NGD: Fender Vintera Jazzmaster - IBM
Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2020 12:21 pm
Not quite satisfied with my Michael Kelly CC60 (quality instrument, just not inspiring me to play), I went ahead on jumped on one of these after falling in love with the looks of my friend's Vintera Jaguar (OT with matching headstock). It was a video of Tomo playing jazz on a Jazzmaster that got me into their sound after the running joke of "no one plays jazz on a JM" made me curious. I'm no jazz player myself (hardly a guitar player for that matter, as a bassist of 4.5 years), but I relish in the sounds of jazz progressions. I picked this one up brand new and discounted on Reverb with the plans of selling my MK once I'm done using it as a reference point (it has a thinner neck with 10-14" compound radius and medium jumbo frets). It's been a heck of a journey that's taught me so much about guitar setup, but I don't have it where I want it just yet. Before I get there, let's check this baby out.
(this was taken after a saddle swap and trem arm change)
The overall construction is exceptional. Taking it apart (prior to this, I've never done so much as remove the bridge on my Squier Jazz Bass), the drilling was very cleanly done and easy to remove screws from. Finish is top notch without a flaw to find. The only tiny issue and point of confusion I ran into was the fretboard: the first fret feels like it was coated in a very light satin finish while the rest are bare. Two applications of oil later and they still don't even compare. This seems like a strange slip up of some kind but nothing that gets in the way of playing or affects my opinion of the overall build quality. Say what you will about Pau Ferro itself, but it's an excellent wood barring that it doesn't completely fit some of the vintage finishes. I'm more miffed that the necks aren't bound but I digress.
(break angle after shim and before bridge and pickup height adjustments)
As per playability from bone stock, the setup was excellent but the factory 9's running over the bridge with no neck angle meant plenty of rattle even with light playing. I took it in to my tech for a setup who erred on the conservative side and refrained from shimming the neck after swapping up to 10's. I appreciated the consideration, though the rattling issue only marginally improved. I went ahead a started with a 1 degree shim. Paired with StringJoy PN 11's, this resulted in a significantly more solid feeling instrument with no rattles even with heavy strumming. I adjusted the bridge and pickup heights accordingly and landed myself at 4/64's both treble and bass side. There's a little bit of fret buzz I need to make adjustments for but playability up to this point was very good. More on that in a bit...
I did a great amount of research on offset Fenders before launching into a couple of mods, some of which are arguably unnecessary but overall nice, small changes that helped the instrument feel more "complete" to me:
-Gotoh SD91 Vintage Locking Tuners; these maintain the classic Kluson look without a thumb screw though the way it operates could be considered a compromise. Unfortunately, I ended up breaking the high E and B on my 11's as I wasn't taking proper enough care when removing them from the locking mechanism. They're a weird bunch of tuners to work with as they lock down first as you're turning the gear and then start to tune. No regrets on these, they just take time to get used. I love that I was able to retain the vintage tuner look and also make the headstock look a bit cleaner overall.
-Johnny Marr Jaguar Bridge (kind of); as a Yankee, I sadly have no reasonable access to Staytrem products which stings pretty badly. These are close to the next best thing but I found out that the bridge posts on the Marr Bridge are too large for the Vintera JM thimbles. I ended up swapping the saddles over to the stock bridge, which feels like a waste. If I were to redo this, I'd simply buy Mustang saddles or stick with a stock bridge and file the saddles as seen fit. On the plus side, the amount of play in these smaller stock thimbles allows for bridge rocking while reducing the possibilities of it leaning at a poor angle. I have another issue to fix with the bridge that I'll get to at the end.
-AVRI JM/Jag Pop-In Tremolo Arm; the stock screw-in arm isn't the worst thing. I found I could rotate the sleeve to a position where the threads would tighten at a desirable location. But I enjoyed both the low profile and feel on my friend's Jag more after he swapped his arm out for an AVRI. I made the mistake of not tightening the sleeve nut enough so the arm eventually loosened and removed the sleeve from the plate threads. Whoops!
Beyond that, I didn't touch the electronics nor the pickups. Stock operation is smooth and tapers correctly (and the tip that Lollar points out about rolling Volume to 8 works great here). I was back and forth on the bridge pickup initially but I find its sound to be much more appealing midway up the neck where the lack of bass/mids is less noticeable; my friend playing finger-style with the tone rolled off to <5 was surprisingly great! Neck and middle are wonderful and I'm continuing to find uses out of the rhythm circuit even though I'm a bit too green to really make it shine.
Okay, so what's the problem?
-I replaced my broken 11's with 9's and the rattle issue is back specifically just on the G. EDIT: After giving the 9's time to break in, this issue has dropped off a good deal. Plugged in, it's nearly imperceptible.
-The high E string is riding the intonation screw. I tried shimming with three thin slips of paper, but I also had to move the saddle forward for intonation so the string is still resting on it. Do I just keep shimming the saddle or would reversing the bridge be better at this point?
-Playing with the vibrato unlocked is borderline unusable. I'll get some more specifics on what is detuning the most when I get home, but advice around here points to the nut. This is one of the last pieces on the instrument that I've not touched yet and am concerned about making mistakes. I don't have any files either. What should I be investigating?
