Fender American Vintage ii 1966 Jazzmaster Demo

welcome to get offset my name is Emily

and I’ve got to say you’re aging like a

fine wine I can tell you moisturize old

things are always cool they are

distinguished uh that’s what I tell

myself in the mirror some mornings

but truly vintage gear has always been

highly sought after in musical Gearhead

communities and the price is just forbid

most people from owning a real say 1962

Jazz master or a real 1950 whatever

Telecaster so Fender thought about that

and said let’s uh let’s release some

guitars to Vintage specifications and

with that they have their American

Vintage 2 Series Sweetwater graciously

sent me this guitar in exchange for a

review big thanks to Sweetwater

um you can probably understand if you

notice the name of the channel why I was

interested in this I have loved Jazz

Masters since I saw Elvis Costello for

the first time

and uh obviously this is not his

signature Jazz Master that’s hanging up

just off the screen but I am really

excited uh to demo this for you I know

it’s been out for a little bit you’ve

probably read some things about it I’m

here to tell you what my experience is

personally I know a lot of people have

had very different experiences but let’s

go ahead and uh get some playing in I

will do middle uh Middle Neck Bridge

then Rhythm circuit in that order every

time so I don’t have to talk as much

because you don’t like it when I talk

and I don’t like editing

how does that sound

all right I will also be playing this

through some effects but we’ll get there

when we get there all right let’s go

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thank you

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obviously that’s all of the pickup

settings completely clean I am playing

through the Benson mix wave plug-in

affiliate link to that and video

description

um and

I’m also using their their tall bird

Reverb but uh you can hear this just

sounds really really nice clean of

course most people don’t play jazz

Masters just clean although they were

originally created for as the name would

imply Jazz musicians

pretty fun fact that I’m sure you’ve

never heard before

this is one of the first Jazz Masters

I’ve gotten one of the first new Jazz

Masters I’ve gotten in a while I should

say that actually has a standard Rhythm

circuit and the Rhythm circuit you saw

me toggle between the neck pickup and

the Rhythm circuit it’s a little bit

darker than the neck pickup some people

like it some people don’t if you don’t

like it it makes a great uh kill switch

you just turn the volume down oh that’s

a tone you turn the volume down

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fantastic Solutions

I actually knew a guy who did that he is

a bay called honcho Pancho great band so

made for jazz players I play a very

small amount of jazz

I say coily

and uh so let’s see how that sounds and

I’ll rotate through the pickup positions

again

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thank you

it’s close

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thank you

so close on that last one there

um I think Jazz Masters are also really

great for Country especially in that

bridge position

um let’s just play through all of those

positions I’m gonna do without

compression and then I’m going to do it

with all right again Middle Neck Bridge

rhythm

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good let’s try it with compression I bet

it sounds better

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I love jazz Masters I think they’re

