Absolutely Amazing

Its my first proper guitar, after using an old peavey strat with terrible action and faulty electronics. The overall feeling of the guitar is great, the offset body is really comfortable, the finish of it is not boring its a pretty good combination of vintage white and the golden anodized pickguard. The sound is bright, i'd say its very versatile, it does good for me in indie rock / dream pop / bedroom pop, aswell as it has been widely used in alt rock and shoegaze. Its one of the best if not the best Squiers you can get, it is a cheap proper quality instrument, definetly recommend anyone who is looking for something not expensive yet robust and versatile.

Incredible guitar, on its own and for the price

The Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster is not only an incredible guitar, it's also one of the few Fender/Squier Jazzmasters that feature accurate electronics. Unlike most Jazzmasters I've seen, J Mascis did not shy out in adding a rhythm circuit to this guitar which to me is a huge plus. The addition of the hot, punchy, pickups that are like a fusion of a Jazzmaster pickup and a P90 make this guitar an immaculate choice for anybody who wants an impeccable guitar without spending tons of money.

I love this thing and I use it for playing live in a band and also to make most of my own music. It's a 10/10 for me.

Preferred Settings + Usage:

Mine needed TLC, but the Hype is real.

So I got mine used for a stellar deal, turns out there was good reason for that. This guitar when I got it needed A LOT of TLC. It needed so much in fact that I'm pretty sure I would have summed Lisa Left Eye Lopez if I worked on it any more. The Ground solder to the input jack was never soldered on correctly and fell off, the nut was cut badly on the low E and that string was hanging off the fret ends and would often slip when playing chords with the low E and there were uncomfortable high frets on the 3rd and fourth frets near the A string. I luckily know how to solder and I had a spare graphite nut that was preslotted with the right spacing and enough scotch bright to remove enough fret material to stop the buzzing (ended up replacing the entire neck anyways). Additional I did make some minor tweaks, replaced the neck with an older run JMascis neck (from 2014), got a new roller string tree, installed a locking roller bridge from Wilkinson... And replaced all the wiring and pickups for and EMG JMaster set. Oh! And forgot to mention I also added a shim to the neck since I noticed the action was high past the 10th fret, but easy to fret on the lower strings. So you know... Nothing major. (Insert Sarcasm here)

And no knock on the stock pickups, they actually sound pretty great. I just don't like 60 cycle hum and I found it annoying when I wanted to add a ton of gain and time based effects. As a straight ahead alt-rock guitar, the stock pickups are legit really good. No actual need to swap it out unless you want to kill that 60 cycle hum.

Any who, After all of that, including intonation and setup. this puppy was ready to rock.

Played it out for a worship set and legit, probably some of the best tones I've ever gotten live. The JMaster pickups are dead quite, and are true to the single coil Jazzmaster sound! The cleans were great, it takes drives/distortion/fuzz amazingly well, and...no 60cycle hum! Neck feels legit amazing (Early 2014 run neck), I see where the hype is coming from with that. Jumbo frets make it easy to fret notes and chords. Guitar is constructed well and feels like a much more expensive instrument.

The Trem system feels a bit still if I am being honest. Also this isn't a Ding on vintage tuners but they don't work great with anything lighter than a .10 gauge string set. I play .09 to .46 and legit, the high b and e strings had a really hard time catching and staying on. I will eventually have to replace them but it kinda sucks because I actually dig the functionality of them. Would have given it 5 stars if I didn't have all those issues off the bat as well as the inherent design flaw of the tuners and the still trem system. The upgrades/mods I did along with a setup shoots this up to a 5/5 for me personally, but I know for most folks, a tricked out Jazzmaster isn't exactly in their cards.

Best Jazzmaster under $500. Great platform for customization.

I got one of the original run of these and played it stock for years until working up the nerve and boredom to start a sort of Ship Theseus project with it. The body, Pickguard, and neck pickup remain. The neck has been replaced with a Warmoth 22 fret roasted maple telecaster neck. There's a Curtis Novak Thunderbird pickup in the bridge, bridge replaced with a Wilkinson roller and the tremolo was swapped out for a Panorama. The upper bout was rewired as independent tone controls with a blower switch, and the original vol/tone controls are independent volumes.

