NGD (and new pickguard day) - MIJ Heritage JM in transparent white

[smjenkins]

I've been hunting for a reasonably priced imported MIJ Heritage JM since they were announced. I was watching one on Reverb and TCP ended up beating me to it. (More on that one here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=118036&p=1651292&hi ... e#p1651292). Eventually another one showed up on ebay with free shipping at less than 10% markup from retail. Basically the markup paid for shipping.

This is my first MIJ guitar so here's some observations:

1. The crafstmanship and finish are really top shelf. I'd say the nitro finish meets or exceeds the modern AV65 nitro finishes I've seen from Corona.
2. The shape and parts on the Heritage guitar are all US. That includes the pickguard. As you'll see in the pics, I replaced the pickguard with a US JM shaped guard and it 100% lined up.
3. The neck has a clear glossy finish! I really dislike when Fender tries to simulate aging only on the neck by using a satin finish that slightly yellowed. The instrument is new and not relic'd, don't just relic one part.
4. The pickups sound great. For my preferneces this guitar sounds better than the stock CFM AV65 I have.
5. This finish is billed as "transparent white" but the edges of the guitar are more solid white. I'd be tempted to call this "Mary Kaye burst". It's a really neat look and is a great blend of transparent while still feeling very white and not pinkish yellow which a lot of transparent white finishes can lean towards.
6. I've never loved the gold guard on white look so I swapped it out with a US JM pickguard I had in the parts drawer. I prefer this look but I know that is probably not the popular opinion here.

Anyway, enough talk, here's the pics:

[mediocreplayer]

Put back that gold guard right now! I don't even like gold in any form, but it just works on this particular model. That said, it looks great with the tort too! I feel it is impossible to make this guitar look bad

Congratulations! I have been having gas for this model but cannot get myself to spend upwards of $1.5k on a guitar at the moment. I am very happy to read that you like the craftsmanship and pickups. Enjoy!

[Scout]

Beauty!

[wproffitt]

Congratulations! That’s a really nice looking guitar. I love the look of a translucent white finish. You don’t see it enough. Enjoy it in good health.

[Veitchy]

Beautiful guitar. I've been curious to see when someone on here would get their hands on one - I think their release kinda flew under the radar a tad. Interesting to hear that it's all US spec dimensions for the hardware.

I'm guessing the pickups are actual wide/short bobbin JM ones?

[Musicman20]

Wow!!!

[Embenny]

I absolutely love the subtle burst effect, that's just plain gorgeous (though I am partial to the stock gold guard look).

Congrats!

[smjenkins]

Beautiful guitar. I've been curious to see when someone on here would get their hands on one - I think their release kinda flew under the radar a tad. Interesting to hear that it's all US spec dimensions for the hardware.

I'm guessing the pickups are actual wide/short bobbin JM ones?

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I didn't actually take off the pickup covers when I replaced the pickguard so I'm not sure what the pickup model is but I'm now curious. I'll take photos if I take off the strings again and get under there.

WRT the subtle burst in the finish, I've been reading up on the original MK finish and that guitar had a similar very transparent middle and burst edge. It seems like that aspect has gotten lost over the years on most interprtations.



From: https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/cu ... ratocaster

[TCP]

Nice!!! Sorry I swooped in and scored mine before you but I'm glad you got one too! And, as much as I love my gold pickguard, that tort guard looks great too. I noticed some 3-colour sunbursts have been showing up on Reverb lately. They look great too but I think our transparent whites look best, IMHO.

2. The shape and parts on the Heritage guitar are all US. That includes the pickguard. As you'll see in the pics, I replaced the pickguard with a US JM shaped guard and it 100% lined up.

This is what I suspected when I translated Fender Japan's product page. I don't have another Jazzmaster to compare with, but I suspect if I wanted to upgrade to a Mastery I could just get the bridge for an American JM? I'm currently getting a little bit of buzz on both of the Es on the bridge, so I'd like to just swap for a Mastery and be done with it.

[rank]

6. I've never loved the gold guard on white look so I swapped it out with a US JM pickguard I had in the parts drawer. I prefer this look but I know that is probably not the popular opinion here.

The tort looks great & if you decide to get rid of the gold guard, hit me up!!!

[smjenkins]

This is what I suspected when I translated Fender Japan's product page. I don't have another Jazzmaster to compare with, but I suspect if I wanted to upgrade to a Mastery I could just get the bridge for an American JM? I'm currently getting a little bit of buzz on both of the Es on the bridge, so I'd like to just swap for a Mastery and be done with it.

Yeah, the standard M1 Mastery bridge will fit and work great. One thing to keep in mind with the Mastery is that it is *very* effective at making a solid connection between the strings to the body and so the guitar will feel and sound different. I'm not saying it's better or worse, that's up to your preferences, but it is different. I know this has been litigated in a bunch of threads, I just want to call it out.

[smjenkins]

The tort looks great & if you decide to get rid of the gold guard, hit me up!!!

I'm going to keep that pickguard in case I want to sell this guitar as stock at some point in the future. However, this PG on Amazon is a very close substitute and is very cheap. I ordered a few of these for a different project (if it works out, I'll share about it here in a few weeks) and all of the holes and the shape line up perfectly with one exception. The guard is a bit more shiny than the stock Fender one, but not too different. The exception on the shape is the notch above the screw closest to the neck on the upper side of the pickguard. It's more rounded and doesn't have the sharp angle that the Fender pickguards have. Other than that, it's a bang-on US JM pattern.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W6 ... UTF8&psc=1

[Fiddy]

Im really liking this guitar. Id be so tempted to throw some of that new tort coming from the UK on it...

[gila_crisis]

6. I've never loved the gold guard on white look so I swapped it out with a US JM pickguard I had in the parts drawer. I prefer this look but I know that is probably not the popular opinion here.

On my 2019 MIJ Jazzmaster (lefthanded), at some point I swapped the original white pickguard with a tort one I got on ebay, which was cut specifically for CIJ/MIJ JM (but eventually I went back to the white one, on black w/ matching headstock it looked a lot better).
Oddly enough, and to my surprise 2-3 holes were not so properly in line! So I was wondering too, if now Fender Japan uses also US hardware, or hardware with the same measurements/shapes.

[gila_crisis]

This is what I suspected when I translated Fender Japan's product page. I don't have another Jazzmaster to compare with, but I suspect if I wanted to upgrade to a Mastery I could just get the bridge for an American JM? I'm currently getting a little bit of buzz on both of the Es on the bridge, so I'd like to just swap for a Mastery and be done with it.

I got my MIJ JM 6 months ago (it's a 2019 model), and a friend also got a MIJ JM but about 2 years ago.
He changed the bridge with a Mastery when he got the guitar, and ordered the M2 with the second pair of posts for japanense guitars. Well... the smaller "normal" posts fitted the japanse thimbles properly!

When I got my MIJ I also quickly decided I had to change the bridge with the Mastery, so my friend gave me the second pair of Mastery japanese posts, which he still had laying around. So I simply ordered the M1. Also on my MIJ the M1 posts were a perfect fit and I didn't need to change them with the wider ones!