Fender Jimmie Vaughan Tex-Mex Stratocaster - Olympic White with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

It is the best guitar that I own and the pitch bend works very well. A few years back I went to one of his concerts, and got the guitar signed to my name by Jimmy.

So, first off, I picked this up a demo during a demo sales event (and glad I did).

I'll rate the Demo purchase aspect after the guitar itself.. so skip ahead for my feelings on the aspect of purchasing a demo from Sweetwater.

Ok, guitar:
So, like lots of people, I have (and have had) multiple made in USA models of fender and gibson etc.

I was looking for a decent, lower cost strat, Olympic white. I'd planned on changing pickups.
Then I saw this. It's a great guitar. Hardware is very good. Plays in beautifully. Love the tone, and the odd wiring adds character. I'm completely thrilled with the purchase.

I have found some really great buys in lower cost epiphone and even squire guitars.
So, I wasn't looking to spend a fortune, but wanted an Olympic white strat with a maple neck (and I love v necks).
I was looking at player series, thinking I'd just change pickups, as I have before.
I never buy used or demos normally.
But I'd recently picked up an amazing deal at GC for about half off a guitar with a wiring issue and no other faults.
So, I figured I'd check the Sweetwater demo sale.

The demo was flawless except for the smallest mark on the headstock.
Saved so much, and the guitar is perfect. Still had all plastic coverings on it etc.
I was so surprised by the condition that I asked someone else to look it over and tell me if they found a flaw. They couldn't either.

Big shout out to Sweetwater for being extremely transparent in writing up any issues with the demo guitars.
I couldn't be happier.

It's so beautiful and sleek and the neck feels amazing. I really love the soft v shape. Definitely recommend!

Great sounding guitar! Bluesy Tex-Mex pickups!

I just got my JV strat and it sounds amazing. These TexMex pickups are perfect! Gives you just the right balance! I love it!

I'd been eyeballing the Fender Jimmie Vaughan Strat for about 4 years prior to my DEC 2020 purchase from Sweetwater. Points of interest to me for this particular model were the soft "v" neck (with the more modern and usable for string bends) 9.5" radius, large frets, Tex-Mex pickups, direct wired middle pickup, bridge pickup wired to a tone knob and a U.S.A. model bridge. I like the fact that Sweetwater shows pics and weights of their guitars and lets the customer pick exactly which one they want. Full disclosure, there was a mix up with the guitar I picked and the one they sent but I think that was a rare mistake and they worked with me on making up for the error. As for this model, well, it's exceeded my expectations. The neck was the prime reason I was interested. It's described as a soft "v" shape. It's definitely a "SOFT" v. It's perceptible, but barely. The girth of the neck is a bit more than Fender's modern "C" that you find on the majority of their models. I find it to be absolutely perfect in size. I have always preferred guitars with thicker necks, I think they sound/ resonate better, but sometimes they're just too big and aren't comfortable to play. That's not the case with this neck. I have what I would consider to be average size hands and this neck just fits perfectly. I had reservations about an all maple neck/ fingerboard since I historically have always had guitars with rosewood fingerboards. Maple fingerboards are supposed to be "bright" but I'm not hearing that compared to other Strats I have that don't have maple fingerboards. The pickups are definitely a bit hotter than most standard Strat pickups but they still retain the single coil clarity. They sound great and I have no intentions of replacing them. I've found that I use the middle pickup position a lot more on this guitar than other Strats so there must be something to this direct wiring scheme they used for this model. The tuning stability has been excellent. The setup Sweetwater performed on the guitar was also spot on. Typically after a guitar purchase I have to tweak it, make some sort of adjustment, that wasn't' the case with this one. It also came with Fender supplied strap locks which was a pleasant surprise to me. This is made in Mexico. Well, I'm impressed with the quality. I own U.S.A. made Fender's and G&L's and this guitar goes toe-to-toe with them in my opinion.
Bottom line, I've found this to be a great compromise between a vintage style Strat with some well thought out modern upgrades, it checked all the boxes for me and the sound and playability did not disappoint.

