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Post subject: NGD: Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster
Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 9:10 pm
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The guitar arrived today. I ordered it from Sweetwater.com. Very nice instrument. The setup was excellent. The neck had the perfect curvature, with no bumps or ripples. String height was perfect for me.

The tone was interesting. Didn't sound like my '62 Reissue Jazzmaster at all. But had a great sound all its own. It surprised me, but in a good way.

The neck pickup, played clean through my 90's Vox AC15, had a beautiful bell tone, like my chambered Les Paul, maybe better. Maybe like a hollow-body Gibson or Gretsch (although I unfortunately don't own one).

The bridge pickup-- clean, sounded like a great Tele! It had a lot of twang, but a very rich twang. Better than my 22-year-old American Standard tele. That really surprised me. Sonic Youth isn't known for twangy country, but a country lead player could go nuts with this guitar.

These custom Fender humbuckers are interesting. Much more high end than a typical humbucker, but rolled off just enough to avoid a thin tone. The tone is very rich.

Didn't have time today to do more, but tomorrow I'm gonna try other amps, different levels of distortion, and different tunings.

And it's as beautiful as you see in the pics.

Good job, Lee and Fender!

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Website: http://www.robroper.com
Fender Guitars: Am Std Tele, EC Strat, AVRI '62 Jazzmaster, Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster, Thurston Moore Jazzmaster.
Fender Amps: '61 Brownface Deluxe, '65 Champ, '59 Bassman Ltd, Tweed Champ clone, Tweed Deluxe clone.


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Post subject: Re: NGD: Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster
Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 9:02 pm
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we want photos!!

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Post subject: Re: NGD: Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster
Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 11:05 pm
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Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 2:49 am
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Location: Perth, Australia
Please continue with your testing - we want to know what you find/think. Post here please.

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GUITAR: Fender USA JazzMaster.
BASS: Fender USA 58'AVRI
AMP: Fender USA SuperSonicTwin - Blonde.
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Post subject: Re: NGD: Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster
Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 7:56 am
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I've noticed that the Fender humbucker pickups on the Ranaldo have lower output than my '62 Reissue Jazzmaster. And the '62 Jazzmaster pickups seem to have more harmonic richness and complexity. Maybe it just seems that way because they're louder and therefore driving the amp harder. The Ranaldo pickups don't have quite as much high-end as the '62 single coils, but more highs than typical humbuckers.

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Website: http://www.robroper.com
Fender Guitars: Am Std Tele, EC Strat, AVRI '62 Jazzmaster, Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster, Thurston Moore Jazzmaster.
Fender Amps: '61 Brownface Deluxe, '65 Champ, '59 Bassman Ltd, Tweed Champ clone, Tweed Deluxe clone.


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Post subject: Re: NGD: Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster
Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 11:01 pm
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I was at a music store today and talking to a guitar tech who is a Jazzmaster lover-- he has 5. He suggested raising the height of the pickups to get more output, he said it's common for pickups to be set too low at the factory. So I raised the neck pickup and that did boost the output some, although not near as much as the '62. Then I just raised the gain on the amp, and also kicked up the treble and bass controls. That did the trick. Now the Ranaldo sounds very similar to my '62. Nice and rich, with good bite.

_________________
Website: http://www.robroper.com
Fender Guitars: Am Std Tele, EC Strat, AVRI '62 Jazzmaster, Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster, Thurston Moore Jazzmaster.
Fender Amps: '61 Brownface Deluxe, '65 Champ, '59 Bassman Ltd, Tweed Champ clone, Tweed Deluxe clone.


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Post subject: Re: NGD: Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster
Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 11:42 pm
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Joined: Tue May 15, 2012 2:49 am
Posts: 560
Location: Perth, Australia
Yeh, when I compared outputs from my Lee Ranaldo, it too was much lower than my other guitars. I measured the pick up windings and they were of lower impedance than the norm. Generally you would expect around 10k winding impedance on a standard guitar but my neck was around 7.8 and my bridge was around 7.95. Hence the lower output. Fender did say these are "Re-Voiced", what ever that means. I am assuming to Lee's custom spec.

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GUITAR: Fender USA JazzMaster.
BASS: Fender USA 58'AVRI
AMP: Fender USA SuperSonicTwin - Blonde.
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