For a squire, massive bang for your buck!!

It was my first electric guitar, a gift from my mom when I was 11. I've modified and beat mine to hell, but that's only made me love mine more. When I got it, it was stock sonic blue, white pickguard and n plastics, and all stock electronics. I replaced the bridge early on with the most legit looking Mustang bridge I could find on Amazon, as, per the notoriety, the stock Jazzmaster bridge was shit (not the tremolo, the actual bridge with the saddles). I've only had to replace it once since, about a month ago, so real bang for your buck there. Probably about three years into owning mine, the lead circuit pooped out on me for mysterious reasons, probably from being brought on so many road trips and stuff. I have re-done the lead circuit several times, but with the original pickups and pots it just didn't like to cooperate. So, this past July, I re-did all the electronics, and replaced the neck pickup, as the bridge pickup had already been replaced with a Duncan Designed Jazzmaster pickup before I got it. Note: The neck pickup may have been one as well, but the logo had been warn off likely before I got it but definitely before I got the chance to see it and know what it was. Anyway, it's now got the original bridge pickup in there, a Fender CuNiFe Wide Range Jazzmaster pickup in the neck, and re-done, though still mostly stock wiring. I say "mostly" because the tone knob is a push-pull that puts the middle position out of phase, and I chose the tone knob because I'm always riding my volume knob with my pinky. She's still evolving, I'm still putting new stickers on her, but I love her in all her variations. She's my ride or die, I'm never letting go of her.

Preferred Settings + Usage:

A perfect player

I bought this thing used and it already had aftermarket saddles pre-installed. The JM and other Fender offset guitars are known for their tuning instability, but pop some proper saddles on and boom! You have a pretty damn good guitar. The Vintage Modified series was the predecessor to Squier's newer Classic Vibe series and is slightly inferior to the VM in my opinion.

The Vintage Modified Jazzmaster delivers chimey, crisp, and twangy tones from the Duncan Designed JM pickups stock from factory. You can pick one up for about $300-$500US and is a pretty good bang for your buck guitar. You get a high-quality build, amazing sounding pickups, great feeling playability, and just an all-around great guitar.

I'd recommend this guitar to almost anyone in the market for a Jazzmaster. If you don't mind buying a decent set of saddles and modding your bridge (which isn't even all that hard) then I see absolutely no reason why you shouldn't buy one for yourself. This one is one hell of a guitar. Squier makes amazing guitars and you shouldn't let their "cheap" reputation scare you away. Their guitars are low-budget, not low-quality.

8.5/10 would recommend

From Gear Setup

Not perfect but truly Awesome

I found one of these is a small guitar shop an hour away, absolutely fell in love, but had no way to get it home. So I ended up driving back there the next day to go get it. It wasn't perfect to begin, but with a few minor alteration to the bridge and some new pots it has become an absolute dream of a guitar. The neck feels fantastic, it's comfortable to play, it has that perfect jangly sound you expect from a jazzmaster and the rhythm and lead circuits open up a whole world of tones to play with.

From Gear Setup

Great choice in this price range

This is my second electric guitar, I've had it for over a year now and I'm really happy with it. The quality is great, it feels sturdy, has no trouble with staying in tune, and I just love the sounds it can create.

The bridge is an issue in most Jazzmasters and this one isn't an exception. It isn't terrible though, once you get used to it and set it up right - otherwise I would've replaced it by now.

Great guitar for the indie rockers among us.

Once I started getting into more indie and experimental artists like My Bloody Valentine, it was only natural that my next guitar would be some form of Fender offset. Every local Kurt Cobain wannabe owned a Squier Jaguar or Mustang, but nobody owned a Jazzmaster. I decided that this model would be the one for me, especially considering that I didn't own a single-coil or solid body guitar that I actually liked. My Strat replica refused to stay in tune, and the Encore Les Paul I didn't even want to think about playing ever again. While I was pleased with the guitar's smooth neck, bright Duncan Designed pickups and general aesthetics, I did inevitably mod my Jazzmaster with a Mustang bridge, reworked pickup selector and gold pickguard to mimic the look of the original '58 Jazzmaster.

The standard bridge that comes with all Jazzmasters are simply horrible for lead playing, and whilst I do use the tremolo arm for glide guitar work, I don't like how loose it can feel due to how the arm is inserted into tremolo hole. I will eventually install a Staytrem system to make the tremolo feel tighter and more responsive. The floating tremolo creates surprisingly decent tuning stability as well. I really, really like my Jazzmaster at the moment despite the loose tremolo arm, and I will probably buy another Squier Jazzmaster, just like mines at the moment in the future, only in Candy Apple Red. That is of course if I can't afford the Troy Van Leeuwen Signature model by then.

great guitar

Great affordable jazzmaster with a great vintage tone. Although I reallly like this guitar, I would spend a 200 bucks more and get a J Mascis signature jazzmaster. The bridge on this vm jazzmaster is not really great. I replaced mine with a Squier mustang bridge. A mustang bridge is not very expensive it was not a big problem.

If you want feedback, you will get it.

I love this guitar. Ideal for shoegaze and post-punk music. Unfortunately I had to sell at the pandemic time, I'm looking forward to the day I will buy it again.

From Gear Setup

Great guitar, poor bridge

The bridge was designed back when strings were a lot heavier, now that strings are thinner the old style bridge is terrible, if you are playing power chords over and over then the strings will get out of place. I recommend changing the bridge for with a mustang bridge. otherwise its great for a medium player, the guitar can hit some great notes and is very versatile.

Good but outdated

It's a great guitar, especially for the low price but there are a few issues with (like the bridge literally being unusable) that have been "corrected" in the Classic Vibe version. I'd definitely save a few bucks and go with that one

so cool

I Have recently bought a squier jazzmaster modified with 2 humbuckers, a fender wide range on the bridge and a GFS fat pat in the neck, and im in love with this guitar, its so cool, i love the neck and the rosewood fretboard is really great, the bridge kinda sucks, so i changed for a tune o matic bridge