https://www.fender.com/ja-JP/electric-g ... 00306.html
According to Miki Gakki, this was an FSR for 2023 only sold at the Fender Tokyo Flagship store, with some guitars also sold through Miki Gakki's Americamura store. I can see just one sold through their site:
https://www.mikigakki.com/ec/pro/disp/C ... 944?sFlg=2
Here are the specs:
The Mid-60s C-shape neck is the best I've ever played on a JM - it's a medium C, not too thin or chunky. Close to the AVRI62 profile, but feels a bit nicer IMO. All the other specs are just what I was looking for (alder body, 7.25" radius, vintage frets, bone nut, lacquer finish, angled neck pocket, etc.). They say the nut width should be 41mm, but mine measures out at exactly 42mm, which is my favorite. Tuners are Fender single-line deluxe, same as on the AV65 guitars.
What attracted me to this model is it is basically a reissue of a Late '64/early '65 JM. A very cool "transition" period that Fender USA has never made outside of the custom shop. The pearloid dot inlays with clay side dots on this guitar is a combination only found on vintage JMs from late 1964 to Spring 1965. No other Heritage JM has this feature (the Sonic Blue FSR from 2023 just has white dot inlays):
Another feature I really liked was the matching headstock with the proper "Fender" gold logo (attached over the lacquer), just as we would see on a factory-black JM in Late '64:
I already replaced the bridge with an AVRI bridge, and I will replace the tremolo with an American one in a few weeks. Outside of that, there is nothing else for me to swap. There is only one issue with the guitar: it does not appear to be shielded at all outside of the foil on the back of the pickguard. When I looked under there I found CTS pots and a Switchcraft switch, along with black bobbin pickups wound with Formvar wire and cloth leads, but the cavities are a glossy black like the rest of the guitar, so it looks like they didn't put shielding paint in there! I can definitely hear the extra noise when my fingers aren't touching the strings. Some copper tape will fix this, or I could install the brass plates found in the USA guitars, since the body is routed according to USA specs.
The pickups are proper JM flat and wide (from what I could see, lightly potted in wax), and sound really nice. Not as full and "gritty"-sounding as the AVRI62 I sold a few months ago, but I like the middle and bridge positions better on this guitar (the neck pup on the AVRI62 was amazing though, and IMO superior to this one's). Fender says the pickups are scatterwound. Some have said the Heritage JMs have USA-made pickups, but that's not true: they are made and wound in Japan, but under the supervision/guidance of a Fender USA Masterbuilder. Mine read 6.84k ohm in the neck and 6.85k ohm in the bridge, so somewhat less than the typical USA black bobbin which is usually 7.5-8.5k ohm.
The specs list it as "Gloss lacquer" on the neck and body. The blonde Heritage is listed as "nitro over urethane" on the neck, and "Gloss Lacquer" on the body. Since nitro isn't mentioned, I'm assuming it is an acrylic or acrylic blend. It feels smoother and harder than the nitro on my American guitars (AV65 and Marr Jag).
Anyway, this is a really great JM, and far superior to the previous Japanese JMs I've owned (a 1993 and a 2015). It's light (3.41kg), the neck is amazing (fretwork is perfect), I love the look of it, and it sounds really great. I like it better than the AVRI62 I recently sold. Just need to fix the noise problem due to a lack of shielding.
