Squier by Fender 328800506 Vintage Modified Jaguar Special Short Scale Bass, Black

I am totally thrilled with my new VM Jag bass! It arrived about an hour ago in perfect shape. I unpacked it from the box. First thing I noticed is,even with the hang tags and saran wrap all over the tuners, pickups and pick guard, it is drop dead beautiful in a very fiendish, black Jaguar way. The black peghead is stunning. The whole guitar is. Let me tell you first how I came to choose this bass. I am an accomplished guitarist, just turned 60, and have been playing since I learned how to play "Bonanza" on guitar in 1967. I have had what some might call a "career" as a hired gun type guitarist that can jump in to most rock and country band situations and have always had some kind of gig. Sometimes as a bass guitarist if that is what's needed. I have a 3 piece classic rock band and my regular bass player has a beautiful old Gretch 4 string bass. But he has always wanted my utility grade,full scale Ibanez 5 string. Last week he offered to trade a '65 Blackface Twin Reverb guitar amp for it. Fully knowing I was getting the best end of the deal. How could I refuse? The 5 string worked OK but I was never "inspired" by it and only played it when I had to. With my new guitar amp sitting here I realized I had to replace the 5 string. I have had short scale basses in the past like a mustang and musicmaster. They were flat and floppy feeling and I had to go full 34" scale to squeeze out some tone. The black Jag arrived in perfect condition and the D and G were still in tune. E and A were pretty close. I plugged it straight into the "normal" channel on my twin reverb and was blown away by the tonality and overall action and playability of this short scale [30"] bass. I feel I have not lost any tonality at all over my old full scale 5 string. The intonation and setup are spot on. 2 allen wrenches are taped to a piece of cardboard in the box. The neck has the very slight bow some feel is normal. I may adjust this a touch flatter but not today. No annoying buzz from the bright sounding round wound strings. They sound good. I was a little worried about the low tension floppiness short scale basses usually have and ordered some DiAdario chrome flatwounds along with the black Jag but now feel I may have been too hasty. It feels pretty tight even on low open E This has a middle precision pickup and a bridge jazz pickup. They both sound as expected with the precision pickup being very full bodied and bassy on its own and the bridge jazz PU being a bit weaker but more articulate. Each has its own volume and there is no switch. Blend them with the volumes.Easy. The tone control has a normal taper and rolls off the treble. The controls are in an easy to reach position. Interestingly, with both pickups up all the way[and the tone] you get a very full and balanced sound and volume. But when you turn the bridge pickup down a little, it gets louder from the precision pickup. Not a flaw at all and can be very useful. When you are "up all the way" you can still get a little boost. Pretty big boost actually. The frets and rosewood fingerboard are very nice for a guitar in this and far higher price range. A $3500 guitar with an unbound fretboard would have a little smoother fret ends but not by much. There is nothing about this guitar that would hold you back. It has none of the drawbacks my 2 earlier [1970s] short scale basses displayed. And they were both big"F" made in the USA guitars. Sincerely, this Squier VM Jag bass is BETTER in every way except maybe "guitar snob appeal". If I had had one of these when I was 17, it might have changed my life and supposed career. Hotshot guitar players are a dime a dozen. A good bass player was and always will be very hard to find and keep happy. Oh well. The main thing is this; This thing plays easy and sounds, works and looks good. And right now, it is doing what a really good guitar is supposed to do. It is sitting in a stand 6 feet away looking all hot and sexy saying "Play me! Lets you and me crank the hell out of that big bass amp and see if we can cause some foundation damage to this structure". Like a good bass guitar does. I have not felt that way in many years, but right now, I do. We're gonna do that right now! Do not hesitate to get one of these. If you are anything like me, you will not regret it.

