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For all you Squier Classic Vibe series enthusiasts out there, they have just done it again ! Ventures' fans may be pleased to know that Squier are issuing a 'Classic Vibe' Jazzmaster, complete with Trem unit this time. It is called the 'J. Mascis Artist model' after some American guitar god. It is in Vintage White (looks like Olympic White to me) with an anodised Gold scratchplate, Rosewood board & aged knobs & pickup covers. It is due out in October & seems to being advertised in the £328 region. You too can be Bob Bogle on the cheap, now.

Tony.

Thanks Tony, I await this with interest.

RUSSET wrote:[Fender] are issuing a [Squier] 'Classic Vibe' Jazzmaster, complete with Trem unit this time. It is called the 'J. Mascis Artist model' after some American guitar god. It is in Vintage White (looks like Olympic White to me) with an anodised Gold scratchplate, Rosewood board & aged knobs & pickup covers. It is due out in October & seems to being advertised in the £328 region. You too can be Bob Bogle on the cheap, now.

The Fender-branded MIJ model was released about four years ago - I have one (courtesy of a great deal from David Martin) and used it at the 2009 Pipeline Convention with The Secrets.

JN

http://www.guitarsite.com/news/images/guitar/fenderj.jpg

I quite fancied the Mex Classic Player series Jazzmaster a few months back, especially as they seemed to have solved the problems with the traditional Jazz & Jag bridges & redesigned them to be stable. Yes, I know they were designed to be stable with early '60s heavy gauge strings, but I don't want to use 12s or 13s. When I checked the Classic player prices, they were well up in the £700 + mark, & as I had payed no more than around £400 for my CP Strat & Tele, I decided enough was enough with Fender's extortionate increases. Apart from one or two minor issues with the Squier CVs which were easily upgraded away, I am more than happy to buy Squier instead of the now expensive Mex models, & even rate them better than the Mex Standard series.

Tony.

RUSSET wrote:I quite fancied the Mex Classic Player series Jazzmaster ... they seemed to have solved the problems with the traditional Jazz & Jag bridges & redesigned them to be stable. Yes, I know they were designed to be stable with early '60s heavy gauge strings, but I don't want to use 12s or 13s.
Tony.

The MIJ (purple sparkle) J Mascis Fender Jazzmaster has a (Fender version of a) tune-o-matic bridge rather than the traditional Jazzmaster/Jaguar unit. The usual cure for bridge malfunction with strings that are too light for the guitar's geometry is to swap in a Mustang bridge, which looks like the original but whose barrels each have a single string slot. A more expensive way of doing it is to substitute a Mastery bridge (on which there has been a recent thread here).

But even so... 12s on a Jazzmaster feel like 11s (or even 10s) on a Stratocaster.

JN

Hi Jim,
Yes, I noticed that even the Squier J.Mascis has the Tunomatic type bridge & the trem unit moved a bit further forward, so that's good. I guess I was worried that with an old type bridge, there could be a danger of string slippage when you strum hard. I also suspect that strumming would need to be a bit harder than with a Strat or Tele, as by it's nature a Jazzmaster is slightly less resonant ? I would be interested to hear your comments.
If I do decide to buy one I think I would probably want to change the gold anodized scratchplate, & substitute a White/Parchment or a Brown Tortoiseshell one. I haven't yet found any suppliers that I can obtain one from, though.

Tony.

Tony,

Here ya go -EBay item 270763909998 will cost you $57.59USD plus around $9.00 USD for postage.

Regards

Thanks for the info, Bill. I have since done some further investigations, & found a UK supplier : http://www.guitarpartsworldwide.com/JAZ ... lZIWnZKSGM
They inform me that Squier parts are usually different specs to US/Mex parts, so it is advisable to send them a tracing of the scratchplate & they can cut a custom made one in whichever colour desired.

Tony.

Sounds like squier are being a lot more active than Fender themselves this year

http://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/fender-ja ... iving-soon

RUSSET wrote:Thanks for the info, Bill. I have since done some further investigations, & found a UK supplier : http://www.guitarpartsworldwide.com/JAZ ... lZIWnZKSGM
They inform me that Squier parts are usually different specs to US/Mex parts, so it is advisable to send them a tracing of the scratchplate & they can cut a custom made one in whichever colour desired.

Tony.

Tony,

Great that you can get one made the way you need to. By the way, I bet if I asked that mob you speak of to make me a set of 'genuine' scratchplates for a BURNS Marvin I would go away disappointed!