Fender Gold Foil Jazzmaster 2023

[DeathJag]

There's a tele version to and there's this hilarious video of a guy pulling the dumbest 'guitar solo' faces I've seen in a long time

They don't sound even remotely like goldfoils.

Hey I like the faces! A lot! Kind of like a visual representation. I abhor the music, that made me sadly cringe, but I like the faces. That whole "cool guy" look, half-lidded, stone-faced, too-cool-for-school face turns me off so hard.

Sorry for the OT. In my opinion that tone was about as awful as one can get, nothing remotely usable there for me.

[del]

You'd probably be in to my AO. It currently has 2x Mojo goldfoils, soon to be 3x in a couple of weeks

That's a great looking Jaguar.
Better than the factory "goldfoil" Fenders, imho.

[del]

The single pickup Gold Foil Jazz Bass, however, looks FABULOUS!
Kind of ike a spacey Cabronita.

[algeriet]

nothing is less garage than buying a brand new instrument from one of the world biggest music brands, but especially one that is designed to ape a cool cheap guitar from the days when garage was a real thing. The old silvertones are expensive now, but the equivalent in 2023 would be to get onstage with your Yamaha Pacifica or squier strat, not a brand new fender thing.

This.

There's a tele version to and there's this hilarious video of a guy pulling the dumbest 'guitar solo' faces I've seen in a long time

What the heck did I just watch...

[Embenny]

I like mashup guitars in general, I've pieced together many of them. Gretsch-Fender, Gibson-Fender, Gretsch-Guild, etc.

But this? This is just lazy, poor execution.

And yeah, Samicks and Yamahas through solid state Peavey amps would have been the true garage rigs these last couple of decades, but that's not who this is for.

I don't know who this is for, but it's definitely not me.

[sholkham]

The single pickup Gold Foil Jazz Bass, however, looks FABULOUS!
Kind of ike a spacey Cabronita.

10/10, hopefully it sounds better than that telecater though.

[CVBassVI]

They already make several Jazzmasters, from modern to vintage correct. One could say a proper vintage spec Jazzmaster is missing from the Squier product line but afaik that has always been the case.

As well it should be. Squier has never been about reissues, and with Squier on the headstock, why would anyone who wants an inferior spec (read as: vintage spec) guitar want to have it made overseas with a non-Fender logo on it? The Squiers, quite sensibly, bring superior modern features to the mix and that is how it should be,

But what bothers me is that the vast majority of people here:
A. Didn't blink at $1399 for a MIM Fender (!!!)
B. Hate it because it isn't exactly like some other Jazzmaster from the past. How boring is that? "Hey Fender! We want you to only make guitars exactly as you did from 1962-1965 and don't you DARE innovate or offer models that aren't something I could have bought from you back then."

[sal paradise]

[GreenKnee]

B. Hate it because it isn't exactly like some other Jazzmaster from the past. How boring is that? "Hey Fender! We want you to only make guitars exactly as you did from 1962-1965 and don't you DARE innovate or offer models that aren't something I could have bought from you back then."

Nobody said that.

[Embenny]

Yeah, I believe I specifically said that I enjoy mashups, but think this one is ugly and poorly executed.

$1399 is hardly a new price tier for MIM Fenders. Off the top of my head, the J Mascis Telecaster ($1399) and TVL Jazzmaster is ($1599) come to mind.

Plus, why would any of us get worked up over the price of a guitar we clearly don't want to buy? It would be just as unappealing to me if it was $300 cheaper.

[JSett]

They already make several Jazzmasters, from modern to vintage correct. One could say a proper vintage spec Jazzmaster is missing from the Squier product line but afaik that has always been the case.

As well it should be. Squier has never been about reissues, and with Squier on the headstock, why would anyone who wants an inferior spec (read as: vintage spec) guitar want to have it made overseas with a non-Fender logo on it? The Squiers, quite sensibly, bring superior modern features to the mix and that is how it should be,

But what bothers me is that the vast majority of people here:
A. Didn't blink at $1399 for a MIM Fender (!!!)
B. Hate it because it isn't exactly like some other Jazzmaster from the past. How boring is that? "Hey Fender! We want you to only make guitars exactly as you did from 1962-1965 and don't you DARE innovate or offer models that aren't something I could have bought from you back then."

'Modern' does not equal 'superior'. It's just preference. A flatter radius neck isn't better, just different. Squiers are inferior guitars, made to meet a price point and nothing more. I think most of us have issue with it a) having a fucking B*gsby and b) it not actually having goldfoils.

