I'm happy you lucked out wih the fretwork and yeah you grabbed it at the right time! I didn't have any tuning issues at all with it either after setting it up, and thought the pickups did sound decent. Just a shame how poor the fretwork on this specific guitar was.

Hey Lucy it's great to see you and hope you're doing well in Africa! I imagine trying guitars must indeed be a bit difficult. I agree the pickups are one of the best parts of the guitar for sure, they do sound pretty good! This is also the perfect guitar to see if a Jazzmaster is a good fit for you as a player. Thanks for watching

Your point about Fender initially charging $600 isn't lost on me... and it just goes to show they are still making a decent enough profit selling these for half price. I didn't hate this guitar but I do think some of the praise is a bit overexaggerated.

It isn't the thruth. They are very good instruments after some work and I can tell you that as a luthier. We payed €298 for the last couple of months and €398 was the regular price in Europe. A lot of so called luthiers are good at adjusting a strat,tele,les paul or whatever but adjusting a Jag/Jazz is something different because of the rockin bridge and a different vibrato system with 1 spring. Take some fine sandpaper and rub down the neck, then it feels as good as every maple USA Fender neck I've played. Would I pay $600 for it ,yes. In Europe a Vintera Jazzmaster is €1090 and a MIJ is €1400 ....For €398 and an additional paint job for €200 if you don't like the finish, it is still a no-brainer IMHO

@@marcohermans3207 you are allowed to like these cheap guitars but it doesn't change reality they are made with cheap woods like nyatoh, crap hardware, crap electronic components, almost no Q&A at final assembly which explains the consistently bad fretwork or nut filing,, and made for dirt cheap labor in Indonesia that the big brands make huge profits on because that is good corporate business. Sadly, all of that is the truth. I would rather spend more money on one quality guitar once than try to polish one of these into something decent. This channel has shown me brands I had no idea existed that have completely changed how I view guitars.

@tomazodriziola. I like guitars in general. I don't care what is on the headstock. . Luckily there are enough reviewers who are telling the thruth about this guitars and finally praise them for what they are. They disassemble the whole thing and say what and how you can improve them without spending a lot of money. I have these guitars on my workbench a lot and they are good instruments but need some work.

@@marcohermans3207 You are calling the person who made this video a liar because he doesn't agree with your opinion? You claim to be a luthier as well yet you can stand by the fact that everything I said about shortcuts, cheap parts, inferior QC are ok because some other KZfaq person agree with you and give you confirmation bias? I think you are full of crap, enjoy your sweat shop guitar

That's the way to go if you don't mind the locking feature on the USA vibrato's . With a little bit of elbow grease you can make this equal to a USA unit. I changed the spring and that did the last 10% improvement. Total cost €3,50 for the spring and luckily I have enough sanding paper lying around. I have to upgrade the electronics in the future when I'm going to gig with it.

That demo you're referring to at the end rubbed me the wrong way from the second it started - he was demoing a friends guitar that was lent to him after the friend had already played and had it for a bit. There is no way of knowing how that guitar actually arrived to the actual owner of the instrument. There's other things and motivations at play there but alas I'll go from the bottom to the top replying to this Bradford haha I 100% agree with you in terms of chasing feel and playability. It's why I cannot speak highly enough of the Deviser guitars which cost less used than the Vintera's or even some of the higher end MIJ. They are light years above just harder to come by and believe me, if you ever get the chance to play any of the Momose guitars you will fully understand what I'm talking about - some guitars are just undeniably great. With the CV series I'm a much bigger fan of their teles, swapping hardware on a tele is far more cost effective than replacing the really cheap hardware on a Jag or Jazzmaster because frankly put, it is super budget stuff. It functions but it's certainly not great quality. The pickups have also surprised me a few times with those! With elbow grease I agree you can absolutely get the pretty much any "decent" husk of a guitar ( these days those are far more accessible than they were even 20 years ago at these prices ). Honestly this line of guitars reminds of me of the PRS se line except with far worse fretwork ( which kind of makes sense considering who makes them ). Out of the box just kind of bland, mass produced for dirt cheap, make a lot of money for the companies who put their logos on the headstock, and just not stuff I really vibe with myself. The hardware point you made I don't think works here. The hardware on USA Fenders is 100% fine as is. A mastery bridge or vibrato is not needed so long as the person setting the guitar up knows what they are doing because the vintage hardware actually does work well - just not many people dive into the mechanics of the design itself. On these guitars the hardware is nowhere near the same standard quality of the USA guitars or the Japanese guitars - so you're already way behind the 8 ball so to speak. l really love how much thought you put into these responses and enjoy the conversations man, hope you have a great weekend.

