First impressions are great! The fit and finish is spot on and I'm really happy with it so far. I've not played a Fender Japan guitar before, only a friend's bass so went into it not knowing quite what to expect but feel like I've made a good decision. It cost about £800 for the guitar and then it was another £200 to get it shipped to the UK (and I imagine I'll get a bill for the customs fees soon) but it easily feels like a £1,000+ instrument and feels really well put together.
I love the satin finish! I tried one of the American Performer series with a satin finish a few years back and was hoping this would look and feel similar so I'm glad that it does. I'm not particularly sensitive to different types of fret so the vintage tall ones work absolutely fine for me. Neck feels pretty much identical to my 2017 Duo-Sonic which I guess makes sense.
Not got any decent scales at the moment to weigh it properly but holding it up it seems slightly lighter than the Duo-Sonic which was about 6.5lbs if I remember correctly.
I've only had the chance to plug it in for a little bit and at a pretty low volume so it's hard to tell what it sounds like, especially as I've not got much experience with Jazzmasters but I think it sounds pretty good. Loud and resonant unplugged and both the pickups seem nice and balanced. The bridge is a little more mellow than I was expecting but I quite like it and it sounds very usable so I'll have to see how I get on with it after a few full band practices.
Excuse the terrible photos! I included the last couple to try and show how big it is but it's still quite hard to see as the perspective's off. Standing on the bottom strap button it's shorter than my Mustang but maybe slightly longer than my Duo-Sonic.
If anyone's interested I'll try and record a video in the next few days so people can hear how it sounds. I'm also happy to dig the tape measure out and give some proper dimensions and lift up the pickguard to see if I can see how they've done the weight reduction in the pickup cavity.
