Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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Francer
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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by Francer » Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:48 am

Regardless of whether it's easily fixable, photoshop or whatever, it's sloppy that Fender allow these promotional pictures of their products, which get shared all around the world, added to dealers websites etc. and the guitars don't look their absolute best.

All it would take is someone who has a clue about guitars to sign them off before distribution - is that too much to ask of a major guitar manufacturer?

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by StevenO » Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:05 am

Francer wrote:
Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:48 am
Regardless of whether it's easily fixable, photoshop or whatever, it's sloppy that Fender allow these promotional pictures of their products, which get shared all around the world, added to dealers websites etc. and the guitars don't look their absolute best.

All it would take is someone who has a clue about guitars to sign them off before distribution - is that too much to ask of a major guitar manufacturer?
I agree, it's sloppy. But others seem to be faulting the guitar for it, which I think is a little much.

I will say, however, that the bridges they use on these things have the spacing too wide in general, but here we have people complaining about that when meanwhile so many of us (myself included) rush out to change the bridge, the pickups, the pick guard, and even the decals at times, so *shrug*...

:whistle:

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by daysleeperjeff » Sat Feb 17, 2018 12:26 pm

zenarcade wrote:
Sat Feb 17, 2018 1:28 am
I have to say the bridges on the Professional Jaguars and Jazzmasters are really a bad construction and not thought out. The E strings are too close to the fretboard edges. Even worse, the low E string always popped out on the jaguar I had. For the price they charge for these guitars and how they advertise these it is really a bad joke.
While it seems there are quality control issues here, my advice before generalizing based on a few internet pictures would be to go and try a few.

I played one at a shop near my house and bought it immediately and I was skeptical of these. It is now my favorite guitar and puts my AVRI to shame. Way more comfortable play. Also I have no such issues with the bridge on mine but I bought it later in 2017 and I heard they started correcting some of the bridge issues. I always change out the bridge on all my Jazzmasters with a Staytrem but I'm actually keeping the stock AM PRO bridge. Very stable, no rattle and great sustain. And no the strings do not jump out of the saddles on these. You'd break the string from playing too hard before that would happen. The sting spacing on mine is no different than my AVRI with a Staytrem on it.

People buy AV 65's, a $2,000 guitar, and swap pickups and bridges out all the time. Why is this particular $1,500 model such an issue for people? (Btw, I got mine new for $1,350).

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by StevenO » Sat Feb 17, 2018 1:27 pm

I only played one once, but I felt like the string spacing was just slightly wider than my Jazzmaster with a Staytrem bridge. Not enough to bother me, but I some people might find an issue with it. Could be my imagination, too? I had never heard someone mention it until this thread.

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by gnoleb » Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:43 pm

robroe wrote:
Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:31 am
This is a 1600 dollar guitar!!!!
In the past 5 years, when I had my love of JMs reinvigorated, this was always the problem of any Fender-- ultimately I didn't see the price justified to a degree that was anywhere near acceptable to my own opinion. I owned a classic player JM...it felt like the tone was going through cardboard. I sold it. I tried multiple AVRIs...and I just didn't feel the quality so many others say is there. I had a Fender "50's Strat" made in Japan about 20 years ago (all vintage specs) and those AVRI felt pretty similar, just 3-4X the price.

I'm not a price snob; I have a PRS Michael Akerfeldt (that is made in Korea) and an Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Firebird 1 that are amazing quality guitars (and both about $750-800). In fact, I still have '94 Epiphone Les Paul Classic in Amber with Birdseye top that is one of the best Les Pauls I've played (I did replace the pickups with stock 490/498 Gibson pickups). And the body, looking at the back, looks like its made of 4-5 pieces. I bought it for $399 from Guitar Center in 10th grade. The first guitar I bought with my own money.

After trying many Fender JMs of all lines, I ultimately went to a Nash (which has incredible hate on this forum) and a Danocaster. You can search my threads about both of those, of which I was hyper-critical. Both are amazing instruments and get better all of the time (the Dano was so good I had him make me a tele...and its the best tele I've ever played).

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by spacecadet » Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:42 pm

I will say that the bridge saddle width does seem like an issue on the JM's that Fender's slapping these modified Mustang bridges on. People complained about it with the TVL's too - not everyone, but enough that it seems like a bit of a design flaw with these bridges. Redesigning the saddles so there's an extra couple millimeters of clearance is something I can't see anybody really being opposed to, and it'd fix basically all of these complaints about the E strings being too close to the fretboard edge.

Even the original JM bridges were pushing the strings out about as far as they could comfortably go, which is why the StayTrem went with slightly narrower spacing than even that. But something just doesn't seem right with these new bridges Fender's using. Either the saddle spacing is slightly wider or the necks on these guitars are slightly narrower.

All that said, if you buy one of these and it's an issue for you, a StayTrem is basically the same bridge with a narrower spacing, and it's a drop-in replacement.

