Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster Special

The new Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster is a great new reproduction of the famed Fender Jazzmaster guitar of the late '50s, but with a stripped down etho that does away with many of the rather strange and generally not used small thumbwheel controls. It has Jazzmaster style single coils designed by Seymour Duncan and built for Squier. The model I tried had a hardtail Danelectro style bridge and vintage tuners. The body is alder, and the neck is maple with 21 jumbo frets. They are made in Squier's factories overseas (they can vary between places like China and India). However this still produces a great sounding Jazzmaster reproduction, especially considering the price of $300 that they cost.

The design of the Jazzmaster is surprisingly one of the most ergonomic I've ever tried. The contouring is even more so than the Strat, and the weight is generally extremely light as well. Generally a light weight on a cheap guitar makes me feel dubious about the quality of wood being used, but it's obviously good resonant alder in this case. The upper fret access is near perfect. The cutaway allows PERFECT access right to the end of the neck (something even Strats don't have) and I'm sure if it had a tremolo and some hotter humbuckers it would be well received as a shredder guitar if given time.

Getting a good tone out of this guitar is far easier than the USA Jazzmaster because the controls are simply concentric volume/tone pots (IE: a volume and tone for each pickup) and a 3 way toggle switch. It does away with all the odd little thumb switches that you see on USA Jazzmasters which are little tonal alterations that are hard to really mess around with on the fly. This guitar just plugs in and goes right to the core tone.

I've tried this guitar through various Fender and Mesa Boogie amplifiers. I firstly noted how loud and resonant the guitar was when unplugged. It was enough that when I first picked it up and played a bit of old bebop, I had heads turning from a fair distance away to listen. Given this criteria, I knew that the guitar would definitely sound good plugged in, and it didn't disappoint there either. It has a great tone that reminds me of a cross between a Tele, a Les Paul and a solidbody Grestch... very midrange voiced but with a persistent top end that really drives the sound and gives it a unique jangly character. The neck pickup is perfect for jazz and early blues/R&B tones, especially with a tad bit of dirt applied. The middle position is like the love child of a Tele and a Les Paul... perfect for chicken pickin'... but with that little bit of extra midrange that you'd associate with a dual humbucker Les Paul guitar. The bridge pickup is very bright and responsive, but it doesn't ever cause ear fatigue. I especially liked this pickup with a bit of classic gain applied for some '70s hard rock tones that had the grunt of a Gibson but the brightness of a Fender.

All in all I think Gibson is onto a winner with the Vintage Modified series of guitars. They combine many features that are simply useable and workable into a value priced and well made guitar. At $300 new this guitar is an absolute steal for the quality and tones that you get, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see them go up in price eventually.

I play it for 7 months.

I tried other models Squier in the same price range:
- Classic Strat vibe: very faithful to its good reputation but not original forcment (look, sound ...);
- Jaguar vintage modified: the most beautiful, all in chrome. But very difficult to play (the strings that dplacent on the rack ...) and hyper nasal sound;
- Mofified vintage jaguar HH: Almost twin of the Jazzmaster ... but with humbuckers (hyper-biting his hideous). For me, no relation to a jaguar (in addition, even no vibrato: gniale for surf guitar) ...

This model of Jazzmaster is when even very particular:
- No vibrato (why?!?) Nor rglages doubles (which admittedly is not used much), the DIFFERENT knobs (two volume, two tone ...) and locations also DIFFERENT (the switch, the jack in "strat" ​​...) from a classic Jazzmaster;
- Look a little limited, despite a good finish: including the same color as the pickguard pickups: what heresy!

Must admit: the term "vintage modified" is spcieuse. There has never been such a model "original" of the Jazzmaster.

Goodies:
- The quality of its flaws: the extreme simplicity. A hybrid Jazzmaster / Telecaster in short;
- The handle of maple, apparently on INDIT Jazzmaster. These guitars have rput 'of being easy to play, but then the ... a slide, a bend all is: it is paradise;
- Sound: rounder than the Strat, rich and well bite with distortion. These dishes microphones, what an invention! That's what made me to prefer the Jazzmaster classic strat vibe, it said. I want to believe that for once, we are well within the "vintage" in the sense where the sound is warm and returns happily things heard on 60's disk (after, it all depends on the amp).

In conclusion:
Very, good guitar. If I was doing the poking, I rachterais probably the same. I regret even when not being able to try the model with vibrato. But it would not have had the maple handle. I guess it's for reasons of production costs ...

Must therefore say that this is a hybrid Jazzmaster espce. Qualitprix the report is in my imabatable. 300 ... Propose instruments of such a class to small grants (if I may): squier really has a public interest activity!