Picked my VM-Jaguar up from Murrietta GC on Thursday and after about ten coats of wax and opening the routes up to see inside - I've been playing it a lot.
<♪ happy ♫ happy ♪ happy♫>
First impression: it weighs a lot less than any of the other basses I own except for my SR500 - which it equals at 8lbs.
It's about ½ inch longer than my Deluxe Jazz too.
The finish is exceptionally good and the feel is well-balanced with no head dive that I can notice.
The frets are very level and the neck was perfect out of the box.
The stacked pots are clean, well-loaded and smooth. The Tone pots are notched and that is kinda nice - but I wonder if it's necessary - it's OK for me though.
The fingerboard is so smooth and the wood grain is the tightest I've ever seen on ANY Fender/Squier.
Sound-wise:
The J p'up is awesome! It growls and can cut through like it's amp'd! This is a
VERY HOT P'UP!!!
The P p'up is another great sound. It is more powerful than any other P p'ups I've ever heard and when I run it's volume to the max with tone all the way down, it gets so deep and powerful that I've got Motown wired!
So far - one of my favorite sounds is to run the P p'up to full LOW and the J p'up to HIGH tones and both to full volume. The effect bites and growls and just thumps all at the same time.
The stock Fender-type
7250 NPS strings generally suck and feel like hacksaw blades on end eating my fingers - but I'll play these a while yet to see if I can find any redeeming value to them at all - but if it's like my VM-Jazz, they will be off pretty soon for some Elixir NANOs or maybe some ROTO 77s. I dunnow yet.
Remember that Fender admits they are making their OWN strings in Mexico on their own machines - so maybe these aren't REAL as far as a different rumored maker is accused.
I also doubt these OE red-silked strings are NOS too.
Overall a total
5-♥♥♥♥♥ out of
5-♥♥♥♥♥ and this is one sweet guitar.
If you don't buy one - you will certainly miss out.
BTW: The individual GCs are having a hard time getting these in in any substantial numbers and I bought 100% of the Jags they had - that is ONE!
Put a downstroker on one at the store and they will hold one with a deposit if you go that way.
What mods will I make?
NONE. This is just great in stock trim and if you put a Hi Mass bridge on it it will take a lot of the voice and growl out of it.
The p'ups are hot - hotter than you'll believe until you play it and they're full-timbered and full of tone.
The body resonates on all notes -
UNPLUGGED and it's a very powerful resonator too. This bass has gobs of sustain and you'll get tired of hearing it and finally let go of the string after 30 seconds or more. Really!
Buy it - Play it - Love it.
New VM Series Jaguar Bass
...*
