Fender '62 Reissue Jazzmaster

2002 Jazzmaster reissue, Crafted in Japan
21 frets
solid top
volume tone 3 way selector, other switches
two soapbar pickups
s/s
passive
vintage white
alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard
nitrocellulose finish

I play different styles of music, straight rock, jazzy blues, bluesrock, countryrock. I play my Jazzmaster over a MusicMan 110 RD ('Fifty') amp. Clean and with overdrive the sound is warm and bright (both pickups), a bit mean (bridge) and mellow (neck). I like that crystal clear sound that is full at the same time. You won't ever get that with a humbucker.

I would pick it up from the store, walk on to the stage and play a gig just like that. Perfectly set up. The bridge is the only small flaw: strings can easily jump out of it and the little screws in the bridge tend to vibrate. I'm considering to replace it with a Mustang bridge (which some Jazzmaster affecionados do almost automatically when they buy a Jazzmaster, MIA or CIJ). The bridge is responsible for the 9-rating.

This sure feels like a solid piece of gear. I bought it just five days ago, but it feels very familiar already. It's dependable, I'm sure, and I would certainly on a gig without a backup. I bring one of my Teles though, but it's not because I don't trust the JM.

As I said, I bought it five days ago. So no customer support needed. Warranty is 12 months.

I play guitar for more than twenty years and bought my first electric guitar twenty years ago. I currently own a '82 Telecaster '52 RI (Japan), a '97 Telecaster (USA, a '95 Telecaster (Japan). I was always abusing the neck to get some sort of tremolo effect. With the JM I leave the neck alone and use the tremolo. For some songs the bite of the Tele is perfect, for others the massive and more heavy sound with lots of high is more suitable. If it were stolen I would try to find one again. I was a bit afraid that the JM would go out of tune easily because of the tremolo, but I'm very happy that's not the case. I'm very excited about this fine piece of work, they do a perfect job in Japan, I can say. I think even citizens of the USA would agree if they were honest. At least the Japanese make me very happy.

I just recently bought a '62 Jazzmaster American Reissue. Three-tone sunburst, soapbar pick-ups, and tremolo. I am not a surf-orientated guitarist, but rather a chord driven guitarrorist. This guitar has a clean, crisp, chop-sound when the toggle switch is set for the bridge pick-up. I love the sound of this guitar played through any amp set with the volume cranked, especially practice amps set on full volume witht the treble cranked! I bought this off the internet, warranty and all. I used to own a '68 Jazzmaster and I must admit that the older guitars have more warmth, but as I am told by a trusty guitar-tech whose handled his share of JM's, they will ripen with age. I have one complaint and one only, and this is why I rate it a 9, other wise it would be a ten. Jazzmaster's have a major problem's with the bridge. As others have mentioned, there is no sustain, so if your looking for that ringing, searing long note, this guitar is not for you. Second, a new jazzmaster bridge sinks over time, lowering the strings onto the bridge so that you have to reset it all the time, especially if you have an aggresive style of attack. The answer to this problem is to coat the screw posts that hold the bridge up with either lock-tight or nail polish. This will work relatively well but you may have to coat it more than once to get it to work long term.
This is the coolest guitar of all time, and if I had more cash I'd buy one of every color.

2002 USA 62' jazzmaster reissue
21 frets
solid top
volume tone 3 way selector other switches
two soapbar pickups
s/s
passive, pretty sure
transparent sunburst

It suits my musical style perfectly, i plkay grunge and punk rock and new wave and indie and alternative. it goes perfectly with all of these things.
My amps is a fender reverb adn sometimes i use a morley wah and a dod distortion
No it isnt noisy, at moderate volumes it is noisless and perfect tones, it can be completely dostorted and still has a certain level of clarity
Has a full sound, warm bluesy tones, bright sound, perfect on distortion, perfect on clean
great versatility with this guitar, can do all musical styles well
i love the sound, gets great tones

great, action was great
great
good routed bridge
no flaws

yes it will withstand playing live
hardware will last
finish is good enough to last
strap buttons are solid
i can depend on it
i would gig with it without a backup

never had to deal with fender, lifetime warranty

I have been playing for two and a half years
there is nothing i would have asked before buying this guitar
If it were stolen or lost and i had the money to i'd replace it in a heartbeat
I love the versatility and the feel of it, i love the soapbar pickups
I love this guitar so much, it feels great and sounds great and looks great and is great, i give a perfect 10 for everything, this is the perfect guitar, no questions, i love it, if i could change anything about it i wouldn't, it's great, it's like fender made a custom guitar for me, if you're considering buying this, DO IT!!!!! you want it, trust me, its better than gibsons and rickenbackers and anything else fender makes, its way better than PRS. and i am not from fender either, its just a fantastic versatile great guitar, have fun!

