2025 Fender Custom American Professional Classic Jazzmaster Faded Dakota Red UPGRADES Hard Case USA 60s Vintera

*For those who previously followed this listing I decided to take it down and did a few more upgrades and changed a few things

This is a 2025 Fender American Professional Classic Jazzmaster Body in Faded Dakota Red alder wood body with a 3-ply Mint Green pickguard paired with a 2025 Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special neck with a Pau Ferro fretboard. When I got the original body I figured I would pair it with a more vintage style 21 fret neck as well as redo the electronics with the original rhythm sections since the body is still routed for it.

For those of you skeptical or wary of "Partscasters" I'll stop you right there and assure you that this one consists of the highest quality components and attention to detail. As my feedback shows and past customers would expect, this guitar is no different