I like the Tex Mex Pickups! The feel of the neck is also a plus.

These Jimmie Vaughan Strats are an incredible deal. I like mine more then my American Standard. The neck feels great, and the Tex Mex pickups give it a very distinct sound. Plug this thing into any decent tube amp and start wailing.

As always, It came from Sweetwater very well packaged, all setup and ready to go.
Thank you Sweetwater!

Top knotch playable guitar.

Best Mexican made Fender you can buy hands down

First let me say this. The customer service at Sweetwater is unmatched. My Sales Engineer Roq M. is exceptional. He always makes the buying experience better. Fantastic communication and great to work with.

Now on to the guitar. This is a guitar that I owned previously when I was much younger, over 15 years ago. I quit guitar and made the mistake of selling it. But I never forgot about it. It always stayed in the back of my mind. Like an ex-girlfiend you just can't forget.

Well she's back and I'm still in love. The neck's soft v shape is the perfect fit for my hands. Like it was custom made. The tex-mex pickups are sound so spicy. Great for the type of music I'm aiming for.

The looks are stunning. The olympic white is beautiful. Can't wait to see what she'll look like in 10+ years.

Jimmie Vaughan Strat has an outstanding neck and sounds awesome in clean tones. Playability is exceptional. I was looking around for a strat last 3 months that plays great and comes at a reasonable price point. And Jimmie Vaughan Strat fits my need perfectly. I am very happy with the purchase.

Received exceptional service from Sweetwater during the entire purchase process. Sales Engineer Ryan Clapper helped in every step of the buying process and the guitar was in my hand the very next day of my order. What an exceptional service. You guys rock !!

After talking to people and some research I found out the problem I'm having happens once and a while. I just happened to get the one out of a hundred.. If I was looking for a strat I would consider a JV strat again . A flawless one would be 5 stars for sure. Really does have a great neck and hardware. And of course Sweetwater rocks..

I received my JV Strat and could not be happier. The neck action is outstanding, fit my hand like a glove. The tones from the Tex-Mex pups go from smooth to rocking on demand. I cannot say enough about the Sweetwater process and the amazing help I got from Charlie Davis. Outstanding process all around. Sweetwater in now my go to resource for all things guitar.

I have owned my JV Strat since 2002. It has aged wonderfully both in looks and sound. The color is turning that wonderful yellowish gold and the sounds still remains bitey but also oh so smooth when you need. The finish on the body has not cracked, the satin finish on the neck has remained mostly intact (normal wear) and fretwear has been as exptected. This is my go to guitar and I will never part with it.

I've never owned an american strat so I can't really past judgement,but one thing I do know is that this guitar isn't your average mexican-made strat. Great neck,smooth frets,great action in upper register, clever wiring in the bridge pickup, classic"out of phase"tones in 2nd and fourth positions.I play it through a soild state fender deluxe 90 with a digitech rp500 with outrageous results. I have it in olympic white which I bought nearly 4 years ago and haven't put it down since! I hope to find it in sunburst one day. Great axe at an even greater price.
Put on 10's to replace the thin-sounding 9's and it took on a different voice thanks to the over-wound tex-mex pu's! "What a steal"!

My first electric guitar. I bought the JV Strat because of the feel and action. It s SO smooth! Sounds fantastic and looks even better. I spent hours playing every Strat in the store and this one just blew the rest away. The neck shape and fretboard make this beauty effortless to play for hours! For the money the best Fender out there...

Wonderfull guitar!!! the best Fender ever. I have a US Strat and my new Jimmie Vaughan strat smoke my American Made Strat!!! The neck is made for my hand, comfortable, the intonation are serious in all fretboard, perfect with satin finishing, nice aged nuance (nor that palid necks of the mex standards!!). I don´t need to fine tune the frets, they arrive perfects, no buzz!!! Sound beautiful in any pups, at any amp I play. The bridge hot texmex give an warm, pure blues tone at all. The body has a awesome cream color, perfect finishing. Visually gorgeous guitar! The hardware is all american made, the tuners are gotoh vintage style, give a perfect pitch. IT´S MY LIFETIME GUITAR.

