NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

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mkt3000
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NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 3:23 pm

My fiancée is the best.

She asked me what I wanted for valentine's day. I say "pay my medical bills for me", and she says "No. We're fighting with the hospital and insurance company" (tl;dr, had a diverticular flareup in late December, hospital billed insurance incorrectly, and now I've received approximately $15k in medical bills which my insurance should mostly cover. She's writing the appropriate letters for me because she's an insurance attorney and this is what she does for a living).

Anyway, so I told her, I want a new guitar.
"Which one?"
"Give me a few minutes"
So I go on GC's Used website, looked through a few guitars I thought were interesting, until I found a unicorn. I log in, add the unicorn to my cart, and give her my login info.

15 minutes later, I get a receipt in my inbox. This morning, I get a shipping notification.

Here's the guitar: Sonic Blue Vista Jagmaster, with a mustang trem (!!!), and what I assume are different pickups (or stock pickups in covers). I've had three other Vista Jagmasters before, which I loved and had to get rid of when I moved to the states. Also, this would be my first sonic blue one (others were CAR, Oly White, and Sunburst)

I'll know more once it arrives next week and I examine it. For now, here are pics:

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The downside... I know how much this cost, so I need to upgrade her present :X

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Velouria
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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by Velouria » Sat Feb 10, 2018 3:51 pm

Wow! That is quite a valentines present! The Mustang trem is an odd one given it would have had a perfectly serviceable Strat style trem... That said it looks good :)

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:01 pm

Velouria wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 3:51 pm
Wow! That is quite a valentines present! The Mustang trem is an odd one given it would have had a perfectly serviceable Strat style trem... That said it looks good :)
That actually concerns me a bit - really, my only concern.

I've looked at pics of my old ones, and it appears that the saddles are in the correct location when compared to the strat saddles. I even called the GC store after it was ordered from and spoke to their tech about it. He told me when it arrived he changed the strings and set it up, and stated that it's intonated perfectly and it feels stable. But when it arrives, if it feels off, I'll be taking it to the GC near my house and getting some store credit.

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by HNB » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:06 pm

Maybe they bought a wood filler to fill the route and did a proper Mustang route? Wouldn't see it with the trem cover screwed on. A lot of work to make it a Mustang tremolo vs the Strat one. :D
Christopher
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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by TeenageShutdown! » Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:16 pm

Awesome gift. I love the color & that it has a mustang trem. Something you just don’t see on a JM body.

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mkt3000
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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 9:57 pm

HNB wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:06 pm
Maybe they bought a wood filler to fill the route and did a proper Mustang route? Wouldn't see it with the trem cover screwed on. A lot of work to make it a Mustang tremolo vs the Strat one. :D
Maybe they used a hipshot adaptor block?

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/brid ... rilogy.htm

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by HNB » Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:14 pm

That would have been smartest. :D
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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:35 pm

HNB wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:14 pm
That would have been smartest. :D
I'll know in a week :ph34r:

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Sun Feb 11, 2018 12:31 am

The Mustang trem is a real step up aesthetically from the stock Strat one. If only they'd done that as standard!

I had one of those in the same colour scheme (which I've often regretted letting go); I always figured it was seafoam green rather than sonic blue. Then again I had the same argument with an ex whose bath-towels looked sonic blue to me, but she was adamant they were green. Maybe one of of us has a colour vision issue. ;)

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by Velouria » Sun Feb 11, 2018 6:38 am

mkt3000 wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:01 pm
Velouria wrote:
Sat Feb 10, 2018 3:51 pm
Wow! That is quite a valentines present! The Mustang trem is an odd one given it would have had a perfectly serviceable Strat style trem... That said it looks good :)
That actually concerns me a bit - really, my only concern.

I've looked at pics of my old ones, and it appears that the saddles are in the correct location when compared to the strat saddles. I even called the GC store after it was ordered from and spoke to their tech about it. He told me when it arrived he changed the strings and set it up, and stated that it's intonated perfectly and it feels stable. But when it arrives, if it feels off, I'll be taking it to the GC near my house and getting some store credit.
Hopefully it is perfectly fine and stable as it is quite a good looking guitar :) The colour looks more daphne blue than sonic, though that said you can never really tell till you see it in the flesh under the right light.

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Thu Feb 15, 2018 6:47 am

"OUT FOR DELIVERY"

C'moooooon, get here!!!

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Thu Feb 15, 2018 6:33 pm

It is here... took some specific pics, and more in the coming days.

Why no more tonight? It's late and I had a long day. But beyond that, I think something got shaken loose in shipping. I have to slam the cable in the jack to get any sound, and the tone pot and pickup selector are both scratchy as hell. I spoke with GC customer service, and they told me to bring it in to the store. It's within its 45 day guarantee period, so they'll try and fix it for free.

In the meantime, the mods and some details on the guitar.

It's got mojo all over, but the good kind. Some wearing on the pickguard which wasn't noticeable on the GC pics. Neck is comfy - similar to my previous Vista Jagmasters and my old 65RI Mustang. There is some fretwear, but nothing to worry about - the frets still have plenty of life in them. Minor dings and scrapes all over, and one spot where it was touched up with nail polish.

Also, the inside of the back cover smells like... a lovely weekend in Denver.


Mods: Mustang trem with a jag/jazz bridge, SD 59 neck and bridge pickups (this was a surprise), and coil split on the neck pickup.

Tones are usable - not my favorite, but definitely usable. The shorter scale length and 59 pickups

And now, pics of what's in the back cover, and the pickups.

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Sun Feb 18, 2018 2:24 pm

Update, fiancée is in town, so I wasn't able to take the guitar down to GC for some warranty work.

In the meantime, I took some more pics. Tomorrow I'll take the mustang trem off so we can all see what it looks like underneath.

PICS:

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by mkt3000 » Mon Feb 19, 2018 4:57 pm

So, I couldn't deal with the strings being put on incorrectly, so I added a 3-pack of Ernie ball 10's to tonight's Primenow grocery order. Will restring at some point tonight.

Also, a friend of FB asked for pics of the routes, so I decided to post them here as well:

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Last edited by mkt3000 on Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: NGD - My valentine's day gift (Squier Vista Goodness)

Post by MechaBulletBill » Mon Feb 19, 2018 5:06 pm

Those strings are on wrong. They go through the tailpiece towards the strap button (away from the pickups), then back underneath the tailpiece/cigar tube and over the bridge saddles.

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