erlend
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by erlend on Mar 16, 2018 12:08:20 GMT
I've been Reading through the threads i could find about the JA-60. It is lightweight, and seems to be a great guitar for the price. The only downside I read about is the neck.
The Jazzmaster is really a bit too hipster for my taste, but still some of my favourite bands growing up played, and sounded really great, on Jazzmaster.
Sooo... I'm thinking of ordering a JA-60 and put in a pair of Fender Pure Vintage Jazzmaster PU's.
Anything else I should know about this guitar? Are the tuners OK? What value pots does it have? Anything else needs to be changed?
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Post by DerAlex on Mar 16, 2018 13:22:06 GMT
In my P90 guitar I put in pups from Craig Vineham (www.vineham.com) and they are the best sounding P90s I ever heard. I have the Blues Dog. Even better than Seymour Duncan Vintage P90s and much cheaper. If you want to use both volume and tone - I had the best experience with 500k volume and 250k for tone - always log ones. Bourns are really good. The electronics on cheap guitars are usually crap - you should replace them asap (and use 50s wiring). BTW: Craig also makes special Jazzmaster pups. I had a look at the Fender ones and I would doubt they fit in the soapbar mounts of the JA60. You can ask Craig if he would be able to put the Jazzmaster in a Soapbar housing. Such special mods are the biggest advantage of custom wound pups imho. www.vineham.com/Bass%20&%20other_pickups.htmlI found this thread here where you see that the Fender pups need those 4 holes to fix the pups in place: www.gretsch-talk.com/threads/new-vineham-pups.159576/
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DefJef
THBC Moderator
Due to musical differences I've decided I can't work with myself any more.
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Post by DefJef on Mar 16, 2018 13:38:40 GMT
...unless you don't like 50's wiring The only odd thing about the JA-60 and every other Jazzmaster copy out there, it seems to me, is the body size. It kind of looks ok in photos but then you get one and it kind of looks odd. It seems even smaller than a strat body. HOWEVER, a true Jazzmaster can feel a bit of a lump and heavy too so this Slimmer's World model may be a better choice anyway. It would be cool to put genuine Jazzmaster type pickups in though. P90s are nothing like them. But I like P90s. I just got a Revelation Jazzmasteresque guitar which has great splittable Entwistle H90s (humbuckers in a P90 case) which are giving me really enjoyable humbucker sounds and the sound of a P90 when split. I can't decide which I prefer and am glad to have both. The H90s aren't hot at all for humbuckers and very musical. Apparently they will be available as aftermarket pickups very soon. I'd never worry about what image a guitar has (although I know what I like). Hipsters can come and go. A nice guitar is far more important.
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Post by DerAlex on Mar 16, 2018 13:44:43 GMT
Who doesn‘t like 50s wiring? Now both of you make me spend the afternoon checking how Jazzmasters differ from P90s. Maybe the JA60 OW just became quite interesting.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 13:53:16 GMT
Harley Benton JA guitars DO NOT have Jazzmaster style pickups! Since you are going for Jazzmaster TONE I thought you should know.
EDIT; sorry I just noticed you lads mentioned this. I had the reply window open for too long ... my son woke up had to get him.
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Post by DerAlex on Mar 16, 2018 14:31:57 GMT
Wow, what fantastic sound of the 59 Jazzmaster in that excellent video: The new Squier Jazzmasters sound muddy as hell compared to the 59. I will ask Craig now if his Jazzmaster pups have this sparkle (and judging from his P90 and humbuckers I think YES) and if he could wind them in a soapbar. I’m seriously excited!
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3,968 posts
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Post by salteedog on Mar 16, 2018 14:34:16 GMT
I have a JA60 with stock Wilkinson P90s....I think they are great sounding pickups.
Stock the guitar has A250 tone pot, a B250 vol pot and 22nf cap. 500k pots would make it a little brighter but I prefer it the way it is.
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erlend
Harley Benton Club Junior Member
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Post by erlend on Mar 16, 2018 14:41:33 GMT
Thanks for all replies! 😎 Need to check some more pics to see how it looks when people play it. The small, leightweight body is one of the reasons why I’m interested, but not if it looks strange. 🙃 Regarding tone, at least it has the right scale length. I’ll definitely have to swap out the pickups for genuine JM pickups. I was hoping the body had a swimming pool route, but I see now from the pics in another thread that I’ll have to route it a bit myself. (Or hack and slash) theharleybentonclub.proboards.com/thread/1899/harley-benton-ja60-olympic-white?page=6&scrollTo=26054I thought 50’s wiring was a LP only thing. Does it work well on Fender-style single coils?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 14:48:34 GMT
I hated 50's wiring on my Tele! The pickups lost their dynamics and that fine ODed creamy sizzle. Just terrible sounding.
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Post by DerAlex on Mar 16, 2018 14:57:10 GMT
Thanks for all replies! 😎 Need to check some more pics to see how it looks when people play it. The small, leightweight body is one of the reasons why I’m interested, but not if it looks strange. 🙃 Regarding tone, at least it has the right scale length. I’ll definitely have to swap out the pickups for genuine JM pickups. I was hoping the body had a swimming pool route, but I see now from the pics in another thread that I’ll have to route it a bit myself. (Or hack and slash) theharleybentonclub.proboards.com/thread/1899/harley-benton-ja60-olympic-white?page=6&scrollTo=26054I thought 50’s wiring was a LP only thing. Does it work well on Fender-style single coils? I only have experience with HB and P90 in LP type guitars and there I think 50s wiring is great. My comment makes sense if you keep the P90s as they are in the JA60. If you want to mod them with genuine JM pups then please forget my comment.
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Post by DerAlex on Mar 16, 2018 15:00:00 GMT
I have a JA60 with stock Wilkinson P90s....I think they are great sounding pickups. Stock the guitar has A250 tone pot, a B250 vol pot and 22nf cap. 500k pots would make it a little brighter but I prefer it the way it is. That‘s interesting to hear as this setup was too muddy for my taste. I also prefer log pots on the tone because I like the reaction to turns (with linear pots it‘s not immediate enough for my liking).
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DefJef
THBC Moderator
Due to musical differences I've decided I can't work with myself any more.
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Post by DefJef on Mar 16, 2018 15:02:06 GMT
Thanks for all replies! 😎 Need to check some more pics to see how it looks when people play it. The small, leightweight body is one of the reasons why I’m interested, but not if it looks strange. 🙃 Regarding tone, at least it has the right scale length. I’ll definitely have to swap out the pickups for genuine JM pickups. I was hoping the body had a swimming pool route, but I see now from the pics in another thread that I’ll have to route it a bit myself. (Or hack and slash) theharleybentonclub.proboards.com/thread/1899/harley-benton-ja60-olympic-white?page=6&scrollTo=26054I thought 50’s wiring was a LP only thing. Does it work well on Fender-style single coils? Some guitars can look strange in some situations and not in others. I've come across a few recently that look awful vertically on a stand and perfectly fine sideways or in a player's hands. Whether the JA60 looks silly will possibly depend on whether you think a Jazzmaster looks a bit big when you see people play them. To some extent I ended up looking past all that and accepted that an awful lot of it isn't a Jazzmaster so it needn't look like one.
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Post by DerAlex on Mar 16, 2018 15:03:35 GMT
In this video Cory is playing the JA60. He is a big guy and I don‘t think it looks weird on him: As there are no second hand Jazzmasters available in Germany (at least almost no affordable ones) I either have to go the JA60 or Squier Deluxe route. Damn GAS.
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