Fender American Vintage II

Gerz6558

chris78 said:

Gerz6558 said:

Thanks! And despite the looks, I'm still wrestling with deciding whether to stick with the AO strat or not. I think its just the pickups in the 61 that I need to acclimatise to. Love those 59's in the AO strat, probably prefer the slimmer neck on the American Vintage.

That trem arm in the jazzmaster is definitely all wrong though. The AO jag trem slips right into the jazzmaster trem, but the one the jazzmaster came with won't. Hopefully Fender or Peach will give me 30 quid to go get a staytrem arm and collet!

I’d swap the pickups if I was happy with the guitar.
Personally I replaced 59s in my av59 with kleins and they’re a huge upgrade

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll take a look at those. I'm going to fiddle with the neck pickup height first on this 61 to see if I can tame it a bit. It's probably just me preferring the cleaner 50's type sound in the neck though.

I played them both a bit more last night. Loving the slimmer necks compared to my AO's. They are both really easy to play. The Jazzmasters pure vintage 66 pickups are going nowhere. I expected to swap out for the mojo's which I love, but I am really like these stock pickups.

Still, that trem arm not fitting into the collet on the Jazzmaster is a pain...I think its a case of the arm being machined incorrectly. I'm onto Peach about that. Hopefully I can be compensated in some way and I'll go staytrem.

strat84

Just ordered a '61 Olympic White from Guitar Guitar Camden. Dark board and 7.3lbs! 

camerondavidsonmusic

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Thought I'd qualify my earlier post so as to not spread information about the, IMO, poor workmanship on the bound edged neck of the AVii Jazzmaster, without backing it up with pictures.

So here goes:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9qfJkyZf1LnRrYgN6

Excuse the fact that these are external and not embedded in the post for easy perusal, I'm currently not sat at my computer to perform such technical trickery.

Oh no!! They have the binding finish chips like some of the AO ones I saw... 

guitarjack66

Norlin4life said:

The poly is just sealer and makes absolutely zero difference to anything. I’ve owned an avri and an ao and chipped both. The finish is super thin but less flakey on the ao. Dunno why people get so tangled up over a fretboard radius. Is it really even that noticeable (unless you’re a whiny strat nerd like Mick)?

If you arent comfortable with something you wont play it. Which would defeat the whole point of the guitar.

Jonathanthomas83

guitarjack66 said:

Norlin4life said:

The poly is just sealer and makes absolutely zero difference to anything. I’ve owned an avri and an ao and chipped both. The finish is super thin but less flakey on the ao. Dunno why people get so tangled up over a fretboard radius. Is it really even that noticeable (unless you’re a whiny strat nerd like Mick)?

If you arent comfortable with something you wont play it. Which would defeat the whole point of the guitar.

I agree with this.

My only logical answer to the above question is that I ended up playing my 57 reissue with a 7.25 radius much more than my custom shop with a 9.5, which, wisdom would suggest was a much better guitar. So I could only attribute it to the radius and smaller frets, which I enjoyed playing more than the CS.

Strat54

Don't forget Fender declared  a few years back that the lighter wood was being reserved for the Custom Shop guitars only, so you would expect to see plenty of these in the 7.5 to 8+ range.

Lewy

Strat54 said:

Don't forget Fender declared  a few years back that the lighter wood was being reserved for the Custom Shop guitars only, so you would expect to see plenty of these in the 7.5 to 8+ range.

Plenty of CS guitars coming out in that range these days so I wonder if the 8lb strat is going to become the new normal for production guitars (the odd lucky anomaly aside)

Mike58

Musicman20 said:

This neck / string alignment needs a shift….high E almost off the board!

Almost weighs as much as a bass guitar as well.

https://www.peachguitars.com/fender-american-vintage-ii-1975-telecaster-deluxe-maple-mocha.htm

Yep lefty Sunburst ‘61 Strat at Glasgow had same issue on low E string… should have been sorted… imagine taking a photo and thinking that’s OK to sell !!!

Mike58

strat84 said:

Just ordered a '61 Olympic White from Guitar Guitar Camden. Dark board and 7.3lbs! 

At that weight are you sure the trem block is fitted ??

strat84

Mike58 said:

strat84 said:

Just ordered a '61 Olympic White from Guitar Guitar Camden. Dark board and 7.3lbs! 

At that weight are you sure the trem block is fitted ??

I'll see when it turns up 

lovestrat74

Why are the nitro finished teles the same price as the poly ones? I thought we were also told nitro costs more?

GavRichList

lovestrat74 said:

Why are the nitro finished teles the same price as the poly ones? I thought we were also told nitro costs more?

More than normal Poly, yes…. But this is Reissue Poly….two! 

Roundwound

Looking forward to the AV Hot Rod II range….

Mike58

Roundwound said:

Looking forward to the AV Hot Rod II range….

  You mean a 9.5,radiuses model with different pickups… American Original !!

Roundwound

Mike58 said:

Roundwound said:

Looking forward to the AV Hot Rod II range….

  You mean a 9.5,radiuses model with different pickups… American Original !!

Yeah it was meant tongue in cheek…although I always slightly regretted not getting one of the AVHR teles with a humbucker in the neck.

chris78

Played a 61 reissue in peach today.
Pickups very very lovely, other than bridge which was so spiky I took the tone down to 3- that’s from someone who likes treble. Neck, middle and quack positions were superb though- absolutely quintessential Strat. 

Set up was fine, guitar was on the heavy side, rosewood board, well, I’d have been disappointed to have that on a Mexican a few years back- dry, light, streaky. High e was a touch closer to the edge than I’d like, but setup out of the box was fine with nicely polished frets.
I can’t help but feel that fender aren’t making the guitars they were 3-5 years ago.

dindude

Well certainly 5 years ago Fender QC wouldn’t have been a talking point or consideration when launching a new line, I have to agree that they aren’t as bankable as  they once were. 

GavRichList

I sort of feel like if the QC was spot on and they were generally super lightweight I could just about justify the price, or if they were around £1600 I’d maybe forgive the stodgy weights a little more. As they are, they’re a miss for me despite liking the look of the tele deluxe and the fiesta red 61 strat. 

stickyfiddle

GavRichList said:

I sort of feel like if the QC was spot on and they were generally super lightweight I could just about justify the price, or if they were around £1600 I’d maybe forgive the stodgy weights a little more. As they are, they’re a miss for me despite liking the look of the tele deluxe and the fiesta red 61 strat. 

Same. I'm actually now quite happy I didn't wait for the 72 Thinline because it's poly - ironically the original AV got that bit right (/wrong, technically, I guess)

Lewy

Recognising that there are plenty of people who don’t like the old AV thin skin finish, it’s still the thing I’m most disappointed hasn’t been re-introduced in the AVII line.