Which Fender would you pick?

Question

Down to the wire: I will buy either a Japanese made Telecaster or a Japanese made Jazzmaster. I play solo jazz guitar ; finger style, mainly standards, along with Beatles tunes mixed in.

Having a limited choice of only these two guitars which would you go for?

Answer 1

charlie' right about the Jazzy's being a little more high maintenence, but it's definately worth it. I own an American Telecaster and an American Vintage Jaguar and I love them both. This is basically what you'd have to do to make them worthy guitars.

Tele - swap out the Japanese pickups for American ones.
Jazzy - swap out the Japanese pickups for American ones, swap out the bridge for a Mustang bridge (the Japanese bridges are even worse than American). There is also a possible need for neck shimming.

Both may need some fret-filing, sometimes the frets can stick out past the fretboard (ouch)

that said, I would probably go with the tele. its more reliable, and playable out of the box. if you want to learn to keep up the Jazz, go for it.

http://www.jag-stang.com

Mustang bridge
http://www.warmoth.com/hardware/bridges/bridges.cfm?fuseaction=mustang_modified

Answer 2

Go for the Telecaster. Jazzmasters are very temperamental and have a lot of quirks (the bridge, the pickups).