Hi there, I have a 62 JazzMaster Made in USA By Fender in 1962 all original in Olympic white... I have played all of the reissue's and all of the American and Japan guitars made! This is the "real deal" you can't copy the sound of the original. Don't get me wrong the reissue's are cool guitars however, the real Fenders of old are "GREAT!" You can get them for just a little more then a reissue...

Sound of the guitar is very smooth and clean "great for blues and killer for surf" I use a TOP HAT club deluxe with 2x12's also I have a 62 Fender blond Twin Amp with JBL D120's

The finish is nitro and is getting very yellowed over the years what can I say, "It's got the vibe!" the neck is a B neck kinda small but very playable. The frets a small as well but all and all the guitar juat kicks ass!

The guitar is bomb proof! The guitar is almost 40 years old a still plays great, the action is low and the bridge is working fine. I have to fine tune the guitar about every 6 months that's it!

I have been playing for 40 years, if the guitar got stolen I would would first, get real pissed off! Then I would get my act together a go find a great vintage Jazzmaster Made in USA (OLD SCHOOL)

Before ever playing one of these, I knew I wanted one. It was destiny.

So I've finally bought one, an American made reissue. Beautiful 3 tone sunburst finish and Tortoise shell pickguard.

The body is made of Alder, the neck of maple and the fretboard of rosewood.

Vintage tuners, vintage frets, vintage bridge and vintage tremelo.
All of which I have tuning issues with except the frets.

As for the electrics I have no problem with the vintage aspect. The 2 single coils give great sound and are hum cancelling when both used. Now for my favorite bit, the twin circuits. There is a lead and rhythm circuit allowing. The lead circuit allows the choice of either or both pickups and has its own volume and tone controls. Then the Rhythm circuit only uses the neck pickup, but has seperate volume and tone controls. I use the neck pickup alot and I love the ability to drastically change it's settings at the flick of a switch.

The guitar came with a plastic 'vintage' case (shouldn't it have a tweed cloth covering if it is vintage?), a vintage lead(???? WHY VINTAGE???? I'd rather a nice new reliable lead.), tremelo arm and a cloth.

I play alot of different style of music and it fits them all, but I'm also without exception a rhythm guitarist, I don't play lead although I am somewhat able to do so, I just don;t get off on it.

This guitar is just a beautiful guitar for any rhythm guitarist. It has a full tone on the neck pickup, both on the standard single coil it came with and now with the dimarzio 'breed' I installed. (Although I do really need to add a 500k volume pot to the lead circuit.) The reason I changed it was because the old pickup had a almost gibson crunch to it or rather it had a gibson crunch to it, just not quite the same quality, but close. I changed to the 'breed' to lower the treble and remove the crunch and also raise the output and rid the hum. I play in a punk band among others and with this pickup change it now sounds deep, it still has crunch but now only in the bass. Most probably won't like this sound but I do.

The bridge pickup can go from bright to hollow, sounding good all the way. I like to use it for a bright reggae sound. On distortion this pickup has real kick to it, but it is a little broken, it is not smooth.

This is a RHYTHM GUITAR

Best I've every found a new guitar, it was setup perfectly.

So I had to go and change it. It had tuning issues but this is to do with the vintage parts rather than a poor setup. So I had a few things done about. Now the tuning is not

japanese made, bought in '94 or '95
standard equipment all around, with the dark sunburst finish, tortoise-shell pickguard and natural headstock. like those standard vintage tuners. they work very well.

