OffsetGuitars.com

Hi everybody!

My first New Guitar Day at OSG! I have snatched this nice white AV65 at Ishibashi last week and it arrived yesterday. It was ranked as B+ and as far as I can see it's almost perfect, apart from a tiny ding on the upper horn. I was surprised to find that the pickguard still had its plastic wrap on it. I am taking this off for sure.

The guitar came in a completely mint G&G Fender case with all of the case candy, including a Fender leather strap, bridge cover and every imaginable document. The manual is in Japanese, so it looks like the guitar had been originally purchased in Japan. There's also a Fender polishing cloth in a plastic bag, which is still sealed.

There was also an additional sealed bag which had another manual in Spanish (?), a grey Switchcraft cable, a set of Fender flatwounds and the vibrato arm. Not sure about this bag. Did the cable came standard with AV65s or is it something the store or the previous owner added? Also the vibrato arm is angled weirdly (check the photo below). It does fit and stay in place though, so I guess I will probably have some bending to do.

All in all, the guitar sounds and plays amazing out of the box, and intonates really well. I did notice that the neck is somewhat misaligned, you can see it in the neck pocket, and the outer strings (1st and 6th) need to sit closer to the side of the bridge posts (?) for the correct alignment on the fretboard, but it looks like it should be an easy adjustment for my luthier. Makes sense?

The guitar is also quite light, compared to my AVII 66 Jazzmaster. I was also planning to swap the pickups, as I have an Iolas set from Sunday Handwound lying around, but I might wait with this because surprisingly the pickups sound great to me. As we have already addressed in the SHW thread, it may be due to the production variation or something. I did not care much about the stock pickups in my AVII JM, so swapped them. So I guess I will need to play for a few weeks to be sure that it's not just a honeymoon period impressions.

Nice! And it has the matching headstock! Good score.

Pelicashka wrote: ↑

Mon May 13, 2024 4:36 am

All in all, the guitar sounds and plays amazing out of the box, and intonates really well. I did notice that the neck is somewhat misaligned, you can see it in the neck pocket, and the outer strings (1st and 6th) need to sit closer to the side of the bridge posts (?) for the correct alignment on the fretboard, but it looks like it should be an easy adjustment for my luthier. Makes sense?

No need to take it to a luthier.
1. Loosen all strings a few turns (just to be safe)
2. Loosen the neck screws 3/4 turn.
3. Pull neck towards upper horn (don't force it) & even out the spacing.
4. Tighten neck screws & tune up.
5. Play signature chord and/or lick.

If step 3 doesn't work then I would return it immediately and have the store fix it.

Sweet! Congrats!

I love mine, bought new in 2014...the finish on mine has aged tremendously, so expect this to happen to yours, too!

Really nice ! Very good find !

Love the white and tort. One of my favorite color combos. Congrats!

Wow. Just wow.

Tort and White is always amazing!
Love it! Happy new guitar day!

Many thanks, guys! Appreciate the NGD greetings.

DrippyReverbTremolo, thank you for the advice but I don't feel confident enough doing it myself, and I am terrified of screwing something up, like overtightening something, as I am definitely prone to breaking my own stuff, lol. I'd rather be smarter this time.

AwesomeWelles wrote: ↑

Mon May 13, 2024 8:58 am

Sweet! Congrats!

I love mine, bought new in 2014...the finish on mine has aged tremendously, so expect this to happen to yours, too!

Insane how quickly the soft finish ages on these!!
But wondering that if this one has been in its case for a long time that the finish may have hardened as opposed to ours being handled since new..

Pelicashka wrote: ↑

Mon May 13, 2024 4:36 am

I was also planning to swap the pickups, as I have an Iolas set from Sunday Handwound lying around, but I might wait with this because surprisingly the pickups sound great to me. As we have already addressed in the SHW thread, it may be due to the production variation or something. I did not care much about the stock pickups in my AVII JM, so swapped them. So I guess I will need to play for a few weeks to be sure that it's not just a honeymoon period impressions.

Luv the pickups in mine, this is my 1st fender JM so maybe its a case of not knowing what im missing..

Enjoy

I love the white headstock. Looks great!

Pelicashka wrote: ↑

Mon May 13, 2024 11:18 am

Many thanks, guys! Appreciate the NGD greetings.

DrippyReverbTremolo, thank you for the advice but I don't feel confident enough doing it myself, and I am terrified of screwing something up, like overtightening something, as I am definitely prone to breaking my own stuff, lol. I'd rather be smarter this time.

It’s 2 bits of wood screwed together dude. You’ll be fine. One of the ‘joys’ of owning offsets is learning how to work with their quirks , so it’s the perfect introductory maintenance task.

JamesSGBrown wrote: ↑

Tue May 14, 2024 12:12 pm

Pelicashka wrote: ↑

Mon May 13, 2024 11:18 am

Many thanks, guys! Appreciate the NGD greetings.

DrippyReverbTremolo, thank you for the advice but I don't feel confident enough doing it myself, and I am terrified of screwing something up, like overtightening something, as I am definitely prone to breaking my own stuff, lol. I'd rather be smarter this time.

It’s 2 bits of wood screwed together dude. You’ll be fine. One of the ‘joys’ of owning offsets is learning how to work with their quirks , so it’s the perfect introductory maintenance task.

I do agree.

@Peli - just stick to hand tools, don't force anything, take it slow and you'll be fine.

Pelicashka wrote: ↑

Mon May 13, 2024 11:18 am

Many thanks, guys! Appreciate the NGD greetings.

DrippyReverbTremolo, thank you for the advice but I don't feel confident enough doing it myself, and I am terrified of screwing something up, like overtightening something, as I am definitely prone to breaking my own stuff, lol. I'd rather be smarter this time.

Nothing to be afraid of really. There is really only one thing to pay attention to (as long as you are following the process above - only loosening the screws a turn or so) and that is to make sure that the phillips screwdriver head you are using fits properly so you dont mangle the screwheads. When you tighten them back down - just tighten them back to what they were before which will be just a little bit past where you start to feel real resistance. Hard to describe but you will feel it. Feeling comfortable doing this will be very helpful for any other bolt on neck that you get in the future.

The other option may be to head down to a decent local shop and have one of the techs do it for you. I would hope that the shop or tech would just do it for you and you could watch - or maybe just want a fiver or something. That way you can see the process and you'll know right away if that fixes the initial issue.