I'm a sucker for red guitars and Jaguars. So the fiesta red VM Jag has my interest.
I know - no trem, humbuckers, and the strat jack. That being said, I kind of want a hard tail jag, as both of mine have trems, and I need a HH guitar around for demos and such. Also for wall of fuzz sounds with a 3.14 into analog delay.
Are any of you guys using a VM Jag? If so, what do you think of it? How's the quality? Will I need to dump money into it to make it decent, or is it good enough to rock as-is?
And I'd totally change one of the concentric knobs to a coil split.
I played around with one at GC about a month back that I liked a lot - it was a little busted up though so I passed on it.
I ended up grabbing a Blacktop Jag (HH with hardtail) and I dig it tons. There's not a whole lot of tonal versatility without the active circuit, and the taper on the tone knob is also really short, but regardless it sounds real purdy.
All the BTs they had there in the store that day (along with a couple Kurt sigs and Classic Players) felt and sounded like crap. Typical GC axe neglect. I ended up stumbling upon another one by accident at the local Best Buy and it was much more taken care of so I decided to snag it.
Since it was a couple weeks apart, and on different amps, I can't get too specific on tonal subtleties, but I liked the action and sounds on both. The VM actually edges out the BT on options since it has volume and tone for each pup. The nice thing about that VM is that for that price it's easy to justify a few upgrades if you want 'em. I also noted a range of weights between and the lot. Play them in person if you can and take the best one home!
Throwing it out there, but the Modern Jaguar with the P-90s sounds pretty good as well. Blasphemous to some, but it's not bad at all. Sounds better out of a Deville than out of a Peavey Vypyr, but what doesn't?
Bellyheart wrote:Throwing it out there, but the Modern Jaguar with the P-90s sounds pretty good as well. Blasphemous to some, but it's not bad at all. Sounds better out of a Deville than out of a Peavey Vypyr, but what doesn't?
I totally dig it, and if I find the need for a P-90 equipped guitar, it will be exactly what I go for. Right now I really need a humbucker equipped guitar that's preferably a Jaguar.
My only hesitation with the Blacktops is that I didn't really dig the BT Jazzmaster I had. I'm not a big fan of the 25.5" scale to start with, but other things about it kept me from really enjoying it. I'd be worried with the BT Jag's, as they might have the same things that I didn't get on with.
i bought one right after they came out, it was an impulse buy. the axe was new and here's what it was like out of the box: action and intonation weren't set up at all, strings were crap, pickups were muddy, concentric knobs felt really flimsy (and bridge tone wheel didn't work) + it couldn't stay in tune for more than one second. i even didn't bother to try to set it up and sold it. i read many good reviews on that axe, so maybe it was my particular one that was so awful or it needed some deep setup which i'm not able to do.
Ok - bumping this up after my experience yesterday.
I went to Guitar Center with intent to buy one of the sea foam green Blacktop Jags. They're GC exclusives, and look amazing (in photos).
They didn't have it, but had other BT's, as well as the Blizzard Pearl GC Exclusive. I tried the normal BT's, as well as the Exclusive, and I was incredibly disappointed. They felt like Affinity Squiers. And I don't even feel right saying that, as they had an Affinity Tele that had a great fit and finish.
The fist I tried was the exclusive with the Blizzard Pearl finish. Off the bat I noticed the tuners were shit (and also different from what I had on my BT Jazzmaster, which I had for a while when they first came out). The neck pocket was atrocious - I could have fit a heavy gauge pick on one side of the neck, and probably a light gauge one on the other side. The neck shape didn't even feel like a Fender. It was like a shallow D, and you could feel the binding rise up on both sides. The frets were decent on the fretboard, but probably a dozen of them actually poked through the binding enough to catch your hand. The humbuckers were super hot, but actually really clear sounding - which I liked. The pots were both loose and wobbly, which could have been thanks to it being on the GC floor. It had two chips in it down to the wood, and a pile of small dings and scratches - I'm going to guess these are on GC, rather than Fender's QC.
After I put that one back in disgust, I picked up a normal Blacktop Jag. The one didn't have the issue with the potentiometers or the catching frets, but also had a bad neck pocket (not nearly as bad as the exclusive one, but still unacceptable). The pickups were the same, the tuners were just as shitty, and the hardware was fairly cheap (as it was on the exclusive). This one was more playable, but still had little issues that you notice. Cheap fretboard wood, file marks on the fret ends, crooked pick guard screws, and the like. I put it back as well.
I looked for a Squier Jag, but they didn't have any. I played a few Classic Vibe and Vintage modified Squiers, and they blew the Blacktops out of the water. I see why so many dig the CV Teles. Had the two I played not been thrashed from being on the GC floor, I would have come home with one.
So now I'll look for a VM Jag to try. Hopefully it'll be a bit better, as I need an HH Jag.
To anyone who's seen the VM Jags in person - how orange is the Fiesta Red? I have a Fiesta Red Fender acoustic, and it's more orange than red. Is the VM Jag the same, or is it more that traditional, aged red looking Fiesta?
Noise... wrote: To anyone who's seen the VM Jags in person - how orange is the Fiesta Red? I have a Fiesta Red Fender acoustic, and it's more orange than red. Is the VM Jag the same, or is it more that traditional, aged red looking Fiesta?
There's one at a shop down here, I'll check it out when if I go there tomorrow.
I ended up stumbling upon another one by accident at the local Best Buy and it was much more taken care of so I decided to snag it. 
