Squier Classic Vibe '60s Jazzmaster - 3-Tone Sunburst Reviews

I started with a Squier Affinity strat in the late 90s and that guitar was definitely not professional grade material. So, fast forward to 2024, I was ready for a "real" Fender in the $ range. I was definitely impressed with this offering from Squier at 1/2 the price! Probably the BEST guitar I've ever owned. Better than guitars I've paid more than double for. Really cool look, excellent playability, and sounds amazing with my Fender Blues Jr! Great for classic rock and alternative/grunge type music. Very happy with this purchase.

The Jazzmaster has been my main guitar for the past 12 years; it's tone, playability, and versatility cannot be matched in my opinion. The Squier Classic Vibe 60s Jazzmaster lives up to the reputation with solid build and great tone right out of the box. After waiting the 24 hour acclimation period, I unboxed the guitar and tuned it up. The setup and action coming from Sweetwater was spot on and needed no adjustments to suit my personal preferences. Playability on this guitar is a big plus. The 9.5" radius fretboard is more bend-friendly than the vintage 7.25" radius which I had on a previous Jazzmaster. Fretwork is smooth with no fret sprout or sharp edges. Tuning was stable even when using the vibrato bar.

The tones are all Jazzmaster. The neck pickup especially is quite a good sound: full and clear just as a Jazzmaster should sound. The bridge pickup is hotter and has more midrange than a vintage Jazzmaster; neither better or worse, just different. These pickups work well across a wide gain range and effects pedals. Clean, dirty, overdriven, distortion, and fuzz, as well as modulation, delay, and reverb effects, the guitar never sounded thin, or conversely, muddy, or raspy/grainy, but pleasant and appropriate for the gig. Within the first week, I used the guitar for a pop/R&B gig, contemporary Christian for a worship service, an indie/alt rock recording session, and a classic rock gig the next Friday, and it sounded great all throughout.

To round it all up, the 3-Tone Sunburst is quite good looking with the reddish-brown tortoise shell pickguard. The white knobs and pickup covers complete the look of this classic Jazzmaster. After using this guitar for the past few months, I am pleased and it's safe to say I will be keeping this guitar for life. It plays favorably well against my 1997 CIJ Fender Jazzmaster (I prefer this Squier, honestly). It's so good in fact, that I intend on purchasing another one as a backup at the gig.

I purchased this 2021 Squier Classic Vibe 60s Jazzmaster over Labor Day Weekend 2022 for a killer price. I think it was on one of those boats waiting off Long Beach. It is a guitar worth the current asking price, but I love a good deal. It is well under 8 pounds and extremely comfortable to hold. It looks and sounds like a Jazzmaster. I had been warned that Jazzmasters need a little extra attention. I took off the neck and smoothed out the higher frets and shimmed the neck. I have no problem with the Laurel neck, and I like the neck in general. It has a hard, glassy coat of poly that is not unpleasant. I've come to love the vintage tuners because they string up quickly and allow the strings to be reinstalled quickly. I had some trouble with the rhythm circuit, but I resolved that with a couple of shots of Deoxit and routing the wires a little more carefully.

I've taken to the Jazzmaster's style and quirks, and one of these Squier Classic Vibes from Sweetwater would be a great way to find out if a Jazzmaster is a good fit for you.

Yes! Satisfied! Isn't that all that matters? I love my jazzmaster guitar!!! There are many negative reviews regarding Squiers out there, but the Squiers I own came from Sweetwater which, so far, have all (3) been great!!! No fret issues or even tuning issues!!! I used to think that buying a Squier instead of a Fender was settling. I was so wrong about that. Thank you Brandon and Sweetwater for being a reliable source for buying my instruments.

Yes this is my second Jazzmaster. Like a fool I was hurting for money and sold Her. Well when I got able to buy a Jazzmaster. I did it. This a sweet guitar. I do not why it is called a Jazzmaster. Cause It plays country great. I know it was a great surf guitar. All I can say is buy one.

I have to admit I did not buy My Jazz Master from Sweetwater. I bought it used. But it is a great guitar. She can do it all. Country, Rockabilly and The Blues. Has a great neck. If you have small hands like Me. You will have no problem playing this baby. So treat your self to one fine Guitar and buy one.