Wonderful

It is a guitar within anyone's reach but of professional level. Beyond the Mascis touches, it is a guitar that sounds very good.

My main, absolue killer at this price range.

If you are offset curious this is the way to go. At $450 used it's an insane deal. Absolutely killer matte neck feels amazing, great setup right out of the box. This JM has more of a P90 style pickup so the tone is killer, and the bridge is upgraded from the classic vibe bridge.

From Gear Setup

Love it.

My first electric. Seemed a good trade-off between a Fender vintage reissue and the really cheap ‘n nasty Squier modern Jazzmasters.

After having it for a couple of years now, I’ve grown to love it. Beautiful resonance and tone even unplugged and has a lilting chime through a clean channel. It’s very comfortable to play (the thin profile and satin finish neck is wonderful), there’s some great tonal variety and range within the pick-ups and selector. Though I tend to stick with the Rhythm circuit for most songs. Great build quality for a Chinese built Squier and looks beautiful too, no shaming here! Haven’t done any work to it yet. But apart from replacing the nut with a bone nut and the stock saddles with Brass saddles there’s not much I’d bother changing out of the box. Stays in tune well. Tonal range crosses genres with ease. Blues, alt/indie rock, thrash, Grunge, shoe gaze(dream-pop) to Jazz.

Highly recommended-especially if a USA Fender is beyond your budget.

From Gear Setup

The best deal going; PERIOD!

I think GP got it right when they made this a Critic's Choice Guitar, in their 2015 Guitars under $799 review. This is simply a great guitar. The only "mod" I chose to make, was swapping in a vintage mint green pickguard. I love the gold anodized, but the mint green on antique white is more to my liking. This guitar came from the factory set up perfect for my plying style. I've kept the card because I like it so much. I started out back in 1985 with a Ric 340/6 in BurgandlyGlo, and followed that with a '65 Mustang. I've been a gear snob my whole life, still am. But this so-called "cheap" guitar, is a quality axe all the way round. I'm a pickup swapper, I like doing that. However, as the GP reviewer stated, hold off on that, because these pups sound great. And they really, really do. I've got Fat Tele with Seymour Duncan Billy Gibbons pups, a Pearly Gates hummer, and a CS BG stacked, and through the same gear, the J Mascis sounds f-ing amazing. Different, but fantastic. I can even dig using the fabled and "useless" "rhythm" circuit. My only complaint was a noisy pup switch, which I spent a few bucks and replaced. No biggie. If you're looking to get into a Jazzmaster, get this this one. Nothing against the Vintage Modified Series, my son has a Jaguar, same factory and all, but this is a step from those. A bit heavy, bit not too bad. I love it, I'm keeping it!

Best $300 I ever spent

My first Jazzmaster. I had been looking into Jazzmasters for a while. I wasn't really interested in another Squire as I had just picked up a 70s Classic Vibe Strat. This J Mascis popped up on Offerup for 300 and I couldn't pass it up. Great condition. I was a bit used to the weight of my Jaguar and my Epiphone Les Paul so when I got this Jazzmaster, I was thinking, heck, let's go for a run! So light but it's "tight", really feels like an extension of my hands, nice! I am still messing with tones and such, but I think it sounds great.

2nd Mascis.

I originally bought the Mascis when it was first released. I sold it a few years later. Fast forward to 2018 and I’m now buying my 2nd Mascis. This guitar is pretty awesome, the originally owner slapped a tort pickguard on it and I’ve definitely gotta say I prefer the tort over the gold. The stock pickups aren’t bad, per say...but they definitely don’t sound like a vintage Jazzmaster and sound way more like P90s. So if that’s what you’re going for I’m sure you’ll love this guitar. The neck is amazing and I can’t praise it enough. I plan on completely modding this guitar by changing the pickups, possibly the wiring and adding a fender vibrato assembly. So I’ll further update this review when I’m done modding...but so far this guitar isn’t bad.