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by Deed_Poll » Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:34 pm

There are so many tiny and infuriatingly fixable problems that Fender choose to ignore year after year...

In still praying for a Gotoh offset vibrato. All it would take is a proper edge and a reprofiled collet, and it would be sorted! I know good and well that Fender aren't going to sort it out if they haven't done so in the last half century!

Things like the vibrato route are a case in point. That's not even a tooling issue. They could literally snap their fingers and reprogram a few lines of code and do it like this. It takes maybe 5 seconds longer on my machine - probably 0.5 on theirs.

Image

That way, it doesn't knock the back of the cavity and the customer doesn't have to disassemble the product and take a chisel to it!

On the other hand, it's this carelessness that keeps guys like John at StayTrem in business. Big lumbering giants like Fender almost come to depend on the smaller parasitic businesses that spring up in the shadow of their complacency.
Owner Operator of GuitarForm - Custom Offset Guitar Bodies
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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by timtam » Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:40 am

I remember that E's too close to the edge was mentioned in one of the first reviews I read on the Am Pros ...
http://www.theguitarmagazine.com/gear/e ... er-jaguar/
Basically down to 56mm E-E spacing on the Mustang-style bridge. Could be easily fixed if they made them with 52mm spacing like Staytrem.
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by leokula » Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:20 am

Are you really discussing a guitar's characteristics based on an internet picture that isn't even the real thing?

Please...
Jaguar > Jazzmaster :)

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by spacecadet » Thu Feb 22, 2018 4:46 pm

leokula wrote:
Thu Feb 22, 2018 11:20 am
Are you really discussing a guitar's characteristics based on an internet picture that isn't even the real thing?

Please...
Did you not see the measurements posted in the reply just above yours?

We're discussing a guitar's characteristics based on things we already know. Unless Fender has changed the spacing just on these guitars - which the pic is at least evidence of that they haven't - then we already know what the spacing is across the saddles.

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by BoringPostcards » Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:39 am

Played a blonde/tort AmPro Jazzmaster yesterday and it was fantastic. Strings were lined up just fine. Had no issues with the high E and I tried to find them. Overall I thought it was an awesome guitar. I might buy it if I can find myself gettinng over the change of location for the toggle switch. Most idiotic thing about that model, in my opinion. As I was trying it out I kept switching in the normal spot and hitting blank pickguard. It was against my jazzmaster muscle memory to switch in the upper bout like an LP. Very odd.
Also, the switch is up/down instead of diagonal, which can lead to unintentional switching. I didn't hit it, but I'm sure if I had it strapped on live I'd hit it by accident.
Neck pickup sounded awesome. Overall pleased. The blonde finish over the ash looked great. It was a tad on the heavy side.
Det er mig der holder traeerne sammen.

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by daysleeperjeff » Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:27 am

BoringPostcards wrote:
Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:39 am
Played a blonde/tort AmPro Jazzmaster yesterday and it was fantastic. Strings were lined up just fine. Had no issues with the high E and I tried to find them. Overall I thought it was an awesome guitar. I might buy it if I can find myself gettinng over the change of location for the toggle switch. Most idiotic thing about that model, in my opinion. As I was trying it out I kept switching in the normal spot and hitting blank pickguard. It was against my jazzmaster muscle memory to switch in the upper bout like an LP. Very odd.
Also, the switch is up/down instead of diagonal, which can lead to unintentional switching. I didn't hit it, but I'm sure if I had it strapped on live I'd hit it by accident.
Neck pickup sounded awesome. Overall pleased. The blonde finish over the ash looked great. It was a tad on the heavy side.
I’ve had the Mystic Seafoam Am Pro for about 7 months now. The switch location was my only grip at first like you said. About a month In I adjusted and it is a non issue for me now.

Even when I switch back and forth between the Am Pro and my AVRI I don’t have any issues. I Agree with you...they do play beautifully! Definitely will be a permanent addition to my collection.
Last edited by daysleeperjeff on Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by BlueSparkle » Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:21 am

product shot faux pas d'excellence.
Fender are masters in this area.

Back in the day they made it to print!
Can't retract that after authorizing 100K+ copies of your annual catalogue for print ;D

everyone has done it at some point.
:o)
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other non-offsets.

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Re: Fender is getting sneaky with these Jazzmaster E strings

Post by filthypit » Fri Mar 02, 2018 6:41 am

Creative photography.
The hanging E string problem's plagues Fender a l-l-l-long time. They know abt it. They've ignored it. Fortunately most places will do a good job setting your new $1500+ JM up, incl re-aligning the neck. Setting up Fender's (or any modular guitar) is not as easy as it would seem.
I always put a Staytrem bridge on my personal JMs, first thing. Jst that one upgrade will feel like a whole new instrument. JM's & Jags have perplexed guitar techs frm day 1, so if you find one good enough to work w/ make sure you get his/her contact info (for when they quit).
hey maybe we can get together for coffee sometime?
...after they lift the restraining order, I mean

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