The circuit switch on the Jazzmaster gives you a choice between using both pups with a standard 3 position switch or use the "jazz" circuit for neck pup only with a jazzier tone using different capacitors. Well finished comfortable neck, bound fingerboard, Great tone either way, fast neck. IMO, the best Squier I ever had and the price is great.

Just got it yesterday, so here's my first impressions:
1. Customer service is excellent. Thanks Ben!
2. Shipping was surprisingly fast, even just before Christmas.
3. The 55-point inspection is for real: two humans went over the guitar and signed-off on it.
4. Because of that the guitar arrived in excellent condition, even intonated and in tune! It played well out of the box. In December!
5. The fit and finish is excellent - it feels substantial, no cheap parts, a lovely guitar that feels solid and well-made. The Jazzmaster is a bit notorious for some quirky things that need to be tweaked/replaced (tuners, tremolo, buzzes, bridge issues, etc), but I've found none of that - it doesn't need a thing. I will do the usual new-guitar things, like polish the frets, oil the finger board, put n my favorite gauge strings, etc, but all in all I am very impressed.

I've had an MIJ Jazzmaster and an American Pro II, and this guitar stands easily with them. I think I prefer it more to be honest. I love the light weight and the woodgrain coming through the sunburst finish. The standard pickups are actually fantastic and fairly authentic to the Jazzmaster sound. These guitars are amazing modding platforms as well, which is the main reason I bought mine. At a minimum, I would suggest shimming the neck pocket. A lot of people say you need to use proper shims, but I used pieces of a business card and am very happy with the increased break angle over the bridge and resonance is still great. I did have to give the neck a good oil treatment, and polish the frets with 0000 steel wool, as they were a bit scratchy and dull. I also swapped the pickups for the J Mascis ones, as I wanted a little more midrange and output, but that's just my preference. The standard trem is totally useable, but I sprung for the AVRI version and am very happy with it. I also added a gold anodized guard, which looks amazing and made the guitar super quiet.

Overall you cannot get more guitar for your money, in my opinion. I love that Sweetwater had actual pictures of the instrument and the weight listed. The entire ordering process was extremely smooth, and Ryan was very supportive and communicative.

probably the best value guitar i've ever played. looks and sound; this thing is amazing. the fender pickups really sound like high quality fender. i would recommend this guitar for any experience level player.

Here is the new Squier CV Jazzmaster. It has a 2020 serial number.
Bought it from Sweetwater so I could at least pick one with a nice dark fretboard.
Out of the box I found it to be one of the best guitars I have received when purchasing online.
I also considered the J Mascis JM, but I wanted actual JM pickups, not P90's. I'm glad I picked the CV.
This is my first JM so I spent quite a bit of time researching the somewhat unique setup process. I did have to ship the neck to get the break angle and action the way it should be.
The guitar had sat in the warehouse for awhile, and the fretboard needed a good cleaning and the frets polished.
The nut slots needed a bit of filing to get the nut action right, but that's typical. And I do have the tools and have done it several times.
Since I'm not using the tremolo, I set the proper height and then wrapped some electrical tape around the studs to keep it stable.
I see no reason to change the bridge.
I tried all the funky controls, but decided to just leave the switch in normal mode.
I expected to use 11's but 10's feel right for it. Action is low where I like it. Using D'addarios.
The electronics work as normal. No issues there. At this point I see no reason to upgrade the pots.
Tuning is stable.
I like the sound of the pickups. Chris Stapleton lives there. All in all an excellent experience with my friends at Sweetwater, especially Noah and Bryan!

I.ve had my Squier Jazzmaster for 4years now and I can't express how much I've enjoyed playing this instrument. I thought I would improve my Jazzmaster collection by getting a Fender worth 5 times more.......it wasn't the same players guitar it was more of an investment and wasn't fun anymore ...sold it and bought Kinman HX Jazzmaster pickups from overseas for my old to me Squier Jazzmaster and lo and behold, those pickups are the only mod I've made and now it's a BEAST....sometimes it's better to improve what you already have than to buy new in what you might think is ready to play off the shelves.....I haven't come across any NEW guitar that came ready. Of course I can't help myself, those new PRS Fiores are calling.

