In the end, you still get something nice for just 200 bucks
There is one thing that makes Affinity better than Bullet Series Squier guitars, and that's the tuners.
For as long as I've seen Bullet and Affinity guitars from Squier in existence, the biggest cost cutting always happens at the tuners with Bullet. With Affinity it is immediately noticeable that the tuners are much better.
Affinity Series from Squier is genuinely good stuff that can take a beating. That along with its better tuners and better body finishing justifies its $200 price tag over $150 Bullet models.
If I had to choose 3 cheap guitar pedals...
If I weren't using a multi-effect floor unit and had to go with pedals, there are three I would use.
Before I get into that however, in my last newsletter I talked about effects, mentioning the old stuff I used to use and what I use now, which is the DigiTech RP360.
But I made mention that were I go to all-pedal, as in traditional pedal, I would use nothing but Behringer because they build dirt cheap BOSS clones.
Three things I require in my effect lineup are compressor, overdrive and delay, in that order.
Were I to do this with BOSS models, I would choose the CS-3, BD-2 and DM-2w. The total price for all 3 is not cheap.
However, if I do the same with Behringer pedals with models CS400, TO800 and VD400, the total price much cheaper than the BOSS pedals.
Do the Behringer pedals get the job done? Yes, they do.
Behringer is BOSS sound for cheap, with the only tradeoff being the plastic instead of metal cases.
This basically means as long as you don't treat the pedals harshly and keep them clean, they'll last a few years. And by that time they'll have more than paid for themselves.
If I had to give up my RP360 for just 3 pedals, Behringer would be my first choice, because dropping $75 instead of $350 is a lot nicer on my wallet.
The Led Zeppelin Bathroom Sound
When I do listen to Zep, Bathroom Sound is one of my favorite riffs to play personally.
What is Bathroom Sound? It's the song Out On The Tiles from the 1970 album Led Zeppelin III as a rough mix without vocals. I actually prefer this over the finished studio track because you can hear all the instruments so much better.
Side note: Bathroom Sound as far as I know is not available as a digital download. You gotta get the CD Deluxe Edition. It's on disc 2, track 5.
The song, and what I think about it
There are some songs by Zep that are nothing but riffs with Robert Plant belching out vocals over that do not fit at all. Out On The Tiles is one of those songs. When you hear it without vocals as Bathroom Sound, things start to sound a lot better.
What I like best about the song is the guitar is only using a mild overdrive. There's no fuzz box that I can hear and no wildly overdriven hot tube tone. It's just a simple midrange-tuned sound that's even and clear.
I suspect there was probably going to be a lead guitar track on this song originally, but instead there is no solo to be found. That's a good thing, because if one of Page's screechy guitar solos were present, it would have wrecked the song completely.
Is the guitar heard a Fender Telecaster or Gibson Les Paul? I have no idea. It could be a Tele played on the treble pickup with the tone rolled down, or it could be the Les Paul played on treble pickup with everything full-up to 10. I don't know. But I'm sure someone probably does.
This song is the Zep riff I play most. Once learned it's actually easy to play and fun to run through the riffs every so often. And because there's no solo, it's also easy to play it the whole way through...
...by yourself. Don't try to play this with a band. The timing on this song is not easy to get working with a full group. Bonham's drumming on this song is kinda bonkers, and I wouldn't dare go up to a drummer and say, "play this, thanks."
It's best to just practice this one at home to avoid an argument with a drummer.
How to use a looper pedal for playback of backing tracks
Recently, I've received a few questions on YouTube concerning how to do this with a looper pedal.
There are, surprisingly, a lot of guitar players out there who want to use a looper pedal as a simple music player. And by that I mean put backing tracks into the pedal, then select the song you want and play it back whenever needed.
When I was asked how to do this, I replied and said that doing so was a bit of a waste, and that it would be cheaper and easier to use a phone for song playback, fed out to an inexpensive mixer with Bluetooth wireless capability.
The reply I got back to that basically said, "Yeah, I know I can do that, but I really want to do this with a pedal."
All righty then.
Is this possible?
Yes.
How do you do it?
The DigiTech JamMan Solo XT has an AUX IN port. This is a smaller headphone style port where you can feed audio from your phone or other music player to it. It acts the same way the larger 1/4" ports do in that you can record from it.
Basically speaking, you feed in an entire backing track song as a recorded phrase. The only limitation is that the JamMan has a maximum record time of 10 minutes per memory location. You can stuff in a bunch of songs to the JamMan as long as no one song exceeds 10 minutes in length.
When saving each song, the only thing you really have to remember is to set each to Single Phrase (equivalent of "one shot") so the song doesn't auto-repeat when it ends.
That's basically it.
No, you can't import MP3 files
The JamMan records all songs as WAV files.
Yes, it is possible to import WAVs into the JamMan, but I don't recommend doing so because then your audio levels between songs will be all messed up.
