Got the Bass - Squier VM Jaguar, initial thoughts

[Camplain]

Rushed home today and saved my new bass from certain doom.... doom in the form of my black lab Poocho.... he only had time to gnaw off the corner of the box... so all was safe.... good thing I made a special trip home. otherwise I would not be such a happy camper

I haven't had a chance to do any recording yet as I had to rush back to work, but I brought the bass with me and I must say I'm impressed so far...

The body is flawless, tight fitting neck pocket, perfect black finish, the tortoise shell pickguard looks great and appears to be good quality... the bridge feels solid, chrome looks nice and thick, don't think it'll be chipping off anytime soon.

The neck... this is where I can tell it's $300 bass, the rosewood board doesn't look or feel like the rosewood on my Gibson and Martin, it feels good though, just harder, could almost say less organic...(bet a little oil will help with that) the board is very thin, so thin that the lower half of the side markers overlap onto the maple neck, the pearl inlays look great at a distance and fit very well, no shrinkage or anything like that, but looking closely they appear dull compered to what I've seen on higher end boards... the satin finish on the neck feels like bare wood, which is actually not a bad thing, makes the neck feel very fast... the fretboard is surprisingly narrow near the nut, which is also a good thing IMO... the fretwork is very good, no sprouting, frets seem to be perfectly level, there is zero wear (this is a used bass)... I've only played it unplugged at this point, but it feels good, very good,

The tuners turn with ease, nice and smooth, seems to hold a tune very well... I think the pot setup is really cool, I know some reviewers wish the stacked tone controls weren't notched, personally I'm glad they are... will keep my clumsy fingers from messing up my tone midsong... plus if I'm coming back to recordings in progress I can just make a note of exactly where my tone was set for each track.... very handy.

I'm so excited to get this baby home and hear what those Duncan designed PU's sound like, been checking out demo vids, expect to be very happy with the results... I'll report back on that, also I've taken pics, just don't have the cord for my camera with me, will post those sometime this weekend

[Camplain]

Silly me, forgot tha camera had an SD card





Will look great on the ol' guitar stand

[Camplain]

and the last 1

[bigmuff113]

Nice! I love a good offset.

[SamClemons]

Good looking bass.

[Camplain]

Thanks for the comments, I'm a big fan of offsets too, haven't had one since my Jag-Stang, good to be back in the club....

Did a little recording this weekend, I can honestly say this bass blows away the 2 I've had in the past, a very low end Ibanez and an Aria Pro II... compared to those, the Squier has so much more punch, it seems to bring a lot more low end too... especially on that P pickup.... I'm really enjoying the stacked controls too, it's been fun to play around with blending both pickups, a lot of cool useable sounds on tap....

I did take a little relief out of the neck, was at .026 or so, was aiming for around .020 but think I got it a little straighter than that, plays great, doesn't buzz at all.... intonation was very close, only took a couple minutes to dial it in exact....

So far I've only put a bass line over the very rough draft of a country song I wrote... for the first time ever I was able to make a bass sound the way I wanted it to... and to me that's worth a lot more than what I paid..... the next step will be learning how to make a drum track to fit the song, then I'll go back and record all the tracks again so I can get my timing locked in and hopefully have something worthy of posting.... or.... dare I say..... playing on the radio!

Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice on what route to go in the bass department, especially plymman, I couldn't be happier with the purchase.

[BigDaveyTwinkle]

Beautiful bass. It has so many things going for it that I love, the color scheme, the P/J set up, the inlay blocks, the Jag. offset waist ... I just wish I hadn't grown up in the '80's and still develop a nervous tick when I see Squier on a headstock even though I have played modern Squiers and know that you are getting great value for the money. I hope it rocks for you!

[psychetelec]

Reminds me of the SX bass I coverted to a Bass VI.

[Camplain]

Originally Posted by BigDaveyTwinkle

Beautiful bass. It has so many things going for it that I love, the color scheme, the P/J set up, the inlay blocks, the Jag. offset waist ... I just wish I hadn't grown up in the '80's and still develop a nervous tick when I see Squier on a headstock even though I have played modern Squiers and know that you are getting great value for the money. I hope it rocks for you!

Thanks.... Yeah I grew up viewing Squiers as merely the things we were stuck with till we could get "real" guitars... some of that POV stuck with me through the years, but I can honestly say I'm proud to own this one, it's done a lot to change my view of Squiers, I'm sure they still have a dud every now and then, but they're cranking out some really great stuff too

psychetelec - That's one sweet looking SX, I've heard a lot of good things about them.

