Fender Japan 2023 Collection - Comp Stripe + BB IBM

[sciuri]

Lol, I must be one of the other four! Mine is coming on Friday if DHL are true to their word.

So far so good from Kinko, though I’ll reserve final judgements until I get it in my hands. I’d sent a couple of emails asking for info / stock arrival times and he actually gave me a heads up email before the listing went live which I really appreciate. They seem like good people.

(Not the same picture as above )

I had to do a double take! I assume they were shipped out the same day, but even their inspection photos are shot at the same angles. The consistency in their sales process is impressive.

Congrats! My previous order with Kinko Music went very smoothly, and I've been a fan of the recent MIJ guitars. I love the narrow nut width. As long it makes it safely through shipping, I think I'll be very happy with it!

[sciuri]

My Sherwood Green Metallic Jaguar arrived! Lovely color, green with subtle grays and blues, and it's fun to see it change in different lighting conditions... it's almost like OTM and CFM had a baby, and tbh I actually never thought I would want a guitar this color. And, of course, D&B is such a great look.

Set up was pretty good out of the box. The fret ends are definitely smoother than my MIM TVL B&B neck which has become my expectation for MIJ vs MIM. Among bound necks, I think I prefer Gibson's way with the nibs covering the fret ends, though for me nothing beats a nicely rolled fretboard edge. A corner on the nut is a little scratchy but no big deal.

I was hoping the bridge would be a 7.25" Am Pro one, but I think it must be a generic Mustang bridge -- E to e spacing is 55mm. The 55mm works just fine with this neck though. I usually go with Staytrem, but I'd like to try a Mastery bridge just to experience it. A Staytrem collet is also obligatory for me.

Gratuitous photos!







Cousins!

[CROSS_guitars]

Goddamn!
Two dream guitars right there!

[forestgreen]

Yep incredible pics. Thanks for posting

[letterstoboddah]

beautiful guitars!

[superficial]

I think Sciuri and I have similar taste in guitars!



AO JM and the new Jag.

I’m super impressed with the Jag. The paint is deep and sparkly, and the fretboard is a gorgeous dark rosewood. The fretwork is good, the pots and switches feel solid and are crackle-free. The pickups are bright and engaging but seem to have a smoother edge than other Jaguars I’ve played. The bridge is round and bites almost like a Tele bridge and is not at all tinny and thin (my main issue with the PV65’s in my JM). No extra shim required, bridge angle and tuning stability seem great out of the box even with the default strings (9’s?). The only real Issue I could find is a slightly sharp edge on the nut but I only noticed after a couple of days and it’s easily remedied.

Really pleased!

[soren]

Cousins!

What lovely cousins. Seems to be a big family.

[sciuri]

Beautiful!

[superficial]

Right, can anyone help me with what’s going on with the tone pot on my new Jag? There’s definitely not linear and something is happening when I turn it up full.

If I have it rolled up full, the sound is extremely bass-heavy. Roll it off a bit, and the bass goes away completely and then the tone pot functions like I’d expect a tone pot to - gradually rolling off the treble. There’s definitely a ‘step’ as the post goes from full to ~90% with a sudden change in the bass.

See what I mean?

https://youtu.be/_GzD6roEub4?si=7aG47XGwoX-pJQZK



It’s the MIJ Traditional Jag but it’s a Kinko FSR model so they may have funky wiring.

[sciuri]

Not sure if I can help much! On mine, the tone knob on 10 sounds fuller or more present, and the sweep from 10 to 9 is noticeable, but I can’t reproduce the big volume jump that seems to be happening on yours. I took a look under the control plates and the wiring looks like typical Jaguar wiring from what I can tell.

AO 60s Jaguar wiring

But it sounds like replacing the tone pot or capacitor might be needed.

Edit: I’m also assuming the cap value is .01 uF (the cap is yellow and the only marking is “103k” but I can’t find the exact one on google). If it’s actually a higher value cap value, then lowering it might help the sweep behave more gradually.

I’m going to stop here and hope timtam or someone more knowledgeable than me will chime in!

[superficial]

Thanks for the confirmation. It’s definitely doing something strange. I’ve noticed the same thing happens on the volume pot - there’s a big ‘step’ from 9 to 10 but that’s not completely unexpected behaviour.

Had the control plates off - all looks fine to my untrained eye.




Next thing to try is another amp. So far this is all with my Helix. Maybe it’s a weird impedance thing?

[sciuri]

Maybe try posting a dedicated question in the Tech/Setup forum?

You might get other forumites' attention who don't follow this particular thread. I'm curious too, just to learn how to diagnose these types of things.

[superficial]

Thanks, I've done just that:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=126692

[flying_squad]

Just noticed some new FSR Jaguars at Kinko - Black with matching headstock and Inca Silver with matching headstock. That Inca silver one looks amazing

[superficial]

Oooh yeah, they’re very cool indeed. It feels like Kinko is consistently the best source of interesting offsets.