CIJ Jag from '97

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
Post Reply
User avatar
liquidationsnake
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:30 am

CIJ Jag from '97

Post by liquidationsnake » Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:26 am

Hello!
I'm planning to buy my very first offset guitar (and my very first Fender!) soon. It's this CIJ Jaguar from '97 (according to the serial no. but the previous owner tells me that its from '95) and the owner is selling it to me for around $795. Was originally discouraged upon learning that most Japanese guitars from the 90s were of basswood as I prefer the
more traditional alder (don't really buy into that tonewood stuff; this is just personal preference). However, based upon my research, this CIJ is most likely made of alder. The wood grain looks to be it, too but I wanted to get a second opinion from more experienced eyes. Thanks.
And I'd also like to hear your thoughts on Jags from this era. Have the second option to buy a newer Jazzmaster with all the accoutrements if this guitar turns out to be a dud. Thanks in advance!

https://imgur.com/a/jLmct6Z

User avatar
s_mcsleazy
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 18424
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 7:30 am
Location: glasgow

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by s_mcsleazy » Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:35 am

the pickups can be a bit..... vairied in my experience. i've had ones with stock pickups that were quite hot and some that were quite cold. the quality is great on the CIJ fender stuff.

i will say one thing though. for the same price, you could probably mod up a squier CV which in my experience are nearly as good for 1/2 the money.
offset guitars resident bass player.
'Are you trying to seduce me Mrs Robinson? Or do you just want me to solder a couple of resistors into your Muff?'

User avatar
csg
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 10
Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2021 5:14 pm

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by csg » Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:51 am

I've got one that I bought new roundabout 96 which is probably from the same timeframe. Neck/fit and finish were all really nice out of the box, although the depth of the neck is quite thinner than most vintage specced Jags. I never really liked the pickups in mine and replaced them with some Seymour Duncans way back when. I don't remember in the catalogs back then whether everything had a basswood body or just the solid colored jags. Mine's white and the specsheet said basswood.

The pickups, switches and pots were so different compared to my vintage Jag or my Johnny Marr guitar I couldn't really tell you what the body wood is doing versus anything else.

For what it's worth, I did swap my switches out as the stock ones were thinner and a bit less reliable in my experience than the American Jag switches. The tone and volume knobs are smaller than the domestic and CV knobs as well. My CV Squier Bass VI has much better switches than my CIJ Jag did in the 90s, which seem to better approximate the domestic switches. The bridge was pretty terrible and I replaced it with an also note great Allparts Mustang bridge that nonetheless does the trick. The stock bridge on my CV Bass VI seems like a nicer piece.

All that said, they're pretty great guitars, but I agree if you're going to have to upgrade the pickups or anything else, there are a lot of other options out there for the price-point. In the 90s, these and vintage were the only game in town.

Just my experience with these.

User avatar
liquidationsnake
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:30 am

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by liquidationsnake » Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:06 pm

I see. Should I just pay $50 more for this newer Jazzmaster in Aztec Gold? Has all of the documentation/accessories, too.

https://imgur.com/a/UIwwubK

User avatar
Embenny
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 10363
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 5:07 am

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by Embenny » Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:49 pm

Well, do you want a Jazzmaster or a Jaguar? They play completely differently and sound different too.

If the gold paint is factory original, the JM is a much better deal (custom colour JMs are worth a lot more than sunburst Jags) but that means nothing if it's not the guitar you want to play.

I wouldn't worry about theoretical differences between alder and basswood. You'll never hear a difference, and if you believe there's a durability difference, the fact that the guitar is 24 years old in the condition it's in should tell you that whatever wood it's made of is holding up just fine.

My '93 MIJ Jaguar "should" be basswood, and has precisely two dings after nearly three decades, including many years as my #1 guitar with lots of travel and gigging.

Personally, I'd take an MIJ Fender over a modded Indonesian Squier any day of the week.

The modern MIMs are the competitors to the older MIJs, not Squiers, IMO.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

User avatar
BTL
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1450
Joined: Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:24 pm
Contact:

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by BTL » Fri Jul 16, 2021 1:53 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:49 pm
Personally, I'd take an MIJ Fender over a modded Indonesian Squier any day of the week.

The modern MIMs are the competitors to the older MIJs, not Squiers, IMO.
This nugget is significant to me and is consistent with what I've read elsewhere. After years of lingering and building my own designs, I seem to be catching the Fender offset bug. Who knew?
Owner, Lowe Custom Guitars

User avatar
Embenny
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 10363
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 5:07 am

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by Embenny » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:59 pm

BeeTL wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 1:53 pm
mbene085 wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:49 pm
Personally, I'd take an MIJ Fender over a modded Indonesian Squier any day of the week.

The modern MIMs are the competitors to the older MIJs, not Squiers, IMO.
This nugget is significant to me and is consistent with what I've read elsewhere. After years of lingering and building my own designs, I seem to be catching the Fender offset bug. Who knew?
Yeah, I've owned quite a few of most eras and countries of origin in terms of offsets and Fenders in general (60's, 80's, 90's, 00's, 010's, US, Japan, Mexico, Indonesia, China) and the current MIMs and historic MIJs are rather equivalent in quality but not in specs.

It's mostly specific tradeoffs rather than global quality differences.