[plymman]

Glad you like it, I was feeling the pressure once you followed up on my suggestion!

I've said before how much I love mine, it's so simple to get great tones and is so easy to play, it made my other basses redundant and I've recouped a LOT of money selling them on, so thank you Squier!

I also remember the bad old days of trashy Squier's but when I made my first post here looking for a tele, all the advice led me to a Classic Vibe, I also ended up with a CV P bass and a Jazz until I finally got to play the VM Jag and stumbled across (IMO) the perfect all round bass.

As for the fretboard, spend a little time with a decent cloth and some Lemon Oil, it really brings the rosewood to life and makes those inlays shine. The only change I made was to swap to flatwound strings for that Mowtown thud.

Enjoy!

[Camplain]

Originally Posted by plymman

As for the fretboard, spend a little time with a decent cloth and some Lemon Oil, it really brings the rosewood to life and makes those inlays shine. The only change I made was to swap to flatwound strings for that Mowtown thud.

Enjoy!

I'll give the lemon oil a try, haven't put anything on there yet, it's already feeling better just from being played... thinking whoever cleaned it up for resale used something that left the board really dry....

I've noticed the board isn't really as thin as I thought, it's just got a bit of bevel to the edges, makes it look thinner than it really is, nice feature. The more time I spend with it the more I'm impressed... can't thank you enough for turning me on to the VM Jag.

I've been thinking of trying flats... based on the searches I've done it looks like a huge portion of the old school country I'm so into (Haggard, Waylon, etc...) was recorded with flats... I like the idea of less string noise and a smoother feel too, so will probably give flats a try before long.

[plymman]

Flats give a very different sound and a silky smooth feel with almost no finger noise, I love them (especially for recording) and would never go back to rounds now. They also last for years, some say Jamerson the mowtown bass player never changed his strings. I also find I can play faster and smoother with flats.

For the small price I think they're a must try if you've never had them before and believe it or not, used bass strings sell well on eBay so you'll get at least a chunk of that back if they're not for you.

I'm so glad you like the bass, be sure to post some recordings when they're ready.

[ThreePlyGuy]

I have favored flats most of my life, cheap sweet mod to try, my Ps love them and have them on a J as well. You may be pleasantly surprised, hope so. Nice looking bass there Bob and Psychetelec, that SX VI project is very interesting indeed.

[SamClemons]

I like the half round d-addario's. Still get a lot of punch, but a lot smoother on the fingers. Pretty pricey, but my string of choice. They will last practically forever. With a decent bass amp (or recording gear), or simply the tone knob on the bass, I can get as bassey as I want. But, I still like to get some punch when I want it too.

[Davo17]

That looks great, is it the active pup model?

[Camplain]

Originally Posted by Davo17

That looks great, is it the active pup model?

Sorry, I'm a late responder lol.... The Jag is passive... I had accidentlly ordered the active model, but canceled to get the stacked v/t controls and Duncan designed passives in this model... I'm sure the actives are nice, but I'm glad I ended up with this one... the pickups sound great, but more than anything I love the knob layout, I like being able to click my tone into a locked position, cuz I'm the worlds worst about knocking knobs out of whack without even realizing I've bumped them

[Davo17]

Originally Posted by Camplain

Sorry, I'm a late responder lol.... The Jag is passive... I had accidentlly ordered the active model, but canceled to get the stacked v/t controls and Duncan designed passives in this model... I'm sure the actives are nice, but I'm glad I ended up with this one... the pickups sound great, but more than anything I love the knob layout, I like being able to click my tone into a locked position, cuz I'm the worlds worst about knocking knobs out of whack without even realizing I've bumped them

I would have picked the passive model as well. Great looking bass!

[Rod Parsons]

These VM jag basses come in 30" and 34" scale lengths. Which did you get? The price on these is really good.... I saw $168.00..... Very nice bass, by the way,... and thanks for the review..

[niilolainen]

Awww... you guys have got me gas-ing bad now... (basing?)...

[Davo17]

Originally Posted by Rod Parsons

These VM jag basses come in 30" and 34" scale lengths. Which did you get? The price on these is really good.... I saw $168.00..... Very nice bass, by the way,... and thanks for the review..

Are both scales going for that price? I really dig the black/tort color scheme.