I strongly suggest recording each backing track song you want to use in the JamMan manually. Yes, this will take time, but you can test the audio level of each to make sure each is the same. This will save you a ton of time in the long run because otherwise you will be constantly adjusting the Loop Level knob every time you switch between songs. That is an annoyance you don't need.
For an easier time when using this on stage...
...get the FS3X foot switch. This connects directly to the JamMan (see photo above, note the FOOTSWITCH port) and will allow you to go back and forth between memory locations without having to physically bend down to the floor every time you want to switch to a different song.
Why would anyone want to play backing tracks this way?
As noted above, I really thought this to be a waste since there are cheaper ways to do it.
But then I thought why someone would specifically want to do this through a pedal, and then it dawned on me...
...it's actually easier and more convenient for performing guitar players to play backing tracks this way.
When "it's all on the floor", the hands don't have to come off the guitar. Just find the backing track you want with a few taps of the footswitch, start playback and away you go. This is decidedly more convenient than dealing with a phone and a separate mixer.
So in other words, I didn't get it at first. But I do now. Using a looper for backing track playback is actually a good idea for the performing guitar player.
Electric guitar neck relief, truss rod and string height info
It's a fact that most guitar players have absolutely no idea how much relief to set when it comes to adjusting guitar neck bow with the truss rod. This is some quick info on what Fender recommends you use for measurements, along with some of my own thoughts on whether I feel they're correct or not.
I'm going to concentrate on Fender info here, but if you have an electric guitar with a 25.5" scale length, you can follow this and it should work.
For Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars with 7.25" neck radius (vintage style):
- Relief: 0.012" (0.3mm)
- String height bass side (wound strings): 5/64" (2mm)
- String height treble side (plain strings): 4/64" (1.6mm)
For Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars with 9.5" to 12" neck radius (modern style, what most guitarists have):
- Relief: 0.010" (0.25mm)
- String height: All strings set to 4/64" (1.6mm)
For Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars with 15" to 17" neck radius (super flat modern style):
- Relief: 0.008" (0.2mm)
- String height bass side (wound strings): 4/64" (1.6mm)
- String height treble side (plain strings): 3/64" (1.2mm)
The tool needed to be accurate about this stuff
A 26 blade master feeler gauge set.
This sounds like an expensive thing. It's not.
There are some people out there who say you can check string height measurements using certain American coins.
No American coin has the proper measurement you need.
- American quarter has a thickness of 1.75mm. This is 0.15mm too tall.
- American dime has a thickness of 1.35mm. This is 0.25mm too short.
- American nickel has a thickness of 1.95mm. This is 0.35mm too tall.
- American penny has a thickness of 1.52mm. This is very close to 1.6mm but still 0.08mm too short.
Get the feeler gauge set instead. Don't do the coin thing.
Relief height
This is the height of the string when you have a capo on the first fret and you're holding down the string on the last fret.
You obviously can't use coins of any kind to measure this because they're all too tall.
Again, get the feeler gauge set.
Fender's assumption
Fender makes a very brief mention that all their recommendations go on the assumption you're using the strings that came from the factory.
On modern Stratocaster and Telecaster guitars, that means the Fender 250L set in 9-42 size. Or to be more specific, the string sizes are .009, .011, .016, .024, .032, .042.
My experience with Fender's recommendations
They work for the most part, but don't take into account humidity shifts or if you use a different string size.
I live in Tampa Bay Florida, and at the time I write this it's summer, a rainy season. Humidity levels have a wacky way of working in The Sunshine State because of quick torrential rainfall on any given summer day. I've learned over the years to deal with this concerning how it affects my guitars with wood shifting and whatnot.
I use the second lightest string gauge available, 8-38. The only string lighter I'm aware of is 7 gauge. Dunlop makes them in 7-38 size. I can't use 7 because that's too light even for me.
Do Fender's recommendations work? If you stick with 9-42 strings, yes. If you don't, slight adjustments must be made.
For me personally, my strings are very close to the board. So close that if my 8-38 set was switched out with 10-46, I'd have to readjust both the relief and string heights to my preference - and this is totally normal whenever you switch around with string size.
Where humidity changes are concerned, dealing with neck wood shifting for guitars in Florida is just a fact of life, and again, I've learned to deal with it.
I have never had a good experience with a tech setting up a guitar to proper Fender spec
My complaint about guitar techs is the same complaint other guitarists have. For whatever ridiculous reason, they always set up the neck where the strings are high off the board. Sometimes way high. It's never set to proper Fender spec.
Why does this happen? Usually because no testing is ever done with the guitar in the seated position.
When a tech gets a guitar, most of the work has to be done with the guitar on a bench. However, the final test is supposed to be with the guitar being played in the seated position. If not, what was "perfect setup" on the bench ends up being awful when the guitar is actually played.
To avoid this crapola, learn how to set up your own guitar. It is time well spent. Only you can set up your guitar right.
In the end, Fender's recommendations mostly work as said above - if you set up your own guitar.