OK let me say I was on the fence about buying this bass. For the price I figured it was going to need a lot of work and it would sound like a cheap bass. I went to youtube and did a search. Squier had a 2 min. video that gave me a idea of what it sounded like. I loved the body style and I liked the way it sounded just from what I heard on the video.. I am a 20+ year bass player & working musician.I wanted a bass to take to gigs I didn't have to worry about. I own several basses and non of them are cheap. My primary basses are a MIJ Geddy Lee Jazz, MIJ Steve Harris P bass and a American Standard Jazz.I was looking for a knock around bass I didnt have to worry about because I do play in bars and I have had things knocked over in the past. I decided to purchase it sight unseen and not played. I bought the tobacco bust Jaguar. It arrived and was very well packaged. It comes with the wrenches to adjust bridge and truss rod. I looked it over and could find no finish flaws. Neck felt nice in my hands. Frets were done nice and no sharp ends. Neck is finished with a satin sealer. No heavy polly that gets sticky when your hands sweat. Neck profile feels like a Jazz bass but a bit slimmer.Setup was actually really good on this bass. Low action and the neck was straight. No high fretsanywhere. I had to make a small bridge saddle adjustment on the E string as it was a bit low. Intonation was spot on. Plugged this bass up and WOW! Very nice sounding pickups and they are a bit hot. Bass uses 9v battery to run pickups. It has a 2 band eq.Bass and Treble. 2 Volume controls for either the J or P pickups. I took the stock strings off (They Suck) and put on some Ernie Ball strings. Took it out on it's first gig(3/8/2014) and never picked up my Geddy Lee all night. It's much lighter than my J basses and was easy on the back. I ran it through the paces and I am thrilled with this bass. Best $200.00 I have spent in a long time. Squier has really stepped up their quality control and this bass rivals any of my other basses in sound and feel.

After taking the wraps off this bass, I was a little disappointed with the QC check. One of the screws in the bridge wasn't fully tightened and the knob on one of the pots was installed in the wrong position. I decided I would give it a bit of a tune up, so I tightened that screw, removed and reinstalled the knob in the correct position, then I bought a new set of D'addario flat wound ECB81 XL Chromes and restrung it. It now sounds radically better than when I received it...strings matter, and at this bargain price, investing another $35 dollars is no big deal.I'm very tempted to disassemble the whole neck and give it a once over with some 0000 grade steel wool and a dozen or so coats of tung oil, but for now it does just fine. I hate logo's and branding so I will probably remove the badges on the head and neck plate. I'll also do a little reshaping of the neck and head, I kind of hate the standard Fender bass head shape. The pick guard will get carved with a pattern once I think up a cool one, a wood carving set does this very easily and the black top with white core will make for a nice visual aesthetic. I have a habit of modifying my guitars, this one will be no exception.The hardware is all solid, the bridge is adequate, the body has a gorgeous finish and is surprisingly well built for a $200 dollar instrument. The strings it ships with will work for a beginner, but I'd recommend investing in some nicer ones as soon as possible. The pickups are nice and provide some good tone, but again, I noticed an immediate difference in performance with a new set of strings. Obviously, different players will want this set up in different ways, but I think bang for buck you get a lot more than what you paid for. Spending the time and money to get it tuned up properly makes this bass go from a beginners instrument to something you could play for years to come. Great deal and great guitar.Four stars because the out of box condition was less than stellar, but hey, what should you expect when you spend $200 for a bass assembled in Indonesia?

Instrument qui en jette et en noir c'est extra

Just great!........could have been better packaged!....but arrived without any probs.

Es precioso,y la verdad para el precio que tiene esta muy pero que muy bien, he tocado con bajos de renombre y mucha pasta,y oye, aunque hay diferencia al tocar, pero no tanta como la diferencia que hay de precio. Sólo tuve que hacerle unos ajustes ( puente,regular altura pastillas y poco más y listo,a disfrutar.

Good value for the money. Nothing to complain looks good, souds ok, bridge pick up a little bit weak but for this price this is a excellent product.

This bass guitar is awesome for its price !