@@AudiomoMusic I agree. Mostly. 😅 Totally. I'll say the Japanese hardware though, maybe it's quality metal but super thin. I've always replaced that stuff. An American Fender trem unit can be had for $65-$80 all day off Reverb. It's easy to find more exp naive sellers but if you look, they aren't hard to come by. I have an American trem unit for the CV Jag I'm redoing right now. I just got some Oxford nitro, their vintage formula, in Charcoal Frost Metallic. I'm prepping the body now, but the finish has already been removed. I put a set of hand made pups from a small boutique builders into my Japanese Jag so I might put those Japanese pickups into the CV im doing. They are quite thin but if I use a .022 cap it might offer a unique variation on the Jag and give me something different in my Jag collection. We will see. I know how to set them up correctly, the offsets, it's a skill for sure, but heavy handed people will always suffer with the rocking bridge. That's where the Mastery comes into play. The different material, stainless, (on Staytrem too) does allow for tighter tolerance and finer threads that stops the lowering of the posts over time. Though early examples of the Mastery suffered this too. But, more solid contact and less movement does equal a more stable guitar. However, for friction can be an added issue since the bridge isn't moving. It's all give and take. The metal can offer a different experience. Lord Fuzz an does a shootout with the different bridges for the offsets and it's pretty interesting. Definitely a difference in what they offer. It's not always right for everyone to swap but they are quality components and worth their value, as mentioned before, to most buyers. The vintage set-ups were made for music in a different era and for different playing styles than today's use. Many like lighter gauge strings, myself included, and this can pose problems for these that were designed with heavier gage strings. I like that Fender/Squier started angling the neck pockets to compensate for this, that 40th vintage edition you did here has that. My newest CV Jag has it. The 40th gold edition was the first of the Squier lines to get it. It's a great improvement. Really helps make the stock components work as they were intended for today's player. I can get mine set-up to play great with 9's and 10's, even the shorter scales of the Jag and the Mustang. It's what I prefer. One inherent issue with that, though, is the domes screw heads right in front of the pivot plate. Those are a known string breakage area as they can rub. Many people flip the screws. I have. It only leaves one central screw holding it together though. It's less than ideal. The Mastery trem unit addresses this by using counter sunk screw heads. Is it worth spending $200 to get counter sunk screws, nah, I don't think so, but it doesn't hurt and you aren't losing quality over it. It is a different material and does offer a slightly different feel, slightly, which really is subjective. Necessary to swap out the hardware on American, no, but many still do. Necessary to upgrade on the Squier, I believe absolutely. But $400 for a new guitar, $80 for an American trem, then another $30 for a right angle switchcraft, $20 for some pots and a cap, $5 is cloth pushback wire and you're way, way under the cost of an American Fender and it'll be spec'd about identically, and have a bone nut. I'm indifferent to the tuners. I haven't had an issue with them on the Squires, the vintage slotted, so I've rarely swapped those. Pickups, as you've stated, it's really touch and go with those. So personal and subjective, whose to say one set is truly better than another. 🤷 Nothing wrong with getting a higher end guitar, never, but it just seems the moniker of it has to be in order to be good. Like you stated, 20 years ago, yeah, but not today. For a few bucks you can turn it into a completely reliable and road ready guitar and have enough money left over to buy a killer amp, which will do more for your sound than an expensive guitar will. Ideally we have both and can then conquer the world. I appreciate your videos and your opinion. I'll enjoy my weekend as I work on guitars and put new walnut veneer on my stereo speakers (JBL's from the 90's and very nice.) I hope you enjoy yours too. 🤘🏻

