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King Loudness « Very, very cool »
Published on 08/13/11 at 15:49The 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.
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.