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Noob here to ask some stupid questions. What makes the older squire jagmasters so much better than the newer ones? (I am assuming they are better because that are so much more expensive). Also are the new jagmasters worth messing with or just cheap junk?

hopefully a Vet poster can answer more completely

but what i gathered was the Vista line was made in Japan (big plus)

the new jagmasters are shit from china apparently.
probly decent once you swap pickups and electronics tho especially for the cheap price.

over
zero

Thanks for the info

newplayerkc wrote:Noob here to ask some stupid questions. What makes the older squire jagmasters so much better than the newer ones? (I am assuming they are better because that are so much more expensive). Also are the new jagmasters worth messing with or just cheap junk?

The main thing that makes the Vista JM so desirable is the neck. They are from the same batch as fender was using for Japan made jaguars and are really great players from what I hear. Have never had played one though.
The over all fit and finish of the Vistas were excellent with good electronics and hardware. They were also true 24" scale guitars.

The new JM are far from cheap junk, but equally far from the vistas. They are not true 24" but a 25.5" scale with an altered neck. I have had one of these and while the pickups were nothing to write home about, I wouldn't say they were unplayable. Infact it's pretty giggable out of the box after a setup and maybe some better tuners. I didn't get on with the neck at all. It felt too tapered for me, my fingers felt mashed.

endsjustifymeans wrote:

newplayerkc wrote:Noob here to ask some stupid questions. What makes the older squire jagmasters so much better than the newer ones? (I am assuming they are better because that are so much more expensive). Also are the new jagmasters worth messing with or just cheap junk?

The main thing that makes the Vista JM so desirable is the neck. They are from the same batch as fender was using for Japan made jaguars and are really great players from what I hear. Have never had played one though.
The over all fit and finish of the Vistas were excellent with good electronics and hardware. They were also true 24" scale guitars.

The new JM are far from cheap junk, but equally far from the vistas. They are not true 24" but a 25.5" scale with an altered neck. I have had one of these and while the pickups were nothing to write home about, I wouldn't say they were unplayable. Infact it's pretty giggable out of the box after a setup and maybe some better tuners. I didn't get on with the neck at all. It felt too tapered for me, my fingers felt mashed.

Aside from the necks, the Visas also have superior hardware. the Chinese ones have generic sealed tuners and the same kind of bridges you'd find on an affinity strat, while the Vistas have "vintage" stloted ping tuners and steel Fender stamped saddles.

The fit and finish of Vistas is generally on par with Japanese Fenders of the time and quality control must have been very tight cause I've never played a bad Vista Jagmaster. This is not to say that this is an issue with the Chinese ones. In my experience, I'd say most of the Chinese Jagmasters that I've played were relatively well finished with nothing causing reason for alarm.

Other than that, there's also some aesthetic differences between the two, which I think contribute a great deal to the difference in feel between both guitars.
In the end, the Chinese ones do feel a bit unrefined but that's only in comparison to the Vistas.

i never understood why the popularity of the vistas wasn't enough for the things that made them so popular (decent builds for decent prices) wasn't enough to sustain them as a business model. was fender losing money on them?

dots wrote:i never understood why the popularity of the vistas wasn't enough for the things that made them so popular (decent builds for decent prices) wasn't enough to sustain them as a business model. was fender losing money on them?

Fender has always made really really stupid business decisions.

IE Cut off all Japan exports even for unique products like the lefty line that you can only get from Japan.

Fucking hate Fender as a company.

dots wrote:i never understood why the popularity of the vistas wasn't enough for the things that made them so popular (decent builds for decent prices) wasn't enough to sustain them as a business model. was fender losing money on them?

The Japanese Fenders and Vistas in the late 90's were so good, they were competing too much with the American Fenders. So Fender shut it down so the American models would appreciate more in value.

Fender needs to bring the Super-Sonic back and maybe a CP Mustang. Give the people what they want!

Ditto on Taylornutt comment.

i read a few times that the high quality-low price japanese vista was selling so much at the time that the high quality-high price USA fenders were losing alot of market share.

ive had extremely good luck with the 3 japanese guitars i have...on par with my 2 USA fenders for half price basically.