I guess it's nice to have the ability to get guitars like this for cheap just to have "one of em all" like guitars are pokemon or something but I'd just assume not have a guitar that doesn't remotely inspire me at all to play it I guess and with how terrible the fretwork is on this guitar the video almost didn't even get made and the guitar returned immediately but that wouldn't have been a smart "youtuber" choice haha

See I was expecting to have the same exact experience with the neck on this guitar. I've played a lot of modern Fenders and Squiers with necks that felt WAY too thin for my tastes, this one doesn't have a huge neck on it but it's definitely thicker than I had anticipated.

I was hoping it would have been more like the neck on a 2016 Mexican Telecaster I have. That is a bit chunkier. But necks are replaceable.@@AudiomoMusic

Thanks Giovanni, I hope you had a good weekend

I don't really think you need to swap them out, the only thing that I feel like could eventually need to be swapped is the three way toggle but time will tell - it's not the highest quality switch but luckily that is a cheap, easy upgrade.

Same too Steve the CME one I got squire been stepping up their guitar game you keep rocking man😎🎸👍

Thanks Greg, I wish they had this in the desert sand because I agree with you about the finish 100%. On a lacquer finish I'd much prefer the seafoam but in this satin the sand I feel would look work much better. We are in full agreement on the price as well, for 300 it's fine but it's no world beater... at $600 it's comically overpriced to me as well. Hope you have a great weekend

Yeah I never really had any temptation for the AM Pro II, it felt really expensive for a jazzmaster that didn't really sound like a jazzmaster to me haha. I'm happy it worked out for you the way it did!

@@AudiomoMusic thanks! I love the Deep C neck profile and mystic surf green finish on the Am Pro II but not at that price. It's also too bad that the duties and taxes here kills the deal on most of the Japanese stuff...otherwise I would have also seriously considered the Fender Japan Traditional series models

Then you're ahead of the game, happy you received one that had good fretwork on it! The neck itself really is nice outside of that on mine.

What gauge strings are you using on it? Important with these types of guitars. 09 gauge strings normally do not work well on JM or Jag style trem systems even with a roller bridge and locking tuners. Then you have the neck shim issue with the action between the bridge and the nut to deal with. I read some where that they have addressed that issue with this guitar. I know for a fact that they did not address this issue with the CV series,

@@monmixer Hi you can overcome this with a shim. I have a 0.5 in mine just a thin wooden shim from Amazon. It increases the neck angle meaning the bridge is a wee bit higher which in turn increases the downforce from the strings. You can run a set of 9.5-46s with no issue and I guess probably 9-42 if you wanted.

Thanks Jesse, and I should have zoomed in with the camera in the edit, I never had the tone past 7 on the bridge pickup for anything in the demo. It really does make a huge difference!

Ha - as soon as I saw your response I thought "Of course Jim knows that trick!" Maybe my comment will help others though because starting with everything on 10s esp if coming from a humbucker or even a smokey strat can sound super ice picky and I think that's why lots of people never give Jazzmasters or Jaguars enough of a chance@@AudiomoMusic

Yeah I do this for my own entertainment for the most part, no way am I going to lie about a guitar I clearly didn't personally like being a must buy. At that point I might as well just go work for one of the companies directly hahaha too much of that junk on youtube as is.

andertons cough cough@@AudiomoMusic

i got a kick out of that lmao hahahaha

It happens sometimes, even with high end guitars. I had the 60th anniversary Jaguar that I desperately wanted to like, it was gorgeous, on paper looked perfect, but when I got it it felt like a total and complete dog of a guitar. I tried to make it work but ended up selling it pretty quick. Sometimes it just ain't meant to be!