First, thank you to my salesperson Riley Koenemann, he always takes care of me which is the Sweetwater difference. Second I would echo everything Don S said. I have many guitars, Fenders, Gibsons, etc and this guitar can keep pace with the rest and cost a fraction of what they did. It's quickly becoming my fav because it plays and sounds great and I have no fear of damaging it which is always on my mind with some of my other pieces. My takeaways:

1) Just like Don said, buying from Sweetwater is key. Their virtual gallery is unique and I used it to carefully inspect the fretboard (per Don's advice) and was extremely pleased when I received the guitar.

2) I switched to .11s also. I think with this guitar it is must because the thinner strings have issues staying in saddles and the original design called for thicker Jazz strings. I also think they create a funkier sound but I have taken a lot of abuse in that area lately...

3) I'm ok with the Squire stock everything. The pups sound great, no need to replace. I read some people had issues with pots and electronics, not me, I tested at all volumes and tone settings and it responded beautifully. My trem was fine, stays where I put it, some people complained it would just flop around w/o mod. I actually bought new tuners cause I assumed they would suck but not so. The guitar is in an office that will drop 15 degrees at night has had no tuning issues. I will still probably swap them and may put a Staytrem bridge on it just to say I did something.

4) Best advice: BUY the guitar and try it out before you commit to any changes, you may find your guitar needs nothing like mine did.

Best Regards!

Sounds and looks amazing! Truly great, especially for the price.

I've owned my Classic Vibe Jazzmaster for six months and couldn't be happier. I already owned 3 Fenders, including the Johnny Marr Jaguar and and American Pro Telecaster, so I'm familiar with the build quality and playability of higher priced Fenders. I wanted to add a Jazzmaster to my arsenal, but didn't want to pay top dollar. And for $500 more than the Squier, it seemed like the Fender Vintera wasn't such a great value. I knew the Squier J Masics JM is an incredible guitar (I've played one), but I really wanted the traditional sunburst finish, so I landed on the Classic Vibe. At such a low price, I took a chance that by making a few simple / inexpensive mods, I could make it just as playable as a Vintera. And I was right...

Here's a summary of what I found to be the only flaws, and how easy they were to remedy. What I ended up with is a great sounding guitar with good build quality and exceptional playability ....

1. Buying from Sweetwater is key. This allowed me to inspect the color of the Indian Laurel fretboard before buying, so I could make sure it didn't look too porous or faded. I'm convinced the feel of Indian Laurel is comparable to Rosewood, but sometimes it can look cheaper, so you have to choose your guitar carefully.

2. I asked Sweetwater to pre-install .11 strings and adjust the intonation if necessary. Heavier strings are essential for a Jazzmaster to get the right tension and classic jangly sound. Don't use anything less than .10's.

3. I didn't mind the stock bridge and didn't experience any issues with string displacement or loss of tuning. However, the bridge was prone to rattling, especially when I played hard. I was able to eliminate the rattling by simply wrapping the bridge posts in teflon plumbers tape. This allowed the bridge to continue to rock freely without the metal parts banging against each other. I considered replacing the bridge, but I honestly think the Squier stock bridge performs just as well as the Mustang bridge on my Johnny Marr Jag -- which BTW, also has stock teflon post inserts.

4. I wan't a fan of the Squier stock trem. In this case, I think I was spoiled having grown accustomed to the Fender locking trem on my Johnny Marr. Luckly, I discovered you can buy a brand new Fender Vintage American Trem + Arm for less than $100, and it's exactly the same size and screw orientation as the Squier trem. Replacement took about 15 minutes, and was a piece of cake.

5. At first, I was put off by how bright the bridge pickup sounded. Then after doing some research, I discovered this is typical with vintage Jazzmaster pups. It sounds fine if you're trying to emulate Link Wray, but for most of the music I play, I learned that a simple "mod" is to rollback the volume pot to 9. Boom. The stock pickups now sound really great, and I'm glad I didn't rush to replace them.

6. Finally, I know some people are put off by the Squier brand / logo. I got over that a long time ago when many of my favorite guitarists started playing Squiers on stage. That said, the Vintage American Trem I installed has a big fat "Fender" logo right on the faceplate, and that's good enough for me.