the jazzmaster has a very unique sound, but it's a unique-ness that can be made to work for you in a number of different ways. It was originally conceived as fender's high-end model, and was meant to emphasize a hi-fi approach to guitars. The more irony, then, that the j.m. has been adopted most enthusiastically by predominently lo-fi artists like sonic youth, nirvana, and other early nineties alterna-rockers. But, it's also a popular guitar with people like Robert Smith from the Cure and Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine. I know that the time came for me to find a jazzmaster of my own after seeing MBV's 'loomer' video on mtv.
Anyway, enough philosophizing about the uniqueness of this guitar. what actually makes it unique? first and foremost, the bridge. that bridge is one of the the weirdest designs ever, and in its stock form cuts WAAAAAAY down on the jazzmaster's sustain. The tremelo is a bit wacky as well, but much closer to to rest of the worlds designs than the bridge. The lack of sustain can really be a good thing, too. Instead of using compression to create an attack for each note, the lack of sustain does that for you. You will never get power chords to ring on and on on a jazzmaster like you can on a les paul, but try to play a melodic solo with lots of delay and distortion on a les paul and all you get is a big mushy mess. With the jazzmaster, you get one crazy solo. trust me, my other guitar is a les paul standard.

action from the factory, if i remember correctly, wasn't great but wasn't horrible, either. The jazzmaster needs constant attention to play it's best. i get mine re set up about every third set of strings. So, about every 2 to 3 months i take it in to get aligned and whatnot. That's life in the jazzmaster lane. and make sure you take it to someone who knows what they're doing with a jazzmaster specifically.

well, i've been playing shows with my band salome in chicago and new york for the past few years with this guitar, so it definitely does withstand live playing. i've dropped it, kicked it, sat on it, smacked sam the bass player in his head with it, and its survived it all, albeit with frequent trips to the shop for alignments Hardware has lasted well, the tuners are jsut as good now as they were new. only visible hardware wear is cracks on the plastic pickups around the pole pieces. the cracks fill with gunk and stand out very noticeably against the white plastic. finish seems thick- i've scratched the hell out of the corner underneath the 1/4" jack, but there always seems to be more finish underneath . . .
lord help me, i've almost always gigged without backups. for my amp or guitar! and my amp is a marshall jtm 60! i'm insane!!!!!!! and for some reason, i've never had anything fail at a show. just luck, i guess, 'cause i've had lots of stuff die. anyway, don't gig without a backup. unless you have to.

never have dealt with fender directly in any way whatsoever

i've been playing guitar for about 12 years. i also own a gibson les paul standard (not sure what year), marshall jtm-60, dr.z prescription head, groove tubes 4x20 cab, e-h memory man deluxe, 2 boss dd-5's, line 6 pod, line 6 modulation modeller, e-h small stone, budda phatman, vox reissue wah, arbiter-england fuzz face, and a whole bunch of recording equip.. if my jazzmaster was stolen, i'd go out immediately and get another. if you play with lots of delay and whatnot ( you cure, MBV, and slowdive fans know who you are) then a jazzmaster can do things for you that other guitars just can't. one thing to keep in mind, though, is that the jazzmaster will not do everything. it has almost no sustain, and that can limit it's reach occasionally. Also, the new ones now are much more expensive than mine was when i bought it new, but they're definitely still worth it. one of my bandmates has one of the american made copies, and the only real difference we can find is a little smoother output from the pickups . . . . .

2001 Dakota Red '62 RI Jazzmaster, made in Corona, CA. USA

Current model (c Sept. '01)
Solid alder body.

21 vintage frets on rosewood fretboard; Neck adjustment on body end; Medium "C" shape.

Nitro-cellulose finish.

Excellent reproduction from what I've seen (I've had a couple old ones).

Single coils are hum-cancelling when both on.

Metal keyed vintage style tuners.

Came with Deluxe G&G brown Tolex rectangle case; trem handle; strap; cord; and a set of Stainless flatwounds, though it was perfectly setup with Fender 250's in 10 - 46.

Is what it is: an anachronism, but has THE '60's Rock Instrumental tone!

It actually is much more versatile sounding than I remember previous models from the 1960's being. Great Blues tone on the neck pickup!

With the roundwound strings that it came with, it approached some Telecaster tones, and sustained better than I remember these things having. A unexpected pleasure!

With 0.11" - 0.50" flatwounds (with a plain 0.20" third string, versus the wound string usually found in 11 - 50 Stainless Flatwound sets), it retains good brightness at the same time it takes on that "Ventures" tone.

I use a Fender '65 RI Twin-Reverb with the tone controls mostly above the middle "5" zone, for clean twangy "surf" tones.

Also gets a great overdriven sound with both pu's on through a Tech 21 TM 10 amp set up to sound "Vox" -like.