I've never had an issue with MIJ electronics beyond not liking the pickups. Never had a switch die, pot be way out of spec, or whatever. And I usually hate stock pickups anyway, so to me the MIJ pickups were never an issue per se. The guitars are built extremely well and I like the vintage radius and narrow nut. The MIJ neck profiles are also among my favourites. I'm not anti-pau ferro, but the look of rosewood on a vintage-spec Offset is a nice bonus IMO.

So I really have a soft spot for those MIJ guitars, and by the time the really good MIMs like the Vinteras came out, I didn't need any more Offsets. If I was in the market now, I'd consider a vintera much more seriously. My first ever Offset was my MIJ Jaguar though, and to this day it remains as good playing a guitar as I own, and of the 5 MIJ Fenders I've owned, none were bad in any way, so they're pretty safe bets in my experience.

And years of Offset browsing has also taught me that MIJ custom colours should be jumped on if all else is equal. If that Aztec Gold JM is factory original, that's a steal of a deal.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

User avatar
liquidationsnake
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:30 am

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by liquidationsnake » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:52 pm

Feel free to call me out for being conceited but I've always liked the idea/the prestige behind owning a guitar from Fender Japan. This is the very first one that I will ever get to own and I don't really have a strong preference either way. It looks like I'll be purchasing the Aztec Gold JM after all. Will be posting pictures and an update soon. Thank you, everyone!

User avatar
liquidationsnake
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2021 10:30 am

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by liquidationsnake » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:53 pm

Yep. The JM is listed @ $ 846 right now. If I find it to be not my thing down the line, there's always trading and selling 8) .

User avatar
hulakatt
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1050
Joined: Sat May 08, 2010 7:58 pm
Location: Pittsburgh

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by hulakatt » Mon Jul 26, 2021 2:38 pm

I have a mid 90's CIJ Jag and the only mods I've done to it were using the Mastery bridge and vibrato, really took it up a notch and left me with no desire for further tweaking. The craftsmanship on those MIJ/CIJ Fenders is really something incredible.
She/Her

User avatar
sal paradise
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3596
Joined: Thu May 27, 2021 12:41 am

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by sal paradise » Mon Jul 26, 2021 11:31 pm

I had a mid 90s Jag, too. Left handed. It had everything going for it except the pickups. Shouldn’t have sold it & just replaced the pickups, but I just didn’t need it at the time with the band I was in :fp:

Image
I have nothing to offer anybody, except my own confusion?

User avatar
GreenKnee
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1212
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:05 am
Location: Sheffield, UK

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by GreenKnee » Mon Jul 26, 2021 11:59 pm

I've a Japanese Jaguar from that time-frame, although the serial begins with B so it's a bit of a weirdo. Apparently the serials ran over from starting with A into B, but there's not much info out there about it.

Like others have said, everything on them is exceptional apart from the pickups. I swapped them for 62AVRI pickups, and that's about it.
I have had 2 switches fail on it. Fortunately for me I got it for £250 as the previous owner couldn't get it to work at all (failed switch was the issue). After this I had another fail so I changed them all for the USA switches, all good.


That Aztec Gold Jazzmaster is very cool though. I'm not sure I could play it out of the house though, it's a bit gold and gaudy for me.

User avatar
kimson
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 281
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2017 6:53 pm
Location: Finland

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by kimson » Tue Jul 27, 2021 1:44 am

I definitely agree that the Aztec Gold JM is a way better deal, but the serial number says it should be sunburst so the body is either a refin, non-Fender or American Vintage.

I could be wrong, of course, but AVRI and AV65 are the only two JMs that have been available in Aztec Gold. Fender Japan did do Shoreline Gold at some point, but not Aztec that I know of.

User avatar
rfc
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2014 2:43 pm

Re: CIJ Jag from '97

Post by rfc » Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:34 pm

I have a 1996 "'62 Fender Jaguar 50th Anniversary" in Sunburst and I love it. I did replace the pickups with Pure 65s, also replaced the pots and switches. I did this all at the same time so I can't exactly tell if the pots make a huge difference in sound, but they do FEEL better. They have more resistance in rotating. On thing i will say is that I do not really hear a difference with the bass throttle switch. There are a couple positions where going back and forth very deliberately, I can hear it, but it is subtle.

The pots had a different shaft diameter so I had to replace the knobs as well, and ream the holes for them.

I also replaced the pickgaurd with a black one. Purists will probably hate that, but the red tortoise shell thing it had was just kind of gross looking.

I added a Staytrem bridge and collet, and replaced the tremolo with an AV unit.

This now plays amazingly well. I've never had a vintage or American reissue, but I have played them a bit in stores, and this, to me, feels and sounds about as good.

RE: the Jazzmaster, I am no expert but I did just get a TVM Jazzmaster. It does indeed feel and sound quite different. Great, but different. With everything stock except for the strings (I replaced with flat wound 11s), it feels comparable. The tremolo is GREAT (though the arm can be a little loose and wiggly, I might do the Staytrem swap on this, too). The tuners are super-solid. It has a broader range of sounds than the Jaguar. The rhythm circuit is, to my ears, a bit more useful (I almost never use it on the Jaguar).

They are both fantastic guitars, and I go back and forth between them quite a bit.

I do wonder if I am missing out on something like an AVRI, and I have totally given up on hoping to ever afford a vintage. I'm not sure I'd really want a vintage one at this point, anyway.

Post Reply