And we've flogged the pricing horse to death now. With inflation etc these days $1399 isn't a lot of money. It's about the weekly average pay for a US citizen. A Mustang (a cheap student guitar, remember) was the equivalent of $1900 when it was released in 1964. Guitars have never been cheaper than they are today...you're looking at the numbers with the wrong mindset.

[BoringPostcards]

A Bigsby is a different feel from an offset vibrato. This is not a standard Jazzmaster, why would it have a standard vibrato?

Because the offset vibrato is a better, more stable system. Why put something inferior on a Jazzmaster, just to fit an aesthetic?

I think it's extremely questionable that an offset vibrato is "better" or "more stable" than a Bigsby.

I'm sure you have anecdotal experience, but so do I. In my anecdotal experience, a Bigsby is rock-solid and far easier to set up than any other system to boot. A well-setup Bigsby stands up at least as well to heavy use as any offset system, in my anecdotal experience.

They are different. That's all. Different sound, different feel, equally valid.

Honestly I'm a bit surprised by this comment. I get that this is the offset guitars forum, not the "general guitars forum," and that one can assume it's full of enthusiasts of this type of guitar and their appointments. I am an enthusiast too. But what I didn't expect was to encounter the belief that anything about these instruments was objectively better than the alternative rather than more to one's taste or, you know, what it is. I don't even know that it's possible to declare positively what's "better" when each different system has different musical uses. If stability is the be-all and end-all, use a Floyd.

Yeah, all I got is anecdotal evidence too.
I’ve only personally owned one guitar with a Bigsby, and I couldn’t stand it. It was the type that is tricky to restring. I probably should have given it more time.
Anyhow, I had a Jazzmaster there at the time to compare, and always felt the system on there was better for my uses. Also, way less finicky to set up and maintain.
I guess, I don’t understand using an off brand part on a variation of a guitar that usually comes with a great vibrato system already.
I should have been less lazy with my original post. It was early in the day.

[bessieboporbach]

With inflation etc these days $1399 isn't a lot of money. It's about the weekly average pay for a US citizen.

"$1400 isn't a lot of money" sure is a hot take but OK.

The median weekly wage in the US in Q3 2022 was $1070. For 25-34 it's $1003. For below 25 it's $690.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/media ... r-2022.htm

[bessieboporbach]

Yeah, all I got is anecdotal evidence too.
I’ve only personally owned one guitar with a Bigsby, and I couldn’t stand it. It was the type that is tricky to restring. I probably should have given it more time.
Anyhow, I had a Jazzmaster there at the time to compare, and always felt the system on there was better for my uses. Also, way less finicky to set up and maintain.
I guess, I don’t understand using an off brand part on a variation of a guitar that usually comes with a great vibrato system already.
I should have been less lazy with my original post. It was early in the day.

Fair enough! To be fair, though, Bigsby is hardly an "off brand" since Fender owns them.

They are all a bit tricky to restring but you just have to know the trick -- hold the ball end on the post, pull the string tight, capo on 5, release the ball end (the capo will hold it in place) and wrap the string around the tuning peg as normal and tune up. Remove the capo when rough tuned and you're good to go.

It's true that offset vibratos are probably the single easiest system to restring and get working on a basic level, far easier than Strats let alone Floyds, Kahlers, and all the other modern variations. But the bridge needs care and can be a pain. Bigsbys basically don't care what kind of bridge you use them with. They just work. Paul Bigsby was at least the genius that Leo Fender was.

There are crappy Bigsbys out there for sure but also lots that are rock solid. And, of course, the sound is unique and can't really be replicated on an offset vibrato (or vice versa), even though an offset vibrato and a Bigsby are pretty similar in the way they work.

[JSett]

With inflation etc these days $1399 isn't a lot of money. It's about the weekly average pay for a US citizen.

"$1400 isn't a lot of money" sure is a hot take but OK.

The median weekly wage in the US in Q3 2022 was $1070. For 25-34 it's $1003. For below 25 it's $690.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2022/media ... r-2022.htm

I just googled Average salary USA and it came back with $54'000. I just kept it simple.

Everything is relative, I know that, but generalisations are a necessity in pricing products. When a 2 bed condo in LA is over a million dollars, $1400 isn't all that much. I had breakfast in a back street diner in Chicago in 2019 and it cost me $65 for two of us. In 2008, in NYC, that same breakfast cost about $28.