Відео

I'm with you though, that is weird as hell. Such a small move but it leaves a sour taste.

I recently got an American Pro II Jazzmaster for $1k and it’s perfect. It sucks that the Ultra isn’t that great.

interesting video, sorry you had so many hassles with your guitar. mine was buzzy and all sorts, but over the 30 yeasr I've had it I've managed to iron them out/ pretend they don't exist :D quick question. are you adding 7 rocker switches to your new anodised scratchplate? HARDCORE!

Congrats you are the first to honestly review Fender's Albatross that they bring out and dust off for every generation since its introduction. Remember the name and the target audience that failed horribly. You missed that pesky tilting bridge but the majesty system should fix it. I also never understood the 1 meg pot on the dark circuit with the thinnest wound pickups this side of a $79 Chinese special.

Did you change the potentiometers on the ultra, when you popped in the novak pickups?

I got the stock Surfmaster's myself probably around the same time. The Kinman web and purchase experience is beyond bad. Both versions of their website are buggy, and required finding the right combination of browser and version of the website. The purchase experience was incredibly tedious. They sent a ton of emails. They hide the install instructions. Their website lacks basic information about the pickups, there are no examples, etc. It's bizarre. Everything about their site should be junked in favor of something like Lollar's site, or just about any other pickup maker's. If you were alive in the 1990s and buying online, think that type of early E-Commerce experience. Now the pickups were a HUGE change from Duncan Antiquity II's. The latter sounded like Classic Jazzmaster pickups. The Kinman's sounded more like dead-silent Jaguar pickups. They're brighter, have a much more pronounced attack, and way wider dynamic range (i.e. touch sensitivity) than traditional pickups. It took my ears some time to adjust and my tone knob is parked at 7. Anything above that is just too bright for me. That said, they're the quietest pickups I've ever heard and sound great with distortion. If you're a "rock" player and hate the noise from Jazzmaster pickups, the Kinman's are great options. But holy heck do they make it hard.

Nope !!!

Kinman: all you had to do is REACH OUT AND ASK before editing user reviews. Your pickups sound amazing. Back them up with better editorial practices. Cutting corners is always disrespectful.

I can understand some of those edits -- namely the one with the factual correction, but also the one about the timeliness of delivery because that can change depending on their current workload. The one about needing some extra electronics know-how was key, though. I'd tell them just to take it down, or else remove your name from it. Otherwise, they sound great, and I love crazy switching schemes that extract a ton of sonic possibilities. 👍 Far too expensive for me, though -- I pretty much just buy used and cheap! Most of my guitar mod "victims" are in the $150 range, mainly because I've yet to figure out what I'd want in a "number one forever guitar" like you've managed to determine. At least it fun to experiment with variety in the meantime!

ooh pick guard

Awesome vid, pickups seem insane

Those sound wonderful! Very scummy to edit your review. It does call into question vendor's reviews. I'm glad there are UA-camrs with a history of integrity to trust.

Those sound amazing! They are forgiven for the transgression of editing the review.

Fender couldn’t make a decent Jazzmaster to save their lives. The AVRI’s are not any better. Boutique or Custom Shop are the only way to go for Jazzmasters.

Sounds like you got very expensive POS!

I think its disgraceful for a company to ship a high cost piece in such a poor condition The bridge not being radiused properly sucks You be better of with an indonesuan 500 dollar job methinks

Nice service! And that's a surprisingly affordable price. I'll have to keep it in mind. Looking forward to you wiring this thing up.

Sounds a lot better now

I think everything he did is very important, psychologically for a guitar player. You have to suck for so long when starting out sometimes you need assurance that the "suckage" is you and not the instrument. Now he has no one to blame but himself if he doesn't like what he hears. It's good motivation to practice.

Great video and why do I get the feeling this is what people mean by have your guitar "set up"... Which my Jackson JS22 out of the box just doesn't need... Yes it uses cheap hardwear but the QC and polsihh is perfect and I love the feel, look and uyes sound of the smol beast. So yeah I wonder how Jackson who is owned by Fender has much better polish?

Just wanted to mention that a fully shielded pickup cavity can have a negative impact on tone depending on the pickup type, the guitar's wiring scheme, and the signal path you play with to the amp. I have not experienced this myself, but I've read about it. The shielding adds capacitance to the signal of your pickups. It's also worth considering that virtually no vintage guitars had such shielding, and yet all the best music you've ever heard was recorded with them. Is it really worth it? I don't think so.

Really detailed tutorial that's going to help a LOT of people create a perfect layout.

Yeah, I was thinking "Get Kinman's" at the start of this video ... I'm glad you switched to them. Not only are they a quality product, I know Chris personally, and he's a great guy that stands behind his pickups.

nothing like throwing 2k on a good instrument and playing it like shit knowing a grateful kid will grab it in 50 years and become a music legend with it... Im building some kind of chambered body with some of the jazzmaster's hardware (1 pickup paired with a humbucker), the trem, but the bridge is a roller saddles and the radius wont be compound radius

Fair to say buying a USA-made guitar from a big name probably isn’t worth it anymore. Greed and complacency. They just don’t respect their customers anymore.

I have an Ultra--love it for the ergonomics/playability. Mine had a few issues and I put some money into it. Mine actually came with one noiseless and one random Jazzmaster pickup (I have a warranty claim). Had to put shielding in the cavity. Didn't notice the bridge issue at all, and my trem works fine. I put in some Travis Bean-style pickups from Madlove (I have a Parallel Universe II Jazz Strat with the 65' vintage pickups, which are great, didn't need two guitars with that). I'll consider having a closer look at the bridge--I run Mastery stuff on a few guitars so that's always an option.

