1) Mystic Seafoam colour looked pretty awesome
2) I've never owned a Jazzmaster
3) Simplified controls with toggle on the upper bout
4) Hotter pickups
I briefly played a righty version in Mansons and I liked it so took the plunge. Only, I wanted a rosewood fretboard...but they don't do that with the Mystic Seafoam...bugger. Ended up buying a Rosewood American Pro neck and planned to sell the Maple one, but doesn't seem like a good selling time so will hang onto it until the COVID-19 situation is over.
The good:
- It's my first US Fender guitar, and I have to say, it's really nice. There are some touches that made me smile, especially as a lefty that I've never had on any other guitar before, such as actual lefty knobs with the numbers running the "right" way round, as well as lefty pots so they actually work in the same way as righty ones do i.e. have the intended effect. Gibson put righty pots wired righty in their lefty guitars so the knobs turn the wrong way - which is complete bollocks.
- The finish is amazing, even better in person than the pictures, and varies a lot depending on the light. It's not particularly heavy - much lighter than my Jag.
- The neck is really nice - I was a bit concerned as it's bigger than all by other guitars, both nut width and has the new "deep C" profile, but it's incredibly comfortable.
- Acoustically it's pretty loud and I guess that resonance or whatever you want to call it comes across when plugged in.
- The moulded case looks and feels bomb proof.
- Proper Mustang bridge, with 52mm string spacing, so no E strings on the edge of the fretboard, 9.5" radius. Brass barrels and no gaps between them. Comes fitted with nylon inserts to stop the rocking. Not had any issues with strings popping - it looks like they've basically taken all the improvements that Staytrem used on their bridges and made them standard here.
The less good:
- HUGE amount of fret buzz when I first got it. Has taken a good amount of tinkering with the truss rod and bridge height to get it playing nicely. First of all the neck was too straight, so added a little relief which helped a lot.
- The "narrow tall" frets take some getting used to. They're not bad, but just feel very different to all my other guitars. They are definitely part of the problem with the fret buzz as you need to have the strings pretty high off the fretboard, but because of their height the action from the frets is decently low. It's just a bit weird.
- Fender included a righty strat trem arm in the case rather than a lefty Jazzy one. Dicks. Still waiting for the replacement.
- The pickups sounded pretty good, but there was something missing for me - mainly in the bridge...I just wanted a bit more ooomph. So spoke to Bareknuckle and they wound me a nice hot bridge pup and vintage-hot neck and now it sounds utterly wonderful.
The "bad" things above are nothing that can't or haven't been fixed, so they're more just observations than actual issues.
I had the chance to use it at band practice once before the lockdown and it was a lot of fun. It feels really nice to play, sounds really good and the vol/tone are really useable due to the correct pots and the treble bleed circuit.
Overall I'm really pleased and have not really played anything else since I got it.
