FSR Squier Classic Vibe 60's Jazzmaster in Pink

[HNB]

I pre ordered this guitar mostly thinking I would use the body and sell off the rest. I wanted to build a pink Jazzmaster, but didn't want to wait for a custom body to pop up or do the painting myself. I figured at the guitar's price, I could probably make a pretty good deal swapping my own parts in and selling off the parts I don't use.

It came today and I am honestly really impressed. It has a mustang style bridge already with a narrow enough spacing that the E's aren't hanging on the edge. The tremolo works smoothly and doesn't go out of tune. The pickups actually sound nice enough that I don't feel a need to change them and all the switches and pots seem solid. The fretboard looks dry, but it is pretty dark and I am sure it will look 1000x better with some conditioner applied. The non-branded kluson style tuners work fine and seem free of slop. The red pickguard is dark, but quite pretty. It doesn't look like shitty printed stuff I was expecting. No sharp fret ends. Only "flaw" and it isn't really a flaw, is a black small spot in the maple on the back of the neck. It is just a wood thing, not a paint issue. Truss rod hole looks clean and seems to be wood vs black plastic. The only other gripe I have is that EVERYTHING had plastic stuck to it. LOL The neck plate, the tremolo, and the pickguard. I am going to have to take the pickguard apart to get all the plastic off because it is under the toggle and jack nut and the volume and tone nuts, and the bridge. Not a flaw, just annoying that I can't remove the plastic without taking it apart. LOL When I do, I will swap up from the 9's it probably has to my usual 11's. Also I will shim it because the bridge is sitting almost on the guard and the action is a tiny higher than I like it. That is a preference thing though. I am really impressed with it. I am glad I didn't order anything for it because the only thing I might change is the tremolo to a Classic Player one ONLY because I like the screw in arms more than push in. This stock tremolo works just fine. Maybe I am lucky, but I tend to have good results with Indonesian Squier stuff. (I tend to have bad luck with made in China Squiers.) Oh it was even correctly intonated out of the box. I just had to tune it and do the normal tremolo abuse and retune until it held being in tune with abuse. I am super impressed. Here are pictures.

IMG_20210417_184753 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184813 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184808 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184758 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184818 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184803 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184837 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184843 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210417_184832 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[robroe]

This rules

[RIORIO]

[CROSS_guitars]

It's perfect!

[ohm-men]

Nice guitar! I think it's special run in Squier's "Shell Pink"
I have the same feeling regarding the quality of the the CV/VM series . Picked up a slightly used CV Jaguar last year.
It's indeed a really well made and nice playing instrument.

As for the pickguard, I'm pretty sure a US spec Jazzmaster pickguard will fit the CV without modification.
I just put a American Performer Jm guard on a Squier Deluxe Jazzmaster body, just a drop on/in. Screw holes aligned perfectly.
(Although I "think" the Deluxe is a China made Squier)

My only gripe are the tuners, which I ended upgrading and the pickups, although nicely, I upgraded the stock ones because I got a nice deal on a used pair of SD's. (Which just sound better imho)
As for the stock pick ups, which are no longer marked "Duncan Designed" as they did on the Vintage Modified series, these are in fact the exact same ones on the Classic Vibe.
Even the output is the same. They only dropped the "Duncan" name. Having compared these (of which I should have taken pictures) I can attest that there is no difference in them whatsover. Perhaps they switched factories, but it's still the exact same product specs.

[redchapterjubilee]

I got mine last summer. My experience was like yours to a certain extent. Bought mine for the same reason as you initially: cheap pink body. Figured I’d replace everything. In stock form it isn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination. Where I had issues from the start was in the finish and with the frets. I placed mine right out of the box onto a typical guitar stand and it started to turn the finish almost immediately. I was able to buff out the area where the finish reacted but if I hadn’t caught it right away would it have been worse? I thought it was odd. These aren’t nitro finishes. I didn’t think poly would react like that. The bigger issue was that I had bad fret ends exacerbated by a bit of sprout. I eventually took it to a luthier who was able to fix those issues. I was expecting to put a Classic 60s neck on it but I think the stock neck is fine now. I don’t care for the tint of the pao ferro on the neck that much but I remind myself it’s a $400 guitar. I had an extra AVRI trem so I popped that in and it was certainly an improvement over stock but not drastically. I am on the prowl for a set of pickups more to my liking but the stock ones aren’t awful.

[HNB]

It is good to know the finish can be picky possibly. I have mine hanging with my other Jazzies. I am thinking today that I am going to install the shim, get the last bits of pickguard plastic off, condition the fretboard, and raise the pickups a little. While I have it apart, I will take the guard off to get some gut pictures.

If it has those duncan designed antiquity I's I have no problem with those. I actually bought a set used for a project because they sounded fine to me.

[HNB]

Got to work today.

IMG_20210418_113029 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Took the neck off first to shim it.

IMG_20210418_113645 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210418_113654 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Then I oiled the fretboard. I am almost positive it is rosewood.

IMG_20210418_114448 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Then I took off the guard to get the plastic bits off. Standard import electronics. Mini pots, etc, but they all work fine so I left it alone. Shielding was sloppy inside and mostly at the bottom of the control cavities. I did take this chance to rotate the rollers so the set screw was at the bottom at full instead of the top. (Personal preference.)

IMG_20210418_114830 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210418_114819 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210418_115833 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Once the plastic bits were off, I reattached the guard and took out the pickups to add more foam. Here is what the undersides look like.

IMG_20210418_123757 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210418_124203 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

With the foam added in, I was able to get the pickups to the height I like. I like to keep the neck pickup tabs flush with the guard and the bridge about a 1/4" up from that or so.

IMG_20210418_124442 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

With those set up, I put DAddario EXL 115's on and tuned it all up.

IMG_20210418_150825 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210418_150830 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210418_150835 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

It sounds and plays great! I have a sound demo uploading at the moment. I will link it later when it is done. This is super solid. I added strap locks and a couch lavender strap to it.

[loveinathens]

Ngl Chris, whenever I see you post these days, I half-expect there to be humbuckers in that Jazzy. Great guitar btw! I really like how they stepped up with the tort for this line.

[HNB]

https://youtu.be/-5C1YdosH78

A demo.

[jdr1014]

very nice.....congrats!

[bessieboporbach]

Interesting photos. There's no way that fretboard is rosewood, though. It's just one of the many different types of ficus that gets called "Indian Laurel" on spec sheets. They range from fairly tight to fairly loose grain, and from very dark/greyish in cast to lighter and streaky.

The types of rosewood that are used in this part of the world, mainly "sonokeling" (latifolia), look completely different. They are usually very dark and fairly uniform. Yamaha never stopped using sonokeling for their Indonesian-made guitars and it's so dark and tight-grained it sometimes looks like ebony.

You definitely got a handsomer piece than I did on my first-run CVJM, though.

[HNB]

Hmm I trust you, but this is it next to two Allparts rosewood necks. (Those could use some oil on them. LOL)

2021-04-19_08-32-02 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

[bessieboporbach]

Hmm I trust you, but this is it next to two Allparts rosewood necks. (Those could use some oil on them. LOL)

2021-04-19_08-32-02 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Yeah, no doubt to me that the pink one is some type of ficus. Notice its greyer cast compared to the other two. The problem is that Fender (and now Epiphone) speak of "Indian laurel" as if it's one thing a la pau ferro, but it really isn't. It's a whole pile of different woods. The stuff that Cort usually uses under the name "Indian laurel" (ficus microcarpa) is neither Indian nor laurel!

[RIORIO]

That fretboard looks great!