I'm impressed that a Jazzmaster is the least boring looking thing in the video. You've somehow managed to perfectly personify your living space. Casual observations aside, this video was very interesting.

I really appreciate the based attitude and general openness. Man... for that price those truly were some inexcusable quality issues. Hope you enjoy your guitar now that you put all that time and money into it!

How did you decide on a jazzmaster for your guitar ?

Great video, Fender is an iconic brand and definitely should be held to a higher standard. More often than not you’re getting less guitar for the money due to the name on the headstock. The fact that the bridge was not a match to the neck on this guitar is a definite tell Fender isn’t even trying. I tend to stay away from brands like Gibson and Fender as there is way more value to be had from other brands. Appreciate the honest and frank review, it’s important people know the truth and the costs involved with fixing and modifying these less than stellar instruments. Thanks for an awesome video!

Was it uninsulated? Or did they use shielded cable? Fender have done the latter in the past. You can tell of there is a run to ground.

Fuck fender

That's why I got the 40th anniversary squire Jazzmaster. Still shits all over yours for 3rd I'd the price

Partscasters are where it's at.

I’ve got a squier jag with a mastery bridge, new pickups, and a new nut. It is probably my favorite guitar.

Thanks for making this informative and insightful video. I think it will be useful to a lot of people. One of my favourite guitars that I bought slightly used is a Squier Classic Vibe Esquire. It was £230 slightly used. It had already had a set up and came with an ashtray bridge cover. It's not a Jazzmaster but it's a guitar that I don't feel the need to upgrade. The pick up sounds fine and the guitar to my mind as simple as it is works brilliantly and is excellent value. I think the more money that a guitar costs often you experience marginal gains. It's possibly harder to create a really good budget guitar? I also bought a Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster it has a fuller neck. Which I really like. It's got way more going on than the Esquire but for me the Esquire could be the one to hang on to.

That's all kind of ... shocking. I've owned 3 - a 1966 all-original, a late-70s beater, and a new TVL JM. All gone for various reasons, but one might be relevant: the Troy Van Leeuwen was dull. Lifeless. Also: don't use cobalt strings on nickel frets. They gouge badly and remarkably quickly. Next trick: trying a 2021 AmPro II, the only one I've heard on compare and contrast clips which has the rich "tonal snap" of the neck and mid position settings. It's this sound that I loved from my 1966, and haven't heard much since. We'll see.

Great video man. I really appreciate your honesty and being as unbiased as possible.

"vintage-correct chastity belt" = gold

I’ve been wanting to do almost the exact same mods with my classic vibe JM. I honestly think a Squier classic vibe is the perfect platform for modding for even CHEAPER than the $1k you put into the Ultra.

This is not meant as a criticism but a comment on human nature. I have been fifty years as a luthier. In my experience really good players don't understand much about instrument details and don't bother altering stuff. Less able players tend to meddle with instruments much more.

Love the video! Great to see an honest review of an expensive instrument from someone with the bravery to demand his money’s worth. There was just one detail that had me absolutely screaming at my screen though 😅😂 Using 250k pots instead of 1 meg makes a HUUUUUGE difference and is almost certainly the reason you find the stock pickups so “bloodless.” If you swap the pots for the vintage-correct value, you’ll increase the resistance to ground which (particularly in the case of the tone pot) will MASSIVELY increase the clarity and brightness of the stock pickups. Inexcusable that fender used the wrong value for the ultra but I would highly recommend swapping the pots and using the stock pickups before trying a different set of noiseless pickups

Wow a guitar of that price have serious faults like that. WTF.

If you were going to use one as a mod platform, you could have saved money going for a Japanese one. Build quality will be excellent on the woodwork and it'd be maybe half the cost, then change the pickups and wiring. I bet the rhythm circuit wouldn't have had a stuck roller on a Japanese made one. Pretty amazing how bad the build quality on an American made instrument, considering you could pay less for more. Talking of pickups, I'm glad you went for some kind of noiseless ones - I'd recommend Kinman Fatmasters, they sound great and rein in the treble, add some bass, very smooth and well-rounded and versatile. "Vintage correct", in my opinion, is not for most players. It's not the late 50s/early 60s any more, there have been advances in electric guitar tech that make them better especially for players who play with more gain regularly. Having said that, I wish modern Fender had more options for fitting vintage radius necks to whatever guitars because I personally find 7.25" the most comfortable. Any Fender that has a 9.5" or higher radius neck already has a concession to more modern standards anyway.

did you have to shim your neck with the mastery bridge?

Any guitar named ‘Ultra’ shouldn’t need fixing or upgrading with anything. Fender are a disgrace.

I'll stick with Squire.

Jazzmaster....one of those guitars I always wanted until I played dozens of them. Never the sound I wanted. I have a 68 Mustang that sounds absolutely epic, which surpsied me, since it is so close to the JM. Glad you learned something from this journey.

Thanks for the tutorial! I've got an Ultra in Cobra Blue and added the mastery bridge already. Would you be willing to share your CAD file? Also, do you think the pickup cavity is deep enough for humbuckers? I've got some humbucker sized P90s I was thinking about dropping in mine, but haven't gotten around to taking off the pickguard yet.

Douchy=shower like! 🚿