Unremarkable through an old Vibro Champ.

Bit noisy in some environments with one pu on. Cutting treble helps a little.

Is what it is: a Jazzmaster! They're quirky.
I find it OK for general guitar duties, and GREAT for vintage Jazzmaster sounds.

I've owned old American Jazzmasters before, and thought the Made-in-Japan reissues of the eighties were pretty looking, but I didn't think they felt very good to play.

My old US ones were ornery and had little problems like the strings jumping out of the saddles; thin, "goinky" sound; and hardly any sustain.
I was prepared to instantly modify this guitar in the usual manner: shim the neck to increase angle (and downforce) over the bridge; change the bridge to a tune-o-matic and/or "stuff" the bridge pits (holes that allow the bridge to move with the trem); maybe even convert to a stud tailpiece!

Happily, I haven't even bothered to shim the neck angle! All the nagging little warts about Jazzmasters seem to have been fixed by an excellent setup and execution of what Leo Fender must've had in mind when he designed it!
The store had two others, and they played and sounded good too. I just picked the color I wanted.

Excellent vintage feel, vibe, and overall setup and look.

Feels great, plays great, sounds better than I expected!

I'm not much of a "trem" guy, but it can be wiggled a little without going out of tune.
Sometimes a string hangs up or "creaks" and requires an up-pull when you're done wiggling the trem to "creak" it back the other way. No biggie.
I don't care about that stuff much.
At least it doesn't seem to collapse when bending single strings or doing "G" bends (faux steel guitar sounding move).

Solid bolt-neck plank with passive circuits, like most other Fenders.
I'd have to be very negligent to hurt it.

Spare amps, yes.

This guitar is trustworthy. Not hard to restring in a hurry, if need be. Long time since THAT happened to me "live" anyway.

I dunno.

I like to develop relationships with DEALERS. Let THEM lean on the manufacturer if needed.

Limited lifetime. Not worried in the least.

I've had lots of Fender stuff. Never needed anything from Fender. Don't expect to (I do my own work, but like I said it came perfectly set up [maybe by the local shop?]).

Playing since 1960.
Love the Dakota Red color, but would have held out for three-color sunburst if they actually looked like the originals (they don't use the yellow Fullerplast sealer anymore, so the present s/b JM's look almost two-color). Though the s/b Jaguar looks "ginchy."

I'd replace it in kind if lost somehow.

Wanted one ever since "The Ventures" first album cover, but was mightily and consistently disappointed by the old used sixties versions I'd run across. The ones I actually owned were TERRIBLE!

I think the current Corona-made '62 reissue Jazzmasters are the best ever!

Jazzmasters are hard to find.Ever since i played an old Japanese Reissue I decided that i needed a Jazzmaster. My Jazzmaster is a Japanese Reissue (1998) and it is Candy Apple Red (With -
-Matching Headstock). It has a three ply white pickguard, two fat Jazzmaster pickups, Floating tremelo and bridge with trem lock features.It has the fattest neck i ever felt (lon scale) with slight flame, birdseye, and wonderful grain. Rosewood fretboard, twenty one frets and basswood body. Normal vintage tuners and hardshell case and a vibrato arm and bridge cover from a real 1962 Jazzmaster since i dont believe Japanese ones came with them. What Can I Say?! The pichups are beefy and loud and are ideal for distortion. The trem lock is very handy and all of the pickup selectors and switches create so many tones its unreal. It has more features than any guitar Ive ever seen. Japanese reissues are the best playing Jazzmasters and are the closest to a 1962 you can get.

I play a range of variety, mostly alternative and rock, (Stp, Collective Soul, and even older bands).It suits my style (through a Marshall half stack) idealy because of the fat pickup and the closest to humbucking sound i can get. It has muddy sounds with the treble end which is great for blues and with the switches and all you can get a hollowbody, jazz guitar, and much more. I cant specify all the sounds you can get. If you want a les paul sound almost but with a little more roar and bass this is what you want for Almost any style.

Well the guitar was set up when i got it not too bad, luckily my father can set up a guitar great so now its perfect for me. The pickups were adjusted well enough that i didnt even need to touch them with a screwdriver. The finish is like a candy apple mirror which may be due to its great care. there are no real flaws (that i know of!) I give it a 9 soley because it neede a little of a setup.

