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This from an e-mail letter I received:
I'm lead guitar and co-songwriter of Longboard Ranch, a surf/
instro band that started in late 1998. Initially covering classic
intro tunes, in our first year we were hired to play the Glendale
Cruise Night, which has hosted Dick Dale, The Surfaris, The
Chantays, The Champs and quite a few other notable and
famous acts.
In 2002 we released our first CD, on "Surf City Records", entitled
"Surfin' Out West". This CD contains 22 original tracks, all of
which are like a time warp back to 1963. Because one of our
members, Loyd Davis, co-wrote the immortal "Wave Walkin'", we
did our own version of that also. Phil Dirt on Reverb Central
gave us 4-stars for the CD and gave 4 of the songs 5-stars each!
The CD is for sale on ebay, item #4004619706, in case you're
interested.
I'm not sure what the Japs did, this time around, but these are
the best Jazzmasters I've ever played. It may be that the metal
sleeves for the bridge posts have been made with thicker, more
resonant metal at the bottoms. That would make a tremendous
difference on the natural sustain of which the guitar is capable.
Also, gently filing the two bridge height-adjusting screws to
round the bottoms slightly would help versus the very pointed
profile they have from the factory.
While not purely a betting man, I'm inclined to believe that the "Q"
series of Jazzmasters from Japan could go down as one of the
best iterations of the Jazzmaster ever, and if maintained in
pristine, mint condition, may have some collectiblity in future
years - In terms of quality, they are definitely on a par with
Custom Shop efforts, and the one you have sounds like a
keeper!
On the CIJ Jazzmaster, there are only two improvements that the
guitar could use. If you really want the best sound possible for
surf music, I'd recommend spending the $120.00 for a pair of
Seymour Duncan Vintage Reissue Jazzmaster pickups. They
are rectangular-wound like the originals, have virtually identical
output to the originals, and use high-quality alnico magnetic
poles.
If you're not handly with wiring, a guitar tech can transplant the
pickups for you at about $50.00.
The other improvement you can do yourself, it's that easy.
Through www.guitarpartsresource.com, you can purchase the
"Buzz-Stop" which attaches to the Jazzmaster tailpiece using two
existing screws. This puts a low-rise roller immediately behind
the bridge, causing the strings to approach the bridge from a
lower level, thereby substantially increasing the strings'
downforce on the bridge. This helps increase sustain and helps
eliminate the annoying "string-hop" that can happen when
stretching strings, doing strin-bends, or just playing
aggressively. The "Buzz-Stop" costs about $40.00, which is
quite reasonable for the benefits it brings to the Jazzmaster
bridge.
Also, my preference is to play my leads with the selector in the
middle position, and I compensate the pickups by lowering the
neck pickup to about 1/16" to 1/8" rise over the pickguard, and
raise the bridge pickup to about 1/8" under the strings. The only
amps for me are the vintage Fender tube amps, silver-faces are
ok as long as you dont use the volume boost or master volume
circuits. Played clean they sound as good as black-faces to me.
And essential is to have a properly tuned Fender outboard
Reverb unit. Also, with the Jazzmaster, it helps to have a Graphic
EQ so you can punch up and reinforce the guitar's sound.
