Out of absolutely nowhere, Fender released their new Gold Foil series, featuring the Gold Foil Jazzmaster. This Jazzmaster comes with three “gold foil” mini humbuckers, a Bigsby, a 12″ ebony fretboard and more. But how does it sound? And how’s the build quality? Affiliate links:
Video Transcript
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welcome to get offset my name is Emily
and has anyone ever told you you have
this gorgeous eyelashes it’s really
impressive I would I’d love to know what
you’re doing to take care of your
eyelashes are you curling them are you
applying eyelash conditioner at a
roommate who used to do that
I don’t know if it worked for her
she doesn’t wear glasses so you can’t
really tell but I’m I’m not here to talk
about my college roommate I’m here to
talk about the fender gold foil Jazz
Master as you can see it is a really
beautiful Jazz master I’m feeling the
gold this is the shoreline gold uh to go
with the gold foils which are actually
mini humbuckers there’s three of them uh
you can control the switching right down
here one switch for each pickup which
gives you a lot more control without
having to do a weird wiring you can turn
them all on at once for example which is
not a sound I particularly like but I do
know plenty of people who do like that
sound it also has a big speed which you
can see here a nice roller Bridge so not
the like 1962 or American for the shoe
traditional uh bridge this one is a
little bit easier to tame and I’m uh
really digging it let’s just play it
let’s just play it I’m gonna go through
each pick up uh separately on some
different kind of styles I guess and
I’ll tell you the first couple times the
order I’m going in and after that
um it’s just gonna be the same order
every time I should say before we play
I’m using the Benson Chimera plug-in
from mixwave including the tall bird
Reverb
I’m using their standard Channel
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that was the neck and this is the neck
and the guitar has really nice binding
on it uh when I got it there were a few
places where it was kind of not
perfectly like
I don’t know sanded down there were some
pieces kind of sticking up but uh they
came off just with like rubbing my
finger
against it which is fine
um the edges are relatively relatively
smooth not super silky smooth but uh
definitely for this time of year a lot
of my guitars because a little bit drier
uh the the Fret edges feel worse than
usual so I would think I actually think
that
um in a more humid environment or
different times of year this will feel
like butter that’s my guess
uh the tuning machines
nothing to say about the host
particularly
um the nut is
fine
the Frets
um are a little flat to be completely
honest
um
they were pretty flat they released a
little flat on the American Vintage 2
Series Jazz Master as well but I’ve also
heard that like the I think the Johnny
Marr news the new Johnny Marr signature
has really nice Crown Frets
um that’s really my biggest beef with
the build quality of this guitar is I
would have preferred the Frets to have
been more well crowned when it arrived
it had no dings or anything like that
always a positive that’s not really
something I have personally experienced
a lot with Fender guitars coming
straight from the factory but it’s
something to uh be aware of sometimes
happens and this did not happen with
this guitar
um the Bixby I love I love the
shimmeriness of a Bixby I I know some
people think it’s sacrilege to have a
jazz Master uh with a Bixby I don’t care
this is my second actually it’s my third
Jazz master style body with a Bixby on
it so you can fight me on that one I
think Fender made a good choice here
uh it arrived in tune shipped in tune I
don’t love it when that happens but the
neck seems totally fine uh no concerns
there the intonation was uh not great on
the low E when I played it up here
before I fixed it it was closer to a
flat F so
that was
pretty off but again that’s a pretty
easy fix you just move the um Bridge
saddle farther away from the nut and
that fixes that super easy there was
also a little bit of Schmutz on the
fretboard when I got it there also seems
to be a very small little chip in it
right there
um I’ll try to remember to include a
picture of that it’s really small and I
was really surprised to see it at all
though
I mean
things happen but it’s not something you
necessarily want
to happen with your guitar and uh like
the American Fitness shoe Jazz Master
the fretboard was extremely dry when I
received it that is the world’s easiest
fix uh so I’m not going to complain
about it I’m just gonna tell you all
right
um
foreign
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let’s play it with some compression
this is the Ground Control
serpents
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and immediately the guitar is a lot
louder these are quieter pickups
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foreign
foreign
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if you’ve forgotten the switching I have
been going through is neck neck middle
middle bridge bridge bridge neck all
three that’s the order I’m doing it
every time I do feel like this guitar
benefits from being fed into some
compression or a boost just to get the
volume up
they’re quiet they’re many humbuckers I
feel like that’s kind of normal right
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thank you
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just so you can know it no I can do it
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thank you
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that was fun
again I don’t like all pickups together
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prefer the neck and the bridge to the
middle and the bridge
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but if I want to add a little bit more
to that neck pickup sound I quite like
adding
like the Reverb right now
love it all right let’s try some things
with the Benson germanium boost
you know for a linear boost
the Benson I think adds that brightness
I really want just a little bit more in
the neck and middle positions especially
but I’ll just shut up and play now
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thank you
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foreign
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[Laughter]
foreign
foreign
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thank you
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foreign
still not my favorite adult like I’m
trying to find a scenario where I
actually do like all three together it’s
fine it’s fine to not like it
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that’s like really twangy so let’s let’s
add the middle pickup and see if it
Mellows it a little bit
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yeah the neck
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we also have a tone knob so I can try
that
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thank you
all right uh let’s go and try also by
Ground Control the bread oath it is a
low to medium stage Overdrive
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foreign
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let’s try that on the germanium clipping
option
compensate the volume for them
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and with the preamp up
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thank you
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and last but not least let’s try it with
some Distortion let’s do it this is a
fender MTG tube distortion
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thank you
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thank you
add the Boost
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that’s by far the most I’ve liked the
middle pickup like by a mile
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do I finally like all three of the
pickups together
oh dang I think I do
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I’m just screwing around
so let me give some final thoughts on
this guitar overall I really like it I
think it has a lot of tonal
possibilities
um I I love a Bixby what can I say
though if if you haven’t used a Bigsby
before it can kind of get in the way of
strumming so make sure to kind of move
it out of the way and when you put in a
case or a bag flip it all the way over
like that the shift with a standard gig
bag
which I wasn’t expecting so thank you
Fender
um if I didn’t mention it Fender did
send me this in exchange for uh this
video so thank you to Fender I
appreciate you what else can we talk
about the pickups I mean they’re not
actually gold foils I do enjoy how these
pickups sound again covers a lot of
territory they are quieter and for the
most part not as bright as I’m used to
in like a jazz master and uh just a
little note for people who aren’t used
to this middle pickup like if you play a
lot of jazz Masters and you’re not used
to that being there I do find myself
hitting that middle pickup quite
frequently with the pick so I’ve had to
kind of change my attack
um just a little bit
as for the weight it weighs as much as a
jazz Master it’s not particularly heavy
I love the neck
I really love the look of it I love the
gold
um I don’t have a lot of complaints
about this guitar the only complaint I
have again is just the Frets aren’t
crowned very well and I really would
like to see that in a guitar that costs
more than a thousand dollars I love the
switching I think that if you’re
familiar with the style switching you’re
gonna dig it
but uh if you’re used to like a five-way
blade style switching system this could
take some getting used to so keep that
in mind that if you have no idea why
you’re not passing signal make sure at
least one of your pickups is turned on
I just love the versatility that it
gives you and I finally did find a sound
that I liked was all three pickups so
Kudos but yes thanks again Defender
thank you for watching your eyelashes
look fantastic and
um please like comment subscribe please
consider using the affiliate links in
the video description it helps us out
tremendously I’ll include one to
Sweetwater for this guitar in both
colors and uh yeah once again to
everybody out there thanks for watching
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until next time my name is Emily goodbye