I collect guitars and am a former professional player. My staff bought this guitar for me for my birthday in white. I have 4 Gibsons, a Vega archtop, a Dean Markley one of a kind and a Danelectro Pro. It's a great collection that was missing a "Strat". I played it for six hours the day I got it. It came set up perfectly thanks to Sweetwater technicians. My staff got great direction from Mark in sales. Together, they got me the perfect guitar. I love the Tex Mex pickups with the unique wiring. The Gotoh Vintage tuners and American Vintage trem as well as the soft V neck. The guitar has it all and more. I believe that it is the best choice you can make under $1,000.00. I added the Tortoise shell pickguard and aged white knobs/kit. I also had to get the Vintage Tweed case.
Thanks

A friend of mine in the High School band bought this guitar, and I thought is was a piece of junk. My thoughts changed when I played it back stage after school, and I was blown away. This pickups sounded killer, and it had great action for a fender. If I ever buy a Fender, the Jimmie Vaughan Strat will be number one on my Fender list!!!

The off white color looks nice in person, also has very good quality parts (tuners, pickups, bridge). At least with this one it did have some high frets, nothing way out of spec. Fret ends were done nicely. Possibly the guitar was subject to extreme environmental conditions which may have contributed to the high frets. Ended up doing a fret level, neck responds well to truss rod adjustments. The guitar is pretty versatile, has the classic Strat tones and the soft V neck shape is a nice change from the standard Stratocaster neck!

I have a Fender Professional Strat with a rosewood fretboard and wanted to get one with a maple fretboard. There are so many options and I could have gone with another Profession strat but this Jimmie Vaughan model intrigued me quite a bit, mainly due to its soft-V neck profile.

The guitar was well set up fo Fender's spec. Nice work!! I did change its action height later to my liking though.

The neck is awesome as expected although I would prefer a bit more pronounced V on it. It has a satin finish all over it and is nicely finished. It is quite chunky compared to that of the Professional series.

The guitar is pretty resonant unplugged even with a 9s string set that came on the guitar. The TexMex PUs are not so bad. I think I would keep them for a while.

I played the guitar as is for a while and then noticed that the tremolo was sticky. It did not return to its floating position very well so I constantly had to retune the guitar. It was about time to change the strings to a 10s so I removed the back cover and investigated what was causing the stickiness.

I found two things - 1) an over paint ( a large chunk) was left within the tremolo assembly cavity of the body and the tremolo block was rubbing it and 2) the tremolo assembly is offset within the cavity. I am not sure if that can be seen in the attached photo. The strings and pickups are all well aligned so it might be how this particular guitar is designed but if I installed five springs, the last spring on the low E side would rub the body inside the arming cavity. Those vintage springs are thicker than the recent ones.

Due to these findings, I thought that I should contact SW and consider a return / exchange but at this point, I had played the guitar quite a lot to an extent that it was no longer in the "returnable condition" (e.g. no protection film on the pick guard, some minor scratches on the pick guard).

I filed the over spray and will stay with three springs, and enjoy the guitar.

Had on. Loved the tone, and guitar had soul - yes, I am attributing a soul to an inanimate object! Hendrix - Trower tone easily. Loved everything about the guitar except that the high E string was too close to the fretboard and would always slip off when fingering it. I sadly returned. Now I'm thinking that Fender got the QC together enough so I can check the waters again.

I played a large store full of strats unplugged and kept coming back to the JV strat. I was intrigued (and confused) by it because it felt better than the U.S. strats in the store. I can not stand texas special pickups, so I through those away and had Kinman send me a set that would be truer to the srv sound. I stripped off the paint and gave it a nitro-cellulose finish. I have several u.s. strats and g&l strats and this mexican made jv never takes a back seat.

