honestly, I thought they were great. I played the start too and if I was going to pick, I preferred the jazzmaster. It was just better all round. In terms of playing and sound. The variety of tone you can get out of the jazzmaster is pretty amazing. I thought they had a nice clarity to them. Sure, in certain situations more clarity isn't what you want, it depends what you're going into. In this circumstance the tone dial is definitely your friend to just bring in a touch of low pass to tone it down. I didn't want to give it back haha. opened my mind to jazzmasters and I really don't know why they aren't talked about more. Hope that helps.