CME Player Jazzmaster in sunburst with black headstock! I preordered it in May, and it kept getting delayed until finally shipping in mid/late September. The preorder took so long that I had to buy other guitars while waiting for it lol. CME did throw in a t-shirt and gig bag though.
If you are a vintage purist, look away now... Specs here
https://reverb.com/item/32722064-fender ... -pre-order.
Initial impressions and pics below! There are other threads about modding this model, so in case it helps someone I included pics of the routing and wiring. I can post more close-ups of the wiring if that would help anyone.
Look: I'm very happy with the wood grain on the body, and the dark streaks in the pau ferro fretboard look great to me. The finish is almost perfect, with a small segment on the headstock where the black paint didn't create quite as clean of a line as the perfectionist in me would want, but it's only noticeable from certain angles, and the finish is otherwise beautiful. If only it had blocks and binding!
Feel: The "modern C" satin finish neck is comfortable and smooth for my hands, but it is on the thin side and probably not for those who only like fat necks. If you've played any of the Player series Strats, it's like that, and not far off from my American Standard Tele. I personally enjoy having a variety of neck sizes and shapes, but I've recently been spoiled by a roasted maple neck. I was worried about sharp fret ends like some have reported with the Vintera series and fortunately the frets feel totally fine to me. Some of the frets had mild oxidation already, even after a setup by CME, but that was easy to polish off. Medium jumbo frets are a good balance for me, and for some reason my fingers don't get along with narrow tall frets.
Sound: I'm no JM pickup expert, but I love the pickups, which are supposed to be pure vintage 65's. They've got a perfect chime that brings out the resonance of the trem system beautifully. I haven't gotten any ice pick sounds out of it but haven't played at band volumes yet. I'm into the 4-way switch that adds both pickups in series for a beefier tone.
Mods: I'm undecided if I want to swap out the pickguard for a vintage one with rhythm circuit (and then maybe push/pull pots for series and/or phase). For me, the rhythm circuit would be mostly for mojo, or maybe for a quick tone switch or a kill switch, but I think one could approximate the tone closely enough with either the series + tone knob or the neck pickup + tone knob. There is some mild bridge buzz here and there that I'm tinkering with, but I'm considering swapping in an Am Pro JM mustang-style bridge. I'm not sure I feel the need to replace the trem system at this point and still need to learn more.
Without further ado...
I'll probably swap out the bridge though...
