Fender American Professional II Jazzmaster Maple Fingerboard Electric Guitar Mystic Surf Green

I had been fascinated by Jazzmasters and Jaguars since I was a teenager. I had no idea what all those switches on the body did and it piqued my curiosity. For my 30th birthday, I treated myself to my dream guitars after playing gifted guitars my entire life. I came into my guitar search looking for a Telecaster for those sparkling single coil tones for Midwest emo like all my favorite bands play. When it came to finally playing Teles, I just couldn't jive with the slab body without the belly and arm carve. It felt very awkward to play sitting down. So then I tried a Jazzmaster. The ergonomics are impeccable. Feels great to play sitting down or standing. It still has that Fender single coil chime, but plays so much better. There are SEVEN tones to choose from on the American Pro II Jazzmaster. 1) bridge, 2) bridge coil tapped, 3) middle, 4) middle coil tapped, 5) neck, 6) series, 7) series coil tapped. There are a ton of tonal possibilities. Playing around with the pickup selection almost always gets me a usable tone. The neck feel is incredible. It fits like a glove. It's hard to explain in words, but you totally get what you pay for with the neck alone. The biggest downside is how noisy the guitar is. I don't think the cavity is shielded at all from the factory which is absurd at this price point. I have plans to add copper shielding myself, but I shouldn't have to do this for this price. Also, the middle position on the pickup selector is kind of scratchy/wiggly. If I move to the middle position to cancel hum, I have to jiggle it a bit to get the noise to stop. The pros way outweigh the cons. I have zero buyer's remorse on picking this model. It's super versatile, plays wonderfully, and looks amazing.

I got one in the sunburst last August, but the electronics didn't work properly (it wouldn't select the bridge pickup), and the strings would creak when trying to tune them. After deliberating, I sent it back. I ordered another one immediately after, in Mystic Surf Green, direct from the Corona factory. They sent me the wrong vibrato arm (a threaded one, when the AmPro2 uses a push-in), which they did finally replace, but also, the grub screw used to adjust tension on the vibrato arm, was missing from the housing. Also, the guitar comes with 9 gauge strings, and though the panorama vibrato system is supposed to allow for dive bomb range, the spring Fender uses is too weak, and needs replaced, esp. if using heavier gauge strings. The arm, as is on mine, bottoms out after about 2 steps down with stock spring. Okay, but not up to potential. For a guitar that costs this much, it shouldn't come with missing and incorrect parts (Fender did lay off some of its staff recently...). If I didn't love this one this much, I would send it back, too. Neck is comfy, it plays and sounds great, and the electronics work as intended on this one.

I own many guitars and this is the best