@AudiomoMusic I hear ya on that note! Yeah if you're not feeling it chances are it's a good time to let it go like with your 60th anniversary Jag. Thanks for the reply 👍

Haha, if I was going to talk to lindy about a set of pickups I'd wanna put them in a guitar I loved playing! Who knows what the future holds with that, we'll have to see. If you are going to get one of these please do try it in person if you can first, it'd be a shame to have big plans only for you to get one that doesn't really work out for you.

@@AudiomoMusic Good tip but as a lefty, I have to buy what I play...so, I always go used unless I'm willing to send it back at my expense.

Sounds like you got one with good fretwork, I'm happy it worked out for you

A set up is one thing, this guitar got a full set up, new strings, fret polish, and trus rod adjustment. What this guitar and many others like it need are an actual fret level, which is well beyond just a regular "set up". The frets aren't even close to level on this guitar up and down the neck. I'm happy you like this better than your american jazzmaster, more power to you and I wish I had the same feeling. I guess I'm just spoiled by Fender Japan who actually care about the details and playability out of the box ( not to compare the squire to it, although at $600 new which is what these first sold for, a standard traditional 60's jazzmaster from Japan costing just over $900 new isn't exactly a gigantic price gap ).

@@AudiomoMusic , Mine didn't need a fret level. The frets were very rough so a polishing job did the trick. I never got my action this low with a USA instrument without buzzing.... I have very very expensive guitars and cheap guitars ( not so cheap as this one ) and after decades of playing I'm not very fond anymore of USA guitars in general . A lot of quality issues with Fender, Gibsons which shouldn't be there for that amount of money. In Europe USA instruments are way overpriced and as a luthier I can tell you that a lot of instruments that are on my bench are not worthed half the price the customer payed for it. Sharp fret edges, No polished frets, bad wiring , bad cut nut, laquer faulths, etc, are not issues you expect for a €1500-€2000 guitar in Europe. With a little bit of knowledge , you can get overseas instruments play exactly the same and after some hardware upgrades they are perfect workhouses for years to come. It took me 3 evenings to get this baby perfect, a lot of tweaking to get it exactly right. I wanted to know what a €300 instrument could be capable off. And that is a lot !!!

I appreciate that thanks man

Luckily the switch is an easy fix, getting one with great fretwork is a much bigger deal and may have changed my entire experience with these guitars ( the 40th tele and jm ). Shame it's a bit of a lottery but at least you seem to have won on your end

Makes sense, seems a logical way of going about it. It's possible a Jazzmaster just might not be right for you as well, but I hope you get to try some others in person to get a better idea of that

If you don't love the neck of a guitar, that guitars gotta go period imo

Well said James, I'm impressed Fender took such good care of you with the new tuners

Thanks Gary!

Thanks again you are the best sir!

It blows my mind they initally wanted $600 for these. If they had been priced at $299 from the start I'd be a lot more forgiving but man... it's a good thing we have a lot of options with other brands as players for sure.

Companies love to keep upping the prices till they find where the buyers revolt. Hopefully, they back off the prices quickly when that happens.

That's why I started building my own. On my second project now, which is a cross between a non reverse firebird, but with a fender scale length and bolt on neck. With everything it'll cost me around 800, not including the build time. I'm currently in the process of finishing in nitro, so it'll age nicely. I also love building things, so it's a win, on top of having a cool and personal guitar under 1000 dollars. Not cheaper than a squier, but definitely higher quality parts for a bit more money and time without paying too insane a price. I get that this option is not for everyone, but if you like to make things yourself, you could always start with a partscaster. There are a ton of options now a days

I do want to reiterate there's a number of good guitars under $200 & 400..

