Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster Changes?

[SaulBadman]

Hey all,

I'm new here, and in search of my 1st Jazzmaster. To that end, I went to my local Guitar Center to see what they had. Of course, they had the J Mascis, so I played it. Generally, a really nice guitar for the money.

Anyhow...I noticed something curious. They had two of them. One looked as you would expect with a nice gold anodized pickguard and Olympic White finish. The fit and finish is as I've seen it described elsewhere.

The sales guy pointed out the 2nd one and said something to the effect of "These are the new ones"

It did not look great. The white was really off from Olympic white, and the anodized pickguard looked orange, not gold.

It had a "Classic Vibe" sticker on it, and yes, J Mascis signature on the back of the headstock. Same price retail as the Olympic White variety. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture, and may go back for that. It's a pretty stark difference, and the fit and finish of the Classic Vibe unit was not as expected.

So, is this something new? Have they changed the production protocol on these guitars? Or, am I missing something? I couldn't find anything online regarding a change, or a "Classic Vibe" J Mascis. It would be a shame if they were shifting gears because the other one is a pretty nice guitar, for the money.

What do you all think?

[aliendawg]

Wow... I thought the only change would be the fretboard wood. Did you play the new one?

[SaulBadman]

No, I did not play it. I'll probably go back and do so, at least as an excuse to get a side by side picture.

It honestly did not look great next to the original.

[aliendawg]

Yeah man... That's too bad. Let's wait to see if someone knows something about it. But I do remember seeing them in stores and they looked pristine! And everyone says it's a great guitar in general

[edwardskim]

I can't chime in much about the new run of J Mascis JMs but I have heard about the Classic Vibe sticker thing on them on the internet before.

[Unicorn Warrior]

So, essentially we went from cheesy yellow pick guards on the first run, some nice lighter shade of gold for a while, and now back to cheesey gold?

Great.

[Harmoncj]

I hope none of the quality has changed bc I would like a backup of the same guitar and I actually do like the idea of an orange pickguard

[601210]

Was it ever really Oly white, though? I remember from the start it was like a pre-aged white, and it really pops when you put a white pickguard on it. "Banana pudding" was the word I found that best described it.

I got one of the earlier runs (ordered as soon as it was announced) and the gold on my pickguard has worn completely off in some places. Maybe the pickguards were changed to fix that, cause I haven't heard anyone else bring that up?

[Larsongs]

While I like the looks & Finish on my JMJM a lot plus it's a good Guitar but I've never thought it's build quality is equal to my CV Tele.

That said, I'd be surprised if they're making CV JMJM's that their build quality isn't better than the current Runs.

Would love to see Pics & hear the Reviews.

Lars

[kimson]

I recently bought a s/h JMJM pickguard that was said to be pulled from a new-ish guitar. It looked like yer average PG in the blurry photos, but when I received it in the mail, the colour was more like copper (which I thought was cool) and the aluminum sheet itself was a lot thinner than the older, light gold-colored JMJM guard I've got. The plating had also been scratched through in a few places. So definitely not an improvement.

[Gordon]

This is supposed to be the newest version (with the Indian laurel fretboard): https://m.thomann.de/gb/fender_sq_j.mas ... r_2018.htm#

It did look a bit darker, but it may be the pictures... Finish was never Olympic white, though, it was always referred to as "vintage white" by Fender.

[601210]

This is supposed to be the newest version (with the Indian laurel fretboard): https://m.thomann.de/gb/fender_sq_j.mas ... r_2018.htm#

It did look a bit darker, but it may be the pictures... Finish was never Olympic white, though, it was always referred to as "vintage white" by Fender.

It might be the pictures but here it looks more brushed gold than anodized gold...

[NICQ]

I bought mine in 2013 - one year after they came out iirc - and the finish was definately more vintage white than olympic white
the pickguard was very orangey/copper-like

Here's a pic of the pickguard on a surf green body:



They changed the colour of the pickguard more to real gold a couple of years ago - looks like they went back to copper gold



and here's a picture of a VMJM vs the JMJM

[SaulBadman]

OK, so, I'm sure I got the Oly White thing wrong. Sorry, newb.

Copper gold is a better description than orange.

So, from what I've observed so far, the color of the finish and the pickguard have changed, CV sticker is on the new pickguard.

I'll probably run over there today and snap a photo of the two together and play the new one. My opinions on the differences are likely only personal preferences. At first look, side by side, I like the gold and vintage white as opposed to the new look, but that's just me.

Either way, a change is afoot...

[Embenny]

Curious. I agree with the statement above that being produced as a CV run should only increase the quality - I've owned two CV strats and honestly they had nicer factory fretwork than the American Special Jazzmaster I used to own. They were just ridiculous guitars for the price.