I've had mine for a little over a year now, and played it each day. In my oppinion, this is the best deal on an affordable Strat you can get. Because the shape of the neck, a soft V, ist just perfect. I haven't found a neck like this on any Strat in any price range. Another big plus is the bone nut and the wiring, which leaves the middle PU wide open, not connected to any of the tone knobs. Here are a few tips on how to improve further on this instrument's sound: I have installed a Callaham inertia bar, wich vastly improves sustain and clarity, a passive Villex booster which is installed in the output jack, and Vintage alnico PUs in a handwired mint colored pickguard from LFS. The Jimmy Vaughan comes with a white one-layer Pickguard that looks fine, but is a little too thin and bright for my taste. Now my Strat is perfect... until the next modification, of course!

I played two different ones that friends had - very similar, but distinctly different neck profiles. When I got mine, it had yet a different profile/feel. I have gottten used to it and really like it. the V is not hard or sharp, but is thicker than most I have checked out, and falls to a nice C between the 5-7 frets. the frets are large and smooth. I tried 10's and 11's on it, but in my opinion, this strat shines with 9's, as it is set up originally. the neck, action, pups all seem to work best with 9's for me, along with blocking the trem. If it were available as a hardtail, it would be about perfect for me. I also like the original vintage type tuners.

It sounds great, feels great, is well made and holds its value well. what more would you expect?

Mine is one o fthe Woody/airy sounding ones. Some aren't quite as fortunate, but mine is great.

I imagine, your setup and playign style might impact that - but thats just a guess.

Let's suffice to say Fender might, just might, have an idea what they are doing, I mean, after sixty years of doing it. This guitar, for a mere 650, will dazzle and amaze even those who have played for more than two years. If you want all the berries, add seven, or nine-way switching and maybe some "noisless" pickups and you got some piece of gear. Top notch foo!

I bought mine few years ago the sound is ok..for the price id recomend adding few extra dollars and buying the hendrix instead..the only reason is.the 1ply pickgaurd is junk.it bukles so that is a half to replace part unless ya want dyst in your electronics.the pots are kinda cheap and the jack kept coming loose.i replaced all the pick ups and put a new set of texas specials in mine and new 4 ply pickgaurd and put better tuners on it as well..its really a nice guitar the neck is awesome and they plY great.but the stock pRts arent that great.just my opionon though..

First off sweetwater and my sales engineer mike picotte are fantastic. Guitar came set up great .. Sounds great . The problems are from Fender and should not reflect on sweetwater. I've had the guitar for a year and its never been out of my room or stored on a stand. When I got it the strap button on the bottom was loose and stripped. I figured it must be from shipping and fixed my self. After I had it for a few months I noticed a blackish color below the strap button. It looks like the paint was smudged before the clear went on. Or if the color has transferred from the gig bag to the guitar (shipping maybe). Tried a few products , but it won't come off. So, not sure if it was like that when I got it or not.

Now to what really concerns me. The neck pocket. After a few months little pieces of paint and body chipping off where the neck meets the body. Almost disintegrating .Can't even touch it there or will flake off. Hope I never have to take the neck off or adjust the truss rod. I have a MIJ fuji gen strat I bought new 30 years ago. It's been dropped never been in a case , knocked over , beer spilt on it and no cracks neck pocket still perfect and neck still straight and never been adjusted. Strap buttons still tight as hell.. So I was expecting similar quality (hoping I should say) .

It's not all bad though , the neck is a dream to play. At first I thought it was too beefy a neck for me. But after a while I got used to it and love it. Frets were crowned and everything. Perfect. Definitely not a hard v shape. Also , the guitar sounds great. It stays in tune as well (I don't use the tremelo much) . Solid hardware and electronics.

In conclusion, this guitar is a dream to play. Sounds great. Just a bummer about the quaility of the build on the body. My friend bought a classic player strat and is having the same problem with neck pocket. Love to player her, but I'll pass on purchasing a MIM again. Should have bit the bullet and got american made standard. They are only 400 buks more.