I just read your other comment in another post on here where you called me a liar for not agreeing with other youtubers about how great this guitar is, then you write an essay here of common sense offset stuff I've talked about for years on here regarding stability and setting up these things even in this very video I said you could replace the springs in the vibrato before replacing it entirely. Cool stuff dude take care

@@AudiomoMusic , I think that you have to read again.... I never called you a liar! That's your own perception of my words. I think you miss the whole point here...Even on this post and on most other posts on youtube people are praising their Squier Anniversary Jazzmasters 40th anniversary, and that's the hype what was going on and I totally get that.. Maybe you got a dud or a second hand one I don't know. All the faulths on your instrument could be adressed for very little money, a screwdriver , sandpaper, hammer, and some elbow grease. Maybe people have to visit a luthier for getting their nut slots proper filed . I'm trying to help people with tips how to get more of their instruments because we are living in expensive times. What common sence offset stuf is for you and me isn't common sence for a aspirant jazzmaster/Jaguar buyer who want to get is feet wet in Jazz/Jag land. When they hear that a vibrato is stiff they maybe don't buy it. They don't know how to adress the issue in 5 minutes.

Sires can be just as hit or miss sadly. They just get finished off a little better before shipping out for the most part compared to Squiers that's for sure however I had one with fretwork so poor it made this seem like a Custom Shop - I've found the indonesian made guitars are a lottery and some people get luckier than others. The TVL is a fine guitar, you made a good choice with that one. I tend to prefer Japanese and US guitars for Jazzmasters and Jaguars, but the TVL is probably the best guitar Fender Mexico makes at the moment regardless of model.

These offset guitars need a very good setup. The bridge is good. After a bit of pivot plate filing the trem system works smooth and is death silence. The tuners on mine are good. People forget that a "normal" setup (Strat,Tele,Les Paul, etc ) isn't enough for Jaguars/Jazzmasters. The rocking bridge can only work if the neck is angled slightly so the bridge is able to rock freely with the correct break angle, the nut is filed and more important polished, the strings have to be at least 011 to get enough downside pressure on the bridge. These guitars were built for 012 strings or more. Nowadays people are using lighter strings so the whole system isn't that stable anymore causing all kinds of tuning issues. Aftermarket solutions solve that issue but then you lose the advantage of a rockin bridge.

You have to put some force into it, it will click in and you'll hear it. If it's falling out you aren't pushing hard enough

@@AudiomoMusic Thanks very much! It works! 😁

The woods are actually the same as mid tier harley bentons which cost less - they both use Nyatoh. I think these are just really hit or miss in general, honestly for what they charge it's kinda understandable but it can get expensive quick if you're someone that has to bring in a guitar and pay out of pocket for a full fretlevel and or replace hardware in the case of the JM.

That's one of the smaller problems I had with it, I've played other cheaper satin finishes and it wasn't enough for me to not enjoy playing the guitar. The problem for me was the atrocious fretwork. Frets not even close to level with each other from the top to the bottom makes for a terrible experience especially as someone who does a ton of sliding funk riffs - I had to change what I wanted to play a few times because it was just not a playing experience I enjoyed at all. It could be fixed for sure but out of the box not up to scratch for me.

​@@AudiomoMusicIt puzzles me nowadays that several makes of under $200 guitars include stainless frets with the rounded ball ends & the big companies don't. I can understand it takes time & money to "retool" their building process, but you would think the ball ends would be showing up more on the pricier guitars by now..

yep, harley benton absolutely smoke the bigger brands like Squier, PRS SE, Epiphone and the fretwork in my experience is much better as well for such good prices.

Not a problem at all to disagree! I encourage it haha, if we all had the same exact tastes things would be fairly boring. I appreciate you going about the way you did, classy and rare for the internet. Have a great weekend Romain

@@AudiomoMusic you're welcome 😉

No but I've played a few, they are not for me at all. Not a fan of the pickups but i hate jazzmasters with an adjustomatic bridge, it's just something I would immediately throw away haha. For other people who don't really care about it feeling or sounding like a Jazzmaster I get why they are popular, they sound great with gain.