really versatile and underrated but

let’s talk about this one specifically

because that’s what you’re here for you

want to hear what’s good what’s bad and

what could be improved upon I am sure

so I’m gonna mute this and then I’ll

play some more if you’re interested so

firstly let’s talk about the looks

this is a handsome guitar the other two

colors have a matching headstock the

burst does not I find that the paint

jobs on this to be quite good quite

appealing

um as far as the Finish goes

no real major flaws though I do know

someone who’s shipped with a kind of a

significant amount of dings especially

in the upper headstock area it was

frankly surprising

um to see

as far as the Aesthetics go the only

beef I have is there is a little bit of

finish on The Binding at the top there

you’re not going to be able to see that

and another thing that doesn’t

photograph very well there’s just a

little

little imperfection right right there

but as far as the quality control on the

looks of this guitar very very good

again just two extremely small things

that you’d have to be looking really

really hard to notice I I haven’t

found myself noticing these issues

if you can even call them that these

imperfections so that’s great

um let’s talk about the frets

I find them to be very comfortable I

think the fretboard is really nice it

did ship to me bone dry obviously and

easy fix just oils it up as far as the

Fresco they’re they’re crowned enough to

my liking I’ve heard other people say

they wish they were crowned more I don’t

personally have a problem with the

crowning I think it’s

um

not very flat at all but

again I have heard people talk about the

the crowning on others maybe not being

so great

but um the Fret edges very very nice

as far as the electronics I know like

Ryan Berg from 60 cycle hum had an issue

where he took the pickguard off and some

of the leads fell apart I did take the

pickguard off of this I had to

um

I basically had to take the strings off

to take the plastic

off the pickguard

um

nothing fell apart for me however I did

notice that when I picked up this guitar

and I got it I gave it a shake there was

some loose solder in there

I again I got some sweet water and I

know that they shake the guitars so this

must have happened after Sweet Water

um put this through their their

inspection because I know that they

would have caught that but you know they

do shake it so

things get loose things kind of fall

apart sometimes hopefully not

um but it was again just a very easy fix

I I took the guitar pick card off of the

guitar found that little rogue piece of

solder which was exceptionally tiny and

I threw it away so really no issues

there the tuning machines fantastic

um the bridge you know it sure is a

vintage bridge I did have to raise the

action on it a little bit after I got it

but um that was you know personal

preference

uh the sound fantastic I really love how

this guitar sounds I love how it feels I

love how it plays it feels and plays to

me like a very expensive instrument

um I definitely put it up there with the

Ampro 2 which is a very very different

guitar the American professional 2

Series uh Jazz master I have very

different guitar completely different

circuit here uh definitely a

contemporary take on a jazz master so

there’s just gonna be different things

about it

um you know I had an avri Jazz Master uh

62

um Aviary Jazz Master which is why I

brought up that year earlier

this reminds me of that

but definitely nicer

um in in a few ways I feel like it plays

a little bit better I like the neck on

it a lot more when I first got it I

wasn’t sure if it was like that much

better than the avri but the more I play

it and think back on that guitar which I

ultimately traded

um I do like this better

I just I’m bonding with it really well

um I changed the pickups in the avri I

don’t really think I want to change the

pickups in this I think they sound

really great and frankly this is like

such just the looks thing I love the

block inlays I just do I think they look

classy I’m a big fan

but let me answer the question anyone

who’s seen another video on this guitar

is wondering

and they might be wondering because I’m

not using the trim arm the vibrato arm

the wiggle stick whatever you call it

it wasn’t the right size

um

I I think Sweetwater thought it was the

right size

because it does go in up to the first

Notch I don’t have it handy

unfortunately but the trim arm is

notched

and it goes to the first Notch but then

it’s sitting extremely high off of the

guitar to the point where you cannot

hold the trim arm and play it at the

same time you can get a replacement

tremolo arm for 12 dollars

which is like what one percent of the

cost half a percent of the cost of this

guitar five percent I don’t know

I’m doing math in my head guys

divide the I think it’s five percent

but um that’s not what you want to see I

really hope Fender figures that one out

um in the meantime I’m sure I could just

talk to my rep at Sweetwater and get the

correct size one and I’m sure you could

probably do the same but all in all

I think this is a really really nice

guitar I have gigged with this guitar

I’ve practiced with it it held up it did

really well um it felt great it wasn’t

too heavy it’s really not that heavy at

all so I’m having a blast with this so

let’s go ahead and play it some more

I’ve got the cattle and bread tribute

lined up um for the tribute I am

boosting kind of the low end there I

thought that would be fun

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I forgot to add this guitar was shipped

very like perfectly intonated

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thank you

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yeah you can really hear how much darker

that Rhythm circuit is I love it so much

turn the compressor on

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I love that

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all right now let’s play it with some

Distortion this is the fender MTG tube

distortion

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circuit is underrated Justice for the

Rhythm circuit

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all right let me put on some boost

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hmm

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all right well there you go that is my

look and discussion on the American

Vintage 2 Jazz master all in all I have

been having a blast with this guitar you

are going to see it a lot in my videos I

have a sneaky suspicion uh that you will

but you know again

I really want them to figure out the

thing with the tremolo arm that’s kind

of the biggest issue right now for me

personally I want to make sure there’s

like consistency uh across the board

um the little things I can definitely

forgive and forget

not bothered by

um

I just think it’s a very

lovely instrument

um and so thanks again to Sweetwater if

you’re interested in trying out the

American Vintage 2 Series or anything

else in the world please consider using

the Sweetwater affiliate Link in the

video description I will be linking to

the puddles played as well as the Benson

Chimera mix wave plug-in

uh because you you heard that here too

well to everybody out there thanks for

watching thanks for understanding please

like comment subscribe for more tell

your favorite Brands about us and until

next time my name is Emily goodbye