This guitar can stand a live play because these have thick finishes (gibons have thin) it shows no real signs of wearing thin not for a few decades to come, i use straplocks but always keep the originals in the case for safekeeping. I wouldnt use it without a backup soley because i would but i have a strat and mustang and i love playing those (they help for very different tones) but if i had only one it would need no backup. Very Dependable.

Dont need repairs or have had any so i dont know.

I have a strat for the classic sound of Jimi Hendrix and a Mustang for Grunge sounds. I wish one thing about this guitar... could i have more! If it would ever be stolen (which i wont let it) i would terribbly miss it enough to buy another one the moment i find out. I just hate how Japanese Reissues came with a gig bag because have a tkl case and am going to buy a 1962 american reissue CASE.
I CHOSE IT BECAUSE JAZZMASTERS ARE BEAUTY AND TONE COMBINED
I wish more people would use jazzmasters ( less hatred would be put into music). a great guitar for the price (which is rising)
thank you for reading

Sunburst japanese reissue with an ALDER body and the usual specs.Very well made like all Japanese Fenders.

The guitar sounds and plays wonaderfully.I changed the original strat like pickups with american JM pickups but I went back to the Japanese again cause I simply liked their tone better!More clarity,twang and output.I agree these Japanese pups may don't sound EXACTLY like vintage jm pups but they sure sound GREAT!

After installing the MANDATORY BUZZ STOP,the guitar not only plays very well but also SUSTAINS 100% more.Action and nut were pour,I installed a bone nut,much better now.You can't really have a Jazzmaster play like butter cause it designed for higher action and heavy strings.This one plays great though.You have to use HEAVY strings ,I use 011's or 012's

That's a great jazzmaster.Better than my original 1974 one.Japanese Fenders are the best.PERIOD!!

This guitar was made in Japan, I'm assuming at some point during the 90's. I bought it from a Music Loft in Raleigh, NC in Fall 1999 (if I remember correctly). These guitars are quite hard to find. In fact, the Music Loft in Durham--the town where I lived--didn't have any! I was looking for Jazzmasters specifically, since Robert Smith of the Cure played on during the 80's. But when I saw that they had a guitar that looked quite like the Jazzmaster I was looking for, I bought it without paying much attention to how it sounded. When I took it home, I realized that it was a piece of crap. The guitar was a Squir JAGmaster--NEVER, EVER buy anything by Squier. It's just a cheap attempt by Fender to reach teens who want to buy a guitar just because "it's cool to play the guitar" but can't afford a "real" guitar because their parents don't give them enough allowance or because they don't make much money at their part-time jobs. So I went to another Music Loft in Raleigh, which is quite close to Durham, and saw that they actually had a JAZZmaster in stock, and instantly asked them if I could trade in my Jagmaster for the sunburst Jazzmaster that they had, and they said yes! After I got my first Jazzmaster, I messed around with the bridge and tremolo unit, and ended up causing the whammy bar to make a loud clanky noise every time I used it. So I took it back to the Music Loft for a repair job, but saw that now they had a Candy Apple Red Jazzmaster in perfect condition--a beauty! I asked if I could just get the red Jazzmaster in place of the Sunburst one (the sunbursts are too common, and I have a thing for obscure, unique, and rare stuff). They were nice enough to let me take the Candy Apple Red Jazzmaster home. But after taking it home, I noticed that it was missing a barrel on the bridge and took it back to the same place. And this time I saw an Olympic White Jazzmaster--just like the one that Robert Smith had!!! I just *had* to get that and asked the dealer if he'd let me exchange the candy apple red one for the olympic white one, and he said: "This is the last time I'm going to do it for you." And that was, indeed the last time, that I ever traded in my Jazzmaster for another Jazzmaster. (Also, I noticed that the olympic white Jazzmaster had a fatter sound than the candy apple red one when I plugged it into an amp in the store--a sound I preferred. Obviously, a lot of Jazzmasters differ from one another in terms of tone and overall sound.)

Also, it MUST be said that the Jazzmaster is the BEST-looking guitar EVER made, and the features only compliment its looks.

