It sure looks cool, but that humbucker...hmmm

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I'm not much of a musician folks, have a strat, but I love the look of Phantom Frank's axe, he sounds pretty good with it too...

Laphillyboy
New member Jim here - adding my two cents...

I am a Surf Newbie, but for now I have to vote for my Mustang - let me explain...

I've owned alot of guitars over the years including several Strats. But when I listen to the Surf classics from 1962 - 65 the sound I hear from the guitars reminds me mostly of Mustang pickups through a low wattage (15 - 25 watt) Tube amp. Very metallic with a bit of roundness to it - and the occasional out of phase sound.

Now I know the Jaguar does all this (and has the Tone wheels to adjust for lead or rhythm) and I've played several Jags recently- but I have to say those are some fairly harsh sounding single coils to me. Almost too overwound in my opinion. The only way I got the sound I wanted from the Jag was running it through a massive 15 inch in a Fender RI amp - I think it was either a TremoVerb or Vibroverb or something but it weighed a ton and cost about $3000! I also prefer a curved fretboard - like a Strat or Mustang to the Jag which is fairly flat - more like a Gibson. But that is just my personal taste.

I guess I am all alone on this one but I have to tsay the Mustang Dynamic Vibrato works great for those dipping and warbling Surg Chords ala Perfidia and Surf Rider. I don't even use the Arm - I justy lean on the tailpiece an shake the guitar - seems to work great for me.

My MIJ Strat also sounds terrific for Surf - the only problem is Vibrato is a Floyd Rose (I know - sacrilege!) and there is a Dimarzio SD Humbucker at the bridge - - but I use it for the gorgeous sounding middle and neck pickups - I'm telling you, the sweet vintage Fender tone is to die for.

I also have an American Tele I've owned more than 20 years that sounds AMAZING for stuff like YELLOW JACKET, DICK TRACY and other Spy Tunes. If it had a Vibrato arm I'd use it all the time but I wouldn't dare - it is totally stock (it also weighs twice as much as my Mustang).

So I gues that's three cents, not two.. I can't comment on the Jazzmasters because I haven't had the pleasure of playing a real one through an amp - though I did like the look and feel of the neck on the one I played unplugged.

JM's are awefully pricey... anyone have any experience with these JM knockoffs - I see them on eBay and they look pretty appealing for about 1/5 the price of a JM Reissue.

Jay Turser JT-SFM (Surf Master)
SX Brand SJM
or
DiPinto, Eastwood, Italia's etc...

Thanks.

Jim C.

I don't know what was wrong with the Jaguar you played but the Jaguar neck radius is the same as any other vintage styled Fender. The neck is shorter than a standard Fender neck however if you liked the Mustang neck then you should like the Jaguar neck because the Mustang essentially has a Jaguar's neck. Does that make sense?

As for the sound your hearing that might just be old recordings. The Mustang wasn't even around during the majority of the first wave and Most of those guys were using higher wattage amps than a 15 or 25 .

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surfraptor
I'm not much of a musician folks, have a strat, but I love the look of Phantom Frank's axe, he sounds pretty good with it too...

there was an extended article/interview with phantom Frank in dutch guiat mag "gitarist" oct '06 issue. it's in dutch, but he says a few inetrsing things.

first, he mentions he actually likes strats and esp. tele's over Jazzmasters. he's built some strats and teles himself from gathered parts.
about the JM "Jazzmasters for me are real stage-guitars. the tremsystem is very good, the guitar stays perfectly in pitch for an hour and a half... I actually like the tele best. An honest instrument wich sounds like it is: merciless, cause you can hear every note."

this goes for other projects, not the Ph4 though, he mentions Madhur was recorded with the JM.

about his JMs:
"I'm not a dogmatic pre-CBS man, cause all my Jazzmasters are fall '65, just after the take-over What's special about them is that they have dots and binding: before january '65 they had no binding, and in the beginning of '66 the got block inlays. these are right inbetweeen, and appearantly that's best for my hands".

that guitar sounds KILLER live!

WR
WR

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strat's still leading..

interesting read WR

WR

surfraptor
strat's still leading..

interesting read WR

if you don't have it Ill scan it and send it to you by email (the offer extends to anyone else who reads Dutch )

You got mail, thanks!

That Jazzmaster with the four extra holes is noneother than Fender's "Compton" model, factory bullit holes included.

Next is the "Bay Area JM" model in "rainbow color burst" with an optional "commie red' sparkle finish, and last but not least the "Orange County Jazzmaster" in pure white.

g

I heard a funny Stephen Colbert quote...

Washington DC: "The chocolate city with a marshmellowy center with a graham cracker crust of corruption"

Weird..... Where the hell did the strings go? They would have to be at a weird angle from the head stock to the fretboard, and I cant see how they would be tuned, or even keep from breaking. Anyone know how it was strung?

Google the Tielman brothers or Indo-Rock. There are pages out there and they tell you how they tuned. The Jazzmaster with it's saddles made it "easy" to add strings.

The Tielman brothers also at one point had 2 Bass VI's in the band, each one tuned differently.

Through the wonders of YouTube, we in the US can now see some of their performances. Wild stuff!

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