All in all, the Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster has become one of my "go-to" guitars. Thanks, Sweetwater!

I'll keep it short-ish.

Great sounding PU's. Nice fret work. AWESOME finish. Overall, the nicest guitar I own (19 guitars...)
This is the guitar I didn't know I was waiting for all my life. I am a single coil fan, but for some odd reason,never considered a JM. I was missing out big time by not trying one of these years ago.
You can't beat the price.

The caveat? Don't buy one of these if you fear the switches, or the funky trem/bridge set up.(However, they are both easy to master with a small amount of effort.) Don't buy a Mastery bridge straight away if you buy one of these- that's a total cop out.

This guitar will reward you with virtually any tone you can imagine.

BUY ONE!

I am a big Chris Stapleton fan and I wanted the same Fender American Professional Jazzmaster. When I found out about this guitar I thought that it could my second best choice. It is actually better than I thought it would be. This guitar is able too be snappy when you hit the top two strings and you can also get a smooth sound by making slow and soft strums. It also sound good with pedals. I use a blues driver bd-2, compression sustainer cs-3, and a sky surfer reverb and I use fender blues junior. This is a great guitar that I think has a great sound and a great feel. I highly recommend the Squire Classic Vibe 60's Jazzmaster.

I've always thought Jazzmasters were cool looking guitars and decided to order one when I was fortunate to get a Sweetwater gift card as a Christmas present. The burst tone looks as good in real life as it does online and the guitar is very comfortable to play (the body shape, the neck profile, and fretboard radius). The gloss finish on the neck and headstock has a slightly dark, vintage look, which I really like (looks like my '74 Fender P-Bass). The tuners look "vintage" and they hold tune well. The action and intonation were very good when the guitar arrived. I could have taken it out and gigged with it that day, although after a few weeks, I needed to get the truss tweaked, which took 5 minutes. The only area in which I would give this guitar less than top marks is the fretwork. Some of the upper frets are scratchy and the fret ends could be more polished, but for the price I'm fine with the frets. There's nothing actually "bad", it's just that it could have been a little bit better. When I change the strings, I'll polish the frets. If you want the Jazzmaster experience and don't need to see Fender on the headstock, you're not going to go wrong with this guitar.

This is the first Squier and Jazzmaster I have owned. I have never really looked into these as I thought it was not my thing. My 13 year old son recommended I try it and I am glad he did. First the guitar had great quality, much higher than what I expected for the money. The electronics all worked well. Speaking of that, I knew Jazzmasters had a different set up than the strats, teles and PRS's I was use to. After playing it though I was totally impressed by the tones I was able to get out of this "Beginniner" guitar.
A big shout out to Mike Montero as well who helped me when I made the visit to Sweetwater. He was such a huge help and fun to hang out with.

I have waited about a week to let the new factor wear off and give an honest review. This is a good guitar by any metric, but great considering the price. This is my new favorite guitar, and I have several more expensive.

Sweetwater did a pretty spot on job with the setup, so it played pretty well straight out of the box. String height, truss rod, pickup height, all did not require any adjustment whatsoever. It's my understanding they do not come that way out of the factory, and that's the benefit of using sweetwater. It did need a little bit of work though. The frets needed a polish badly, the bridge buzzed slightly (some masking tape fixed that), it needed work on the intonation, and the fretboard needed a heavy coat of lemon oil. But to be fair, that is expected for any guitar that isn't custom shop.

Overall, it sounds like a jazzmaster and plays very well. Smooth, wide range of tones, tons of options due to the controls, and feels great to play. When buying from sweetwater, it plays well out of the box. With a little love, it will play absolutely fantastic. Don't let the name on the headstock fool you into thinking this isn't a quality guitar.

If you can live with the "Squier" logo on your headstock, this is a steal. This guitar has an absolutely incredible and it's fun to play! This Jazzmaster plays as well, if not better, than some of the affordable Fenders out there. I was expecting a mediocre guitar that would require a bit of work, but this guitar was ready to go from the moment I took it out of the box.