I really wish they had one in the desert sand, I think it would work much better and yeah I remember these were even cheaper for a while during the holiday last year! I'll see if I can find one of those 12 string jazzmasters to borrow in the near future

That's an interesting idea, and I happen to have an extra pick guard lying around I could test it out with

That's a really good 💡 idea and wonder if the metal pickguard does affect the sound of the guitar?

I wish they had the cream one there, I think you might be dead on with that analysis because of the colors... it's super noticeable on the seafoam version I have that the finish is not that great.

I love sea foam green…. Just wish they didn’t go with a matte finish. I saw one at Guitar Center and thought it looked cheap/off as well.

It's such a beautiful color and I agree man... wish that one had a gloss finish on it.

My neck is super thin. Too thin for me.

Did you put those duncans in it or do you have one of the older jazzmasters with the duncan designed pickups that came stock with them?

@@AudiomoMusic I put the Duncans in them and fell in love with the sound. My favorite Jazzmaster pickups are Antiquity I and II, and these Jazzmaster Vintage. I actually got a set of Hot for Jazzmaster to replace my AO with AV65s after watching your video last week, but I didn't like them. Too bassy, lacks sparkle, not wound like a Jazzmaster. I really want to put the SD Vintage in the AO, but I'm afraid I wouldn't love the Squier anymore, so I'm leaving them in their. AO currently has an Antiquity Neck and Hot bridge, but I want to replace them with something really surfy. I just don't know what that something is without repeating the Antiquity II. Also love the AVII pickups and Chicago Specials.

Well in the next week we will have a new set to try that was just released, going into the JV jazzmaster. I also got rid of the hot for jazzmaster fairly quickly afer making that video and going to the fralins and haven't looked back. I have high expectations for the set going in the JV, although it's going to be a full from scratch installation of every single electrical part and will surely take me ages haha

Buddy that'd be really interesting to know actually. I don't remember the CV's I had in the past having fretwork anywhere near this bad.

It got restrung with D'addario XS 10-46 and it had super cheap garbage strings on it when I got it which is par for the course with indonesian guitars in my experience

Once the store opens in 2 and a half hours it's coming back with me. There were a few things I didn't think were relevant to the review that kinda rubbed me the wrong way ( they told me this was a brand new guitar, and when I opened it up to check the electronics it had the most amateur unfinished copper shielding job I've ever seen ) so unless they give me a generous amount back from the trade value I'm going to just give them the guitar back.

these guitars are junk and good replacement hardware is worth more than the guitar itself not worth it

Sorry to hear they have sold you a customer return. Phil McKnight was also conned by GC with an amp that was in a very used condition. Their selling policy to put it mildly stinks!, i hope you can get a refund and find a brand new one at a better retailer. I had a similar experience with Andertons sending me a used damaged sample when they claimed to had 10+ in their warehouse, thankfully i payed with Paypal and they took on my case and refunded me. Wrap it round their necks Jim, best of luck. 👍@@AudiomoMusic

I can only agree, what can you expect when they use reclaimed metal from drink cans. Why Jim keeps buying them i can't understand, he knows they are substandard and now has the hassle of taking it back.@@tomasodriziola

well I haven't spent anything out of pocket on the last two so there is that haha, I certainly don't think after my experience with the Gold Edition all that time back I'd ever consider paying anywhere near retail or even the current sale price for one.

hard pass at those prices

@@AudiomoMusic yeah tell me about it. I'd love to get one but damn.

i honestly don't think you missed that much and I'm sure Fender will release something similar again from Squire, these were fine but imo a little overhyped.

thanks for the reassuring words. i was especially impressed by the neck, its satin (which is nice) and a bon e nut, is not something you see often in this price point

Satin on the neck can be a big plus depending on the guitar, but the specific way they did the satin finish on the body really doesn't do it for me

@@AudiomoMusic Yes, I like a satin neck, but not the body.

I feel you on that. I can see why people do like these but they just don't really do anything for me and if I were to replace everything I'd want to replace I'm right at the price of a new Japanese Jazzmaster... and it's not even close at that point.