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Dick, having owned both, permit me to offer my opinion on the Jazzmaster
and Jaguar guitars. My intention is not to initiate a series of flame
wars over which is best, only share my personal experiences with these
guitars, each of which has it's own merits.
The biggest difference between the two was the scale length. If you are
used to playing the wider-fretted Strats, picking up a Jaguar can make
playing on the upper frets a bit difficult (especially if you have big
fingers). The Jazzmaster has the same scale length as the Strats, which
was much more comfortable for me (this is another reason why I am going
to be selling my Les Paul and SG guitars). As far as tone, the Jaguar
was hands-down the winner for flexibility (mainly because of the extra
pickup, and switchable circuitry). Although I did prefer the Jazzmaster
neck-pickup tone over any of the Jaguar settings, from purely an
appearance standpoint, the Jaguar was more impressive (even though both
share the same body contour). The weakest point of both guitars was the
bridge; much has been written about alterations that can be made to
improve the stability, including replacing it with Mustang pieces,
Tune-O-Matic bridges, and other add-on remedies (Buzz-Stop, etc.). With
either guitar, plan on possible additional expense for bridge correction
and pickup replacement (specifically for the MIJ units). Hope some of
this helps!
Best regards, Dana Vincent
Dick Messick wrote:
> My "love to have" list includes a
> Jag or Jazzmaster, but I don't know which one yet . . .
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