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I emailed Musician's friend this very same question. I started the thread on
the Fender Forum about this. I haven't heard from them yet.
I believe these $699 models are Ishibashi guitars, as the American reissues
never came in Lake Placid Blue, and Candy Apple Red was discontinued several
years ago. Although I see now that some guys on the Fender Forum called MF,
and they claim the JM is MIA and the Jag is MIM. That really doesn't make
sense.
Mr. Wronski? Can you clarify? (probably not, Slacktone is in Europe now...)
I don't believe you could build your own for $900 and have it match the
quality of the American Vintage reissues. These are really high quality
guitars. All the parts are much higher quality than the MIJ's (granted they
are using American pickups now), cloth covered wiring, the Jags have mutes
(MIJ's do not), nice case, plus the high quality nitro finish. Remember that
the whole goal of the American Vintage series of guitars is to reproduce the
1962 models with modern parts and techniques. Hence the big $$$$$.
However, I agree with you that there is a huge demand for a cheaper line of
Jags & JM's. Thats probably why Fender is finally allowing the Japanese
models back into the US again.
If you are patient you can pick up the American Vintage guitars on Ebay for
$800-$1100. And Musician's friend sold the Inca Silver American Jags & JM's
for $1000 when Fender discontinued that color.
Heck you can even buy a vintage guitar for the same price as a new American
reissue.
So I sympathize with you and also hope for more easily affordable Jags &
JM's.
I am interested to see how this all turns out.
BN (aka SurfCR)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jimmywilseylives [mailto:]
> Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 5:14 PM
> To:
> Subject: [SurfGuitar101] The new Jazzmaster and Jaguar at Musician's
> Friend confusion...
>
>
> Hi All,
> I looked on Musician's Friend today to see that Fender is
> putting out the "J&J's" at $699. If so, what are the differences with
> the Vintage '62 RI's and these new ones? I honestly think it is
> incredibly ridiculous that Fender charges $1330 for the guitar which
> doesn't include $103 for tax (A $1433 value - pleeeeease!). I could
> custom build one of these guitars for less with parts from Warmoth at
> around $900 retail. If anyone here works at Fender please have them
> sneak a peek at the Jaguars and Jazzmasters page on
> www.Fenderforum.com. We love your stuff but c'mon. Many are either
> buying these guitars straight from Japan (under $700) or building
> their own and I'm sure price has a huge factor in it all. Thanks. JWL.
>
