First of all, the quality here is outstanding. Everything is solid, feels quality, hell - the fretboard edges are even rolled. The body is gorgeous two-piece alder. Center joined and matched quite well. The fit and finish are perfect - far better than even my CIJ Jaguar. The sunburst is a very nice three tone burst, with a nice gradient, rather than a bullseye type finish. It looks great!
It was nearly in tune out of the box, and came setup VERY well. Intonation is spot on, pickup heights are perfect, etc. All I had to do was tune it and pop the trem arm in.
I'm in love with the neck. It plays gloriously. The finish on the neck, while glossy, isn't that sticky, thick kind of gloss. It just feels smooth. The frets are perfectly done, and as I said above, the fretboard edges are rolled - which feels amazing. Some were concerned about the headstock and the decal. The headstock is normal Jazzmaster shape. In my opinion, the decal looks good. It's sized properly, and while minimal, it kind of goes with the guitar. It looks way better in person than in the pics.
Now, I expected to need to change pickups, and potentially the pots/cap/etc. I expected wrong. The humbucker sounds great - far better than I expected. It's clear, responsive, and thick, and it keeps the chimey overtones that the Jazzmaster puts out.
The neck JM pup is very nice sounding as well, and compliments the HB perfectly. It gets the warm, thick Jazzmaster sound with ease.
The middle position is just...amazing. It's something you have to hear - especially with fuzz or some gritty dirt.
The hardware is all very solid. The trem is super smooth, and responsive, the switch and jack are both good quality, and the pots are full sized with solid shafts, which is nice to see. The bridge is awesome. It's like a JM/mustang bridge hybrid, and works very well. It was a tad buzzy with the stock strings on it, but with a set of 11's on it now it's nice and quiet, and extremely solid. I've played it hard all afternoon, and haven't had a string pop out yet - even with the 9's.
Overall, these are a ridiculous steal at $450. While I love my Jaguar, something tells me this Jazzmaster will be getting a played a lot more.
Here are a couple quick pics I took last night. The lighting was bad, so they came out a bit grainy. Oh well. The videos show it better anyway.
VIDEOS!
EDIT: I'll get some better videos up later.
