I played the Jag, the frets were fine on mine, not as nice as the CV's I have played but close. The pickups are not very good, but the wood on the one I played did not have any knots and was nice looking.
In other news I tried the 50s CV strat and reaffirmed my love of Classic Vibe
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 7:19 pm
by Haze
If the jag would have been a Clasic Vibe a lot more peole would float for it, but only if it held to those stadards that we hav all seen and have been flored by. Unless they were still shitty and just had the CV title, then id be pissed at them for ruining a good thing.
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:42 am
by taylornutt
I went to Guitar Center today and they had both Squier Jaguars and a Blacktop Jaguar so I did a mini shootout between them. Kinda interesting. I liked the feel and tint of the Squier neck better than the BT Jag neck. Felt like the CV tele custom as far as finish and feel, while the BT Jag is a more pale tint to the neck. The Squier Jag frets sucked. Much better on the BT Jag. I liked the pickups better in the Squier than the BT. Squier pups were warmer while the BT pups seemed flat. The Squier Jag bridge was fine and reminded me a little off my Musicmaster bridge, but not as sexy looking. Hate the strat jack but it works. I really dislike the switch placement on the Squier. The Concentric pots look so cheap and not great quality.The volume on top is smooth, but tone wheel has detents not smooth turning and the pots weren't mounted very solid. The tuners on both guitars are abysmal and wouldn't hold a tune for even one song. Overall, the BT Jag felt more solid than the Squier, but it wasn't a huge difference and I thought the Squier sounded better. The "Fiesta Red" Squier Jag is really a Salmon color. I have a Fiesta Red Musicmaster and if they were next to each other it would be pretty obvious. I also noticed the same cheap knot wood on the Sunburst Jag that Haze pointed out.
My biggest problem with both guitars is they both need significant mods to really be playable, but they are cheap enough that it might be worth it.
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:35 pm
by Aeon
Although the strat jack is aesthetically displeasing, it is a better design than the straight-in jack on real jazzmasters. Iirc, fender's original design for the jazzmaster actually had a strat jack plate.
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:50 pm
by Mages
Aeon wrote:Although the strat jack is aesthetically displeasing, it is a better design than the straight-in jack on real jazzmasters.
don't agree sorry. if you just use a right angle plug the top mounted jack is far superior. the strat jack has always struck me as a bit of a gimmick really. it seems like a good design, but in practice, not so much. they didn't make it deep enough as to really tuck the plug away like it looks like it should. the cable still sticks way out and it doesn't work very well with right angle jacks.
Aeon wrote:Iirc, fender's original design for the jazzmaster actually had a strat jack plate.
and he got rid of it didn't he? because it's crap.
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:20 pm
by jcyphe
It's my experience that strat jacks suck on anything but Starts. I have owned a couple of Ibanez Talman guitars and the strat style jack on them is hell. They're always loose and it's always more hassle than you should ever have for a jack connection.
I agree with Mage about right angle plugs on flat jacks, they're great.
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:21 pm
by Joey
Jack hole
Seen a Ibanez Talman, at the local guitar shop this morning for $450. Had humbucker with 2 lipstick tube pickups. I was quite sticker shocked. Didn't play it, I was just there for a cardboard box.
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:25 pm
by jcyphe
I paid $150 maybe $175 each for both of the ones I got. They had a couple different pickup configurations and two body styles on the original run. Then they started sticking the Talman name on bunch of acoustics and Artcore models.
The ones I have/had are this style.
[youtube][/youtube]
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 10:44 pm
by Joey
any experience with the acoustic versions? seen on on CL $100 with case
Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 11:02 pm
by jcyphe
Joey wrote:any experience with the acoustic versions? seen on on CL $100 with case
They made a bunch and I seen them everywhere too, but I don't really pay attention to acoustic guitars.
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 12:35 am
by taylornutt
jcyphe wrote:It's my experience that strat jacks suck on anything but Starts. I have owned a couple of Ibanez Talman guitars and the strat style jack on them is hell. They're always loose and it's always more hassle than you should ever have for a jack connection.
I agree with Mage about right angle plugs on flat jacks, they're great.
My college roomate bought a beautiful Ibanez Talman TC830 back about 10 years ago. What makes his guitar kinda unique is the translucent green paint job, 3 lipstick pickups and maple fretboard. Every other talman I have seen has rosewood fingerboard. I plan to borrow it from him this weekend and I will post a demo soon.
Looks exactly like this
Jcyphe, did any of your Talmans have the elongated lower bout?
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 12:46 am
by jcyphe
taylornutt wrote:
My college roomate bought a beautiful Ibanez Talman back about 10 years ago. What makes his guitar kinda unique is the translucent green paint job and maple fretboard. Every other talman I have seen has rosewood fingerboard. I plan to borrow it from him this weekend and I will post a demo soon. Jcyphe, did any of your Talmans have the elongated lower bout?
No that was the other body style I mentioned above.
I know which model you're describing and it is among the rarest Talmans. I love Maple necks and single coils, so I always looked for one of those models to swap the neck with a 3 lipstick light blue model, but I never ended up doing so.
edit-(just saw you posted some pictures)
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 12:47 am
by taylornutt
It's the Ibanez Talman TC830. I couldn't even find pics on the internet until I figured out the right part number.
Talmans have a very sexy body design. The necks are very small at the nut. I like a chunkier neck.
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 1:42 am
by honeyiscool
That green guitar is one of the hottest Ibes I've ever seen.