Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster's

[Fersnachi]

Anybody played one?

 

I have always wanted to play a Jazzmaster unfortunatly they are to expensive for my tastes. But this one looks to have all the controls and trem from a real jazzmaster.. is it any good? 

[dZjupp]

i have a j. mascis jazzmaster (squier). everytime i pick it up i say silently, "i still can't believe this is a squier"

 

i literally tested it against a fender classic player for about and hour, both sounded awesome, but the squier was a little brighter and open acoustically so i went for it.

 

of all the classic vibe and vintage modifieds i've played of the squier brand, i must say, its pretty impressive.

 

can't say i've ever really owned a squier, although i did almost buy a protone tele when they were new.

 

[honeyiscool]

You can put a Mastery bridge on it and it probably plays better than most stock Jazzmasters.

[Tweedledee]

I have one of the Sonic Blue ones.  I've owned a lot of Jazzmasters (a 1966, a couple of AVRI '62s, Classic Player, one I made myself, etc.) and the Squier can hold its own against more expensive ones.  Of course there are aspects of it where you can tell why it's a $300 guitar rather than a $2k guitar, but it gets you pretty close to the "real deal" at a fraction of the cost.

 

The good: the neck is great, the body is great (though basswood, if that matters to you), tuners are perfectly fine, and the pickups are surprisingly good (though I swapped mine for a set of AVRI pickups I already had).  In other words, the key components are very solid.

The not so good: the bridge saddles are junk, the pickguard is pretty cheap feeling and looking, the tremolo is ok but feels cheap. 

I replaced the saddles with graphtec ones and I swapped out the trem for a Fender stamped one I already had.  Both were big improvements.  I put an AVRI mint green pickguard on mine.  Perfect fit, but the bracket holes for the rhythm circuit roller controls don't line up so you either have to cut out the rhythm circuit or get an AVRI bracket.  I rewired the whole thing without the rhythm circuit (because I never use it anyway) so it wasn't an issue for me.

Really the only thing it 'needs', in my opinion, is different saddles.  The other things are just personal preference. 

Here's mine:

[BryceS33]

The Squier Jazzmasters do play really well but I just dint like the pickups at all. This is probably because I prefer humbuckers in all of my guitars haha

[Fusion1]

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Tweedledee wrote:

I have one of the Sonic Blue ones.  I've owned a lot of Jazzmasters (a 1966, a couple of AVRI '62s, Classic Player, one I made myself, etc.) and the Squier can hold its own against more expensive ones.  Of course there are aspects of it where you can tell why it's a $300 guitar rather than a $2k guitar, but it gets you pretty close to the "real deal" at a fraction of the cost.

 

The good: the neck is great, the body is great (though basswood, if that matters to you), tuners are perfectly fine, and the pickups are surprisingly good (though I swapped mine for a set of AVRI pickups I already had).  In other words, the key components are very solid.

The not so good: the bridge saddles are junk, the pickguard is pretty cheap feeling and looking, the tremolo is ok but feels cheap. 

I replaced the saddles with graphtec ones and I swapped out the trem for a Fender stamped one I already had.  Both were big improvements.  I put an AVRI mint green pickguard on mine.  Perfect fit, but the bracket holes for the rhythm circuit roller controls don't line up so you either have to cut out the rhythm circuit or get an AVRI bracket.  I rewired the whole thing without the rhythm circuit (because I never use it anyway) so it wasn't an issue for me.

Really the only thing it 'needs', in my opinion, is different saddles.  The other things are just personal preference. 

Here's mine:

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Hey Tweedledee,

What model# are those Graphtech saddles?  Also why would the brackets not line up as I'm pretty sure the Squier pickguards are 100\% exact from the American models in that every screw lines up exactly.  Also I don't know if it is this forum but I have sent you a few PMs regarding that Fender FSR guitar but never heard back from you so I am assuming the PMs I am sending are not going through.