When it comes to sound, neck feel, and looks, I'm sold. I continue to look at this beaut and remind myself to jump on it for some practice almost every night. And that's a success in my book. If I can work out the last of these kinks, I'm hoping to hang onto this one for a long, long time. It was surprising to see how much trial is involved in this (are all guitars this temperamental or is the unyielding stability of my Dingwall bass just an unfair comparison?) and I want to stop tinkering and start playing more, but it's been a great learning experience overall. Thanks for taking the time to read this!
(this was taken after a saddle swap and trem arm change)
The overall construction is exceptional. Taking it apart (prior to this, I've never done so much as remove the bridge on my Squier Jazz Bass), the drilling was very cleanly done and easy to remove screws from. Finish is top notch without a flaw to find. The only tiny issue and point of confusion I ran into was the fretboard: the first fret feels like it was coated in a very light satin finish while the rest are bare. Two applications of oil later and they still don't even compare. This seems like a strange slip up of some kind but nothing that gets in the way of playing or affects my opinion of the overall build quality. Say what you will about Pau Ferro itself, but it's an excellent wood barring that it doesn't completely fit some of the vintage finishes. I'm more miffed that the necks aren't bound but I digress.
(break angle after shim and before bridge and pickup height adjustments)
As per playability from bone stock, the setup was excellent but the factory 9's running over the bridge with no neck angle meant plenty of rattle even with light playing. I took it in to my tech for a setup who erred on the conservative side and refrained from shimming the neck after swapping up to 10's. I appreciated the consideration, though the rattling issue only marginally improved. I went ahead a started with a 1 degree shim. Paired with StringJoy PN 11's, this resulted in a significantly more solid feeling instrument with no rattles even with heavy strumming. I adjusted the bridge and pickup heights accordingly and landed myself at 4/64's both treble and bass side. There's a little bit of fret buzz I need to make adjustments for but playability up to this point was very good. More on that in a bit...
I did a great amount of research on offset Fenders before launching into a couple of mods, some of which are arguably unnecessary but overall nice, small changes that helped the instrument feel more "complete" to me:
-Gotoh SD91 Vintage Locking Tuners; these maintain the classic Kluson look without a thumb screw though the way it operates could be considered a compromise. Unfortunately, I ended up breaking the high E and B on my 11's as I wasn't taking proper enough care when removing them from the locking mechanism. They're a weird bunch of tuners to work with as they lock down first as you're turning the gear and then start to tune. No regrets on these, they just take time to get used. I love that I was able to retain the vintage tuner look and also make the headstock look a bit cleaner overall.
-Johnny Marr Jaguar Bridge (kind of); as a Yankee, I sadly have no reasonable access to Staytrem products which stings pretty badly. These are close to the next best thing but I found out that the bridge posts on the Marr Bridge are too large for the Vintera JM thimbles. I ended up swapping the saddles over to the stock bridge, which feels like a waste. If I were to redo this, I'd simply buy Mustang saddles or stick with a stock bridge and file the saddles as seen fit. On the plus side, the amount of play in these smaller stock thimbles allows for bridge rocking while reducing the possibilities of it leaning at a poor angle. I have another issue to fix with the bridge that I'll get to at the end.
-AVRI JM/Jag Pop-In Tremolo Arm; the stock screw-in arm isn't the worst thing. I found I could rotate the sleeve to a position where the threads would tighten at a desirable location. But I enjoyed both the low profile and feel on my friend's Jag more after he swapped his arm out for an AVRI. I made the mistake of not tightening the sleeve nut enough so the arm eventually loosened and removed the sleeve from the plate threads. Whoops!
Beyond that, I didn't touch the electronics nor the pickups. Stock operation is smooth and tapers correctly (and the tip that Lollar points out about rolling Volume to 8 works great here). I was back and forth on the bridge pickup initially but I find its sound to be much more appealing midway up the neck where the lack of bass/mids is less noticeable; my friend playing finger-style with the tone rolled off to <5 was surprisingly great! Neck and middle are wonderful and I'm continuing to find uses out of the rhythm circuit even though I'm a bit too green to really make it shine.
Okay, so what's the problem?
-I replaced my broken 11's with 9's and the rattle issue is back specifically just on the G. EDIT: After giving the 9's time to break in, this issue has dropped off a good deal. Plugged in, it's nearly imperceptible.
-The high E string is riding the intonation screw. I tried shimming with three thin slips of paper, but I also had to move the saddle forward for intonation so the string is still resting on it. Do I just keep shimming the saddle or would reversing the bridge be better at this point?
-Playing with the vibrato unlocked is borderline unusable. I'll get some more specifics on what is detuning the most when I get home, but advice around here points to the nut. This is one of the last pieces on the instrument that I've not touched yet and am concerned about making mistakes. I don't have any files either. What should I be investigating?
When it comes to sound, neck feel, and looks, I'm sold. I continue to look at this beaut and remind myself to jump on it for some practice almost every night. And that's a success in my book. If I can work out the last of these kinks, I'm hoping to hang onto this one for a long, long time. It was surprising to see how much trial is involved in this (are all guitars this temperamental or is the unyielding stability of my Dingwall bass just an unfair comparison?) and I want to stop tinkering and start playing more, but it's been a great learning experience overall. Thanks for taking the time to read this!