I picked this up a few weeks ago. Have never been super drawn to offsets. I've always been drawn to the stratocaster, telecaster, and les paul body shapes more than anything else strictly in terms of aesthetics. But I was also always kind of curious about offsets' appeal even though I'd never owned one and rarely even played one. Same with SG's--although I have owned one, it was a long time ago and while I didn't bond with that one at all (it was an Epiphone '66 SG-400) and was glad to be rid of it when I sold it, I wonder if it was more that particular one and where I was in my guitar playing journey than like a general dislike of SG's.
But I digress.
This one popped up on the local market right when I was getting curious about Jazzmasters specifically for a fair (not great--I could definitely have done better in this market if I'd had more patience) price so I pulled the trigger.
It was a little bit of a challenge for me to get it set up as I wasn't familiar at all with the bridge (I think this is actually a jaguar-style bridge) or the tailpiece/tremolo system for a JM. And one thing that definitely threw me was that the string grounding is apparently connected under the bridge, and originally the bridge was so low that when I used the trem it would make it break contact and cause crackling/buzzing. I would have never guessed that was the problem, since I assumed the grounding was connected to the tailpiece/trem. I guess it makes sense since the trem actually barely touches the strings, but it looks huge. Anyway I did get it dialed in. There's a strange slight sort of light buzzing, almost like acoustic distortion, on some of the strings (mostly the G) when I play in certain positions but I think that's just some sympathetic vibration of all that string between the bridge and the tailpiece--it's not something you can hear plugged in. Once I got it set up though I really like how it feels/plays. The trem looks insane but works well, and I was super confused at first by the fact that the bridge sort of floats, which I was a little flummoxed by when I was intonating it (especially since Fender had already made strats by the time this thing came out originally and that to me seems like obviously the better bridge design).
So it feels good--I usually play seated and it feels good in the lap. I also think it sounds good, even with the stock pickups. I was surprised by how bright it can get when you use the bridge pickup. Even the neck isn't really dark--it's darker on the "rhythm" circuit with the top switch up, but it's still very usable for me and I'm someone who likes mids and highs in my guitar tone (too little and it sounds like there's a blanket over the amp). I like the trem a lot more than I expected to, I use it more like I use a Bigsby, just a general warbler when I want a little warble. I actually am not that interested in the Player series because it looks like it just has humbuckers and not the JM pickups? The sort of unique pickups were a big part of the appeal of the guitar to me.
TLDR: Got a CV JM, it's weird but I like it.