My main guitar is a Fender Vintage '65 Jazzmaster (American) which sells everywhere for 2 grand. There are differences between this Squier and my number one, but they are only cosmetic.

The Classic Vibe Squier lacks the neck binding (so what); it does not have the locking mechanism for the tremolo system (which I've never entirely understood since I almost never break strings). I do not like the fingerboard material on the Squier: it's too light and inconsistent in comparison to the dark, rich look of my Vintage '65. And while the bridge pickups seem pretty similar the neck pickup on the '65 is more to my taste - less bite and more rich (especially using the "rhythm" circuit). There was some special finish used with my Vintage '65 that is really quite lovely and supposedly it will get better with age - this isn't used with the Squire. Finally, I prefer the wider, deeper neck on the '65 as opposed to the thinner, more shallow (and frankly more modern) design of the Squier neck.

But none of the things I mention have anything to do with the quality or craftsmanship of either guitar, both of which are of the highest order. And aside from my preferences for the neck and fingerboard of the '65 all the other comparative issues I have can be easily addressed (for instance I find that rolling the treble back more than I'm used to on the Squier goes a long way towards duplicating the '65). And the bridge on the Squier is far superior to the (admittedly vintage) design of the '65, whose defects are well known. The '65 bridge was impossible: strings would pop out of their saddles; the noise and rattling were inexcusable, and on the final gig I used it on the high E went "sitar" on me for no apparent reason and I never could fix it. I spent $200 for a Mastery bridge for the '65 and it was money well spent. The Squire bridge rattles now and again but not nearly as bad as the '65, and the string popping issue is solved: I won"t change it out.

In sum, this Indonesian-made guitar is in every respect of equal quality to the Chinese made Classic Vibe Tele I also own, and like the Squier Tele it"s a fully professional instrument and a serious rival to its American counterpart. Next plane I get on will be with the Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster.

I recently bought one of these in a local shop (Sorry, Sweetwater, I couldn't leave without it) and I couldn't be more pleased. The quality for the price is absolutely staggering.

I've been playing an old MIM strat for awhile, and I went to the shop to see what the new player series strats and teles were like. I played 8 different models with every available pickup configuration and just wasn't feeling it at all. I saw the jazzmaster on the wall and figured I would try it. When I struck the first note my jaw hit the floor- what an unbelievable sound. These Duncan Designed Jazzmaster pups are amazing. They are warmer and fatter than a regular single coil, without losing the clarity. This squier smoked every player series guitar in the house.

The feel of the neck is superb, and I like the medium jumbo frets as well. It has a great feel. I've never had vintage style tuners before but now that I do, I will never go back. They are great. With the Jazz circuit and the 3 way pickup switching you have 4 immediate switchable tones which can range from dark and mellow "jazzy" tones to creamy neck pickup tones to twangy tele-esque tones to shredding bridge pickup tones. Nice that the volume and tone are available in all three standard switch positions so you can roll off the treble if you want. Volume knob is very responsive and affects tone as well. The jazz circuit has dedicated volume and tone, and can be silenced to get that faux tremolo effect from switching.

The pots, switches, and wiring all seemed clean and responsive.

The tremolo system is absolutely amazing, and very stable once properly set. Which brings me to the important stuff.

There was some setup needed here. The high E string on mine was far too close to the edge of the fingerboard, so I loosened the bolts and straightened the neck- problem solved. Next came the bridge. The jazzmaster bridge is famously "awful". I'll admit the design is pretty weird, and a lot of people swap these out for mastery bridges or mustang bridges which are as simple as dropping it in place- string tension is the only thing holding the bridge there. A mastery bridge is a $ addition to your $... Squier, which IMHO is not a great thing to do with your money. I tried a mustang bridge, but the radius was wrong, and I never could get it to work for me.

Whether you use the original bridge (which I now have returned to) or an alternate, you *absolutely must shim the neck*. I bought a 0.5 degree solid wood shim from StewMac and it made everything perfect. I now have the original jazzmaster bridge in place, neck shimmed, and I have it strung with .10s. Everything works perfectly, the action and intonation are perfect, and the strings don't jump out of their bridge slots even when I play hard. Shimming is critical. Don't use business cards- get a proper shim from StewMac.

