Fender American Vintage II 1966 Jazzmaster Electric Guitar - Lake Placid Blue Reviews
Despite its namesake, Fender’s Jazzmaster has endured for decades by solidifying its legacy as an unmatched workhorse of versatility, finding a home everywhere from surf and grunge to new wave, shoegaze, and black metal. Taking it back to the mid-20th century, the American Vintage II 1966 Jazzmaster oozes with iconic design. Its alder body anchors the full-bodied tones with plenty of rich, sustaining warmth. This is complemented by the maple neck’s tight, articulate projection, and the rosewood fingerboard’s shimmering veneer. Pair this with Pure Vintage ’66 Single-coil Jazzmaster pickups and you’ve got the seminal sounds of the era. Classic controls include “witch hat” knobs and thumbwheels to dial in a perfectly personal, balanced tone. Sweetwater’s guitarists appreciate the period-precise “C”-shaped neck, complemented by a 7.25-inch fingerboard radius that accommodates players of multiple styles. Add in a bone nut, Fender Deluxe tuners, and a vintage-style tremolo, and you’ve got a timeless tone horse that you’ll need to take the reins for yourself.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Beautiful Jazzmaster Perfection
This thing sounds as good as it looks! The chunky neck is super comfortable, and feels great playing chords, or digging in for some tasty licks. The intonation is spot on, and it stays in tune like a champ. In fact, it was still in tune right out of the box! This Jazzmaster has the most versatile tone out of all of my guitars. Finally, my account rep Austin did a great job answering questions and helping with the sale. I look forward to my next piece of gear from Sweetwater! Get yourself one of these before they disappear... they always do at some point.
first time Jazzmaster owner
Like the title states this is my first time buying a fender Jazzmaster, I was always intrigued by the shape and vibe of more so jaguars that jms really however there not making a AV2 Jag just JM and I had already had a couple Strats that I have since sold and didn't really care for tele sound so I figured this would be something new and a different sound than the traditional fender guitars.
Pros: Nitro Finish(although it's apparently a poly undercoat which I'm not really sure the need to do both but anyway still has nice nitro smell and hopefully will wear similar to a gibson). Color(Lake placid blue is probably the greatest guitar color in the history of guitars it's just as much art as it is a tool for music). Vibe (60s fender swag so much cooler than any modern interpretation of the guitar). Tremolo ( Better than the Strat tremolo and helps me slow down and focus on getting the best sound out of every chord versus just playing a thousand notes and chords every 10 seconds)
Cons: Case(although the case looks fantastic and from the vintage cases ive seen they just didn't worry about protecting guitars back in the day it would be nice to have a case similar to gibson modern cases that retain vintage looks on the outside and modern protection on the inside). Playability( Again to be fair I don't think the Jazzmaster was ever meant to be a rock guitar or something you would play solos with I was a gibson guy for 10 years and so far every other brand ive played falls short of even the cheapest Gibsons when it comes to effortless soloing bending and vibrato). Pickups ( Again this is more of a preference than a criticism because I didn't realize how much I am actually a strat pickup man until now that I don't have a Strat anymore and I miss position 4 sweet glass sound so much its not even funny, the JM pickups are more similar to a PAF or just a gibson pickup in general than the fabled Strat pickups of the 50s and 60s. In between gets a touch of glassiness and compression and that where I pretty much keep this guitar im not really a big fan of iso neck or bridge sound. a little to harsh for my taste I prefer a sweeter glassy sound and middle posish is as close to that as this guitar can get.
Conclusion: Im giving this guitar 4 stars because even though I still prefer the playability of a les Paul and the sound of a Strat this guitar has so much vibe it makes up for it. The offset body contours combined with the custom color with fresh nitro smell on guitar and case with orange hair(although the hair is falling out which kind of sucks) has 60s surf charm that is so much cooler than any modern guitar.