After having the guitar for about a year, I realized that it was a Japan re-issue. Initially I was under the mistaken impression that it was an original Jazzmaster at a great price. But when I realized that it was a Japanese re-issue, I also noticed how I never really got the famous "mellow" Jazzmaster tone out of my guitar. And that is why? That's because Fender Japan are CHEATING people by installing SO-CALLED "JAZZMASTER" pick-ups that are, in reality, STRAT PICKUPS (I have NO fascination with the twangy strat sound) under W-I-D-E, "soapbar" covers. That really infuriated me, and I ordered two Seymour Duncan "Vintage" Jazzmaster pickups (neck and bridge) from gtrheaven.com and received them in 1 day! These pickups are AWESOME! They give me the unique Jazzmaster sound that sets me apart from the millions of Strat-players out there. The bridge pickup is not as trebly as a lot of people complain. It just has a cutting sound to it that's good for playing with distortion or playing string patterns/pop rhythms withotu distortion. The neck pickup sounds very warm and sweet, displaying how the Jazzmaster is such a classy guitar. The two pickups sound HEAVENLY together! Play them through a chorus pedal, and *without* distortion, and you'll have the most lovely sound imaginable!

As for the second, "Jazz/Rhythm" circuit--I never liked the sound of it. True, it has a warm and jazzy sound, but the sound is so devoid of all treble that it vibrated the speakers of small amps whenever I switched to it, and you could barely hear any crispness in the chords. I solved the problem by having the circuit re-wired to use the bridge pickup instead of the neck pickup (a trick I learned from the JAZZMASTER AND JAGUAR PAGE), and now it has the PERFECT sound for playing rhythm! Again, play through a chorus pedal, and you'll realize how lush and ethereal sound is evoked by the BRIDGE pickup which, in the lead circuit, makes a twangy sound (that's because without the treble, all you have is a cutting, and yet smooth, sound).

My advice to ALL of you out there with re-issue Jazzmasters: DITCH the stock pickups IMMEDIATELY and replace them with either "vintage" or "hot" Jazzmaster pickups by Seymour Duncan if you care about the vintage tone AT ALL (and if you take pride in possessing a Jazzmaster and HATE for it to sound like a Strat). Also, have the rhythm circuit re-wired, that way, instead of avoiding it altogether, you'll find yourself flipping back and forth between the two circuits on stage! All of this can be done for around $130, and it is definitely worth it. Your re-issue will sound almost exactly like a vintage jazzmaster after you do these things (well, except for the re-wiring of the rhythm circuit, of course, which I think is a weakness in vintage Jazzmasters as well).

This guitar is NOT for heavy-metal, like so many others have said. It's for *tasteful* music. Listen to The Cure's 17 Seconds and Faith to appreciate the sound of this guitar.

The bridge sucks. You know why it does (read all the other reveiws), so I'm not going to try to explain. The solution to this is *very* easy. Buy a Mustang bridge. They have single, wider grooves on barrels that don't have any screws for hight-adjustment. Instead, they are each of a slightly different diameter, and thus, different height (appropriate to the string in concern).

DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT INSTALL A BUZZ-STOP!!! IT'S THE BIGGEST RIP-OFF IMAGINABLE! $49 FOR A PIECE OF CRAP IS RIDICULOUS! I, after hearing a lot of good feedback, ordered one, but when I installed it, I realized that I couldn't use the tremolo arm anywhere near the bridge because the buzz-stop is so high that it got in the way!!! Besides, buzz-stops don't look too nice anyway. You can easily eliminate string buzz by installing a Mustang bridge and switching to 11 gauge strings. 12's or 13's would be too much for the guitar to handle, and I think they are not suitable for the kind of music I make anyway.

I like to have medium action on my guitar. I despise having very low action so that I can show off my lead guitar skills. A medium action brings out all the tonal beauty of the guitar and is perfect for strumming and picking as well as well-crafted leads.

SUMMARY: You can solve ALL of your problems (as far as bridge/string rattle is concerned) by getting a Mustang bridge and switching to .11 gauge strings.

This guitar is *very* reliable once you make the modifications I suggested above. A mustang bridge is like very solid, so you don't have to worry about anything. If you have gripes about your tremolo arm falling out, just take the tremolo face-plate out and pull in the "claws" that hold the whammy bar in place with a pair of pliers, that way, your whammy bar will *always* stay in place, and feel solid too. I'm sure US made Jazzmasters have better hardware, and I'm planning on buying on as soon as I have enough money. :)

I've never dealt with Fender.

The Fender Jazzmaster is the greatest guitar EVER produced, and you can make it even better!