The last thing to note is that this guitar was not meant for light gauge strings. Anything less than .10s will fail completely and you'll have all the bridge problems that everyone complains about. Trust me, shim the neck properly and put at least some .10s on there and you will be fine. If you buy yours from Sweetwater I imagine that their multi-point setup will do you well. Ask for heavier strings.

All in all, this is a fantastic guitar with amazing tone, great comfort and playability, and looks amazing. Buy it!

I'm new to guitar but this is the easiest playing of my 4 guitars so far. It came nicely set up. I put new strings on it, tuned it up and now I'm playing Rumble just like old Link. And Apache like the Ventures. Then I woke up.

I got this guitar in a timely fashion as Sweetwater is good at. The guitar was missing 2 pickguard screws, probably missed at the factory and Sweetwater made me whole on that without question as well. The guitar sounds great for the most part I will say. The good things about this guitar are the neck: really like the Indian Laurel board and its slick feeling and smooth even with finish on the back. The tuning keys are very average and won't hold tune for aggressive benders. The nut is low grade bone at best and needs to be filed, sanded and finished to function as a nut should, which will take either a pro set up or someone who knows how to do it and has the proper tools, but I will say most guitars you buy need this done to some degree. The trem system is so/so, the arm doesn't lock in and swings wildly which can be quelled with teflon tape. I haven't taken it off yet but the spring in it is likely very cheap because once I switched the guitar to 10's it has more trouble staying stable and I had to monkey with it a lot, since they didn't put the lock on it there is no great way to know how to adjust it that I can find besides trial and error. Upon taking off the pickguard I almost couldn't believe the junk inside. Whoever soldered it at the factory started a couple jobs and aborted them, which is why the volume knob on mine only functions well at 10, below that it goes straight to mud and unusable tone. The electronics are terrible, cheap pots, bad wiring job. That said, the pickups sound good, they are really decent and I can't find a reason to change them, but you can change all the pots, switches and wire to really good ones for 60 dollars if you desire and like to tinker. There was also some glue on the fretboard from gluing frets, easy enough to get off with steel wool. Basically even with all said above, this guitar still sounds good and plays well once set up. I'm going to replace the pots and switches and rewire it, replace the tuning keys, put a tusq nut and string tree on it and that won't cost that much and it will play better than the new american ones. I was also impressed that the frets were dressed well and not sharp, better job than on my mexican made fenders. They are aways sharp and need dressing. Also I'm good with the poplar body, it resonates well and is light and gives the guitar a gutty tone I seek. I say, if you want a cool guitar and a project, buy this. It has a good neck, pickups and base to upgrade if you like that kind of thing. I'm not sure it should cost... if you find a demo, that would be even better, it will give you a few bucks in your pocket to do some need upgrades. By the way, I also put a shim from Stew Mac in, they had shimmed the neck at the factory with a piece of tape and a small square of sandpaper, what a joke! Good luck and happy playing.

I waited until I'd spent some time with it and took it to my local shop for a proper set up before leaving a review.

The positives:
+ It shipped well and my Sweetwater rep was helpful
+ It looks pretty good overall (although it's probably safer to get a solid colour instead of a Squier sunburst if you really care)
+ I don't hate the pickups (although they're definitely not like my bandmate's Fender Jazzmaster)

The bad:
+ Even with a proper set up, I get a lot of fret buzz and string noise on this guitar (Maybe a mastery bridge would solve this, but that's half the cost of the guitar)
+ The finish on the neck is awful. It feels like there's something sticky peeling off of it all the time
+ The fret board is incredibly dry and feels like nails on a chalkboard when you get to the higher frets

Maybe these are all issues that you can solve yourself. I think the finish and overall feel is my biggest disappointment. I know that comparing it to my bandmate's Fender Custom Shop Jazzmaster isn't fair, but I did not expect this much of a gap in difference, for what is one of the most expensive Squier models available. Maybe the J Mascis version is better in this regard, but this model is closer to the "classic" JM set up.

I wrote a review many months ago and this guitar is terrible. The action would always go down no matter what I did to keep it up. I threw it away and it is now in a landfill. So listen closely, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY and DON'T BUY THIS GUITAR!!!