Squier CV 60s Jazzmaster LRL 3TS

Jazzmaster made by Cort but feels like a Fender

Years ago I had a Japanese made Fender Jazzmaster which looked and played just like this. This Fender Squier is made in Indonesia by the owners of Cort. I was nervous about purchase on two grounds, the use of Indian Laurel for the fingerboard and Poplar for the body. Neither concern proved justified. I think my Jap. fender used Inidan rosewood and this Indian Laurel is as good or better. People have commented on dryness of Laurel and Pau Ferro and have used lemon oil to correct this.

As far as I know the only point of lemon oil is to remove oily finger deposits! I suspect most problems with dry Laurel, Pau Ferro etc have more to do with the fret polishing or relative lack of and the state of the strings. Certainly in the week or so that I have had this guitar the fingerboard is noticeably smoother. I have had guitars with Brazilian rosewood fingerboards and its true that material feels smoother but it is also softer and is easily scraped away by under-manicured fingernails! I cant tell the difference between my memory of the Jap Fender body and this one in terms of tone resonance etc.

My Jap Fendre Jazzmaster had a locking Dynamic Vibrato which this does not have. However, the lock on the Japanese Fender was not precise and it was difficult to tell if it was locked or not. When bendibng strings The Dynamic Vibrato on the Fender SQ Jazzmaster does not get pulled forward with the same ease that the Syncronised Tremolo on a strat does and I have not found the lack of a lock a problem when bending strings. The range of the Dynamic Vibrato is less than the strat trem and so tuning problems are less of an issue. As others have noted elsewhere the arm is a push in fit and it does rattle a bit but its difficult to hear this through an amp.

The pickups on the Jap Jazz were basically strat pickups in a big case. The ones on the Fender SQ seem to be the real thing. They are not P90's. I know that because I also have the HB jazzmaster which does have P90's. The bridge pickup is quite bright sounding. The neck pickup is not dark but pleasantly mellow. I have used the "both" setting and it is a bit like a mellow strat "inbetween" sound. I normally use the neck pickup on its own, Pickup selection is via a Gibson type three way switch and the Rhythm switch. With rhythm switch down control is by the threeway switch and the lower tone and volume controls. With the rhythm switch up the roller pot nearest the neck controls the volume and the one nearest the bridge the tone. Only the neck pickup is selected. With all controls full on the output is louder with the rhythm switch down (off). In rhythm on mode only the neck pickup is selected.

I tried the guitar through a Roland Micro cube and a couple of modelling effects units. I also tried it through the Harley Benton Tube 15 which really shows up the sound of a guitar. This one sounds fine. The modelling circuits gave an instant Jazzmaster jangle sound in instant jangle setting but I know that they would do much the same for any guitar.

The feel of the neck and general handling is very good and I have no concerns about gigability apart from the toggle swirtch which is clunky and I would change if I ever get around to using this live. Mind you if it did fail all you need to do is flip the rhythm switch up and carry on!.

The finish is fine; its a nice guitar to look at. The frets were a little under polished but after playing the guitar several times a day for a week or so the fret board is atisfactory.

In summary it looks like a Fender JM, plays like a Fender JM and sounds like a Fender Jazzmaster at a fraction of the USA JM Jazzmaster cost.