New Fender Player Jaguar Tidepool leaked

Grocer_Jack

DrBob said:

There are photos of a Jazzmaster from the same range doing the rounds except it’s got two hum buckers and no rhythm circuit so it’s kind of a Jagmaster really

I think I saw one of these in PMT Old Street yesterday. It was black and Jazzmaster-shaped, but when I saw the humbuckers I averted my eyes and rushed from the shop...

Babones

The Jazzmaster is the same (new colours though), but without the hideous half chrome pickup cover.

https://blog.richtonemusic.co.uk/posts/huge-news-fender-introducing-player-series/?utm_source=Rich+Tone+Music+Newsletter&utm_campaign

Usual cringeworthy copy.

stickyfiddle

Babones said:

The Jazzmaster is the same (new colours though), but without the hideous half chrome pickup cover.

https://blog.richtonemusic.co.uk/posts/huge-news-fender-introducing-player-series/?utm_source=Rich+Tone+Music+Newsletter&utm_campaign

Usual cringeworthy copy.

Bloody hell that JM looks horrendous. Custard yellow, humbuckers and the trem in the wrong place.

I guess Fender never get JM pickups right outside the top end stuff, so they’ve stopped trying?

ICBM

None of them actually look that bad apart from the Tele HH, which looks like a Jedson with its plastic bridge pickup ring (why not use an H Tele bridge - they exist?), and the flame top Strat which as always is an abomination that should be purged with fire.

Babones

This image from the Fender website (Player Jazzmaster spec), confirms my suspicions that there are people there who don't know what they are doing.

stickyfiddle

Leaving aside the obviously-wrong coil split thing, that is just shockingly bad copy all round.

Bluebeard

I see they are now up on Andertons. They all seem to be about £80 more than the same guitar in the Mexican Standard range
https://www.andertons.co.uk/fender-player-series

ICBM

stickyfiddle said:

Leaving aside the obviously-wrong coil split thing, that is just shockingly bad copy all round.

It's not just that - there's a howler in both the other two as well.

"authentic Fender tone" - Gibson-style humbuckers.
"synchronized tremolo" - no, that's the Strat one.

HAL9000

On the Strat, I can (sort of) understand the thinking behind giving the bridge pickup its own dedicated tone control. However, I dislike the idea of the neck and middle pickups sharing the other tone control. Probably because I normally tend to have the tone on the middle set to 7ish and the tone for neck set to only 1 or 2 so that just flicking a switch gives quite a change. Strikes me that wiring the bridge and middle together might have been the better option.

vale

i think rather than this interminable fiddling around with the furniture, fender-squier should think about releasing a 'blankmaster' version of everything.

eg, you get everything apart from the pickups & electric & pickguard (unrouted body or basic sss or HH routs). & leave it to the punters to work out what they want to do with their bits.

i suppose they've kind of delegated this to warmouth, but that's far more involved. you need to have fancy tools & real know how to pull that off that well. & finish hard to get right on a budget.

whereas these could be all properly assembled & finished, bar the chrome & plastic body bits.
because behind all the 'new for xxxx year!' that's really all that has really changed since 1960.

vale

Babones said:

ICBM said:

'Professional' tends to be short for "real professionals wouldn't touch this with a bargepole" too.

100% - it's lame when companies name something 'pro' or 'professional'. Pros generally use 'industry standards' in their field, that standard being dictated by the industry itself. Having Mexican/American Standard, you know exactly where you are. Names like Player, Professional, Elite is just blurring the lines and simply naff.

that dubiously applied 'professional' label used to really confuse me when i was little, because i would see sunbeds & other random leisure accessories all labelled as 'professional' & think 'who sunbathes for a living?'.

ICBM

HAL9000 said:

On the Strat, I can (sort of) understand the thinking behind giving the bridge pickup its own dedicated tone control. However, I dislike the idea of the neck and middle pickups sharing the other tone control. Probably because I normally tend to have the tone on the middle set to 7ish and the tone for neck set to only 1 or 2 so that just flicking a switch gives quite a change. Strikes me that wiring the bridge and middle together might have been the better option.

As they have been doing on many models since the mid-80s. (Albeit often with some sort of bogus gimmick tone control for the bridge and middle.)

DrBob

Don’t understand their aversion to locking tuners on Trem equipped guitars. Especially now they’ve gone to two point terms 

stickyfiddle

DrBob said:

Don’t understand their aversion to locking tuners on Trem equipped guitars. Especially now they’ve gone to two point terms 

I'm guessing it's because they add 30 quid to the RRP, are fairly unnecessary, and most buyers don't care?

DrBob

stickyfiddle said:

DrBob said:

Don’t understand their aversion to locking tuners on Trem equipped guitars. Especially now they’ve gone to two point terms 

I'm guessing it's because they add 30 quid to the RRP, are fairly unnecessary, and most buyers don't care?

Wisdom reluctantly awarded ;-)

stickyfiddle

DrBob said:

stickyfiddle said:

DrBob said:

Don’t understand their aversion to locking tuners on Trem equipped guitars. Especially now they’ve gone to two point terms 

I'm guessing it's because they add 30 quid to the RRP, are fairly unnecessary, and most buyers don't care?

Wisdom reluctantly awarded ;-)

:P 

And let's not forget they're a lovely upgrade that they can include to make people who do like them buy the Deluxe/Elite models

Bluebeard

Someone has put on reddit a warning that the quality control isn't great on the new line
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/8s4eme/discussion_do_not_order_the_new_fender_player/

I am probably going to keep an eye out see if I can pick up a discontinued Mexican Standard on the cheap

Babones

Yeah, I saw that. Not much proof, but the guy claims to be a large dealer. Badly cut nuts, sharp fret ends and cheap unbranded Chinese pots. I can't say the demos (which there seem to be many already) make them sound at all decent.

Simon_M

Babones said:

 the hideous half chrome pickup cover.

I actually have that Jazzmaster! Haha. I quite like the ‘hideous’ pickups.  

SteveRobinson

Can I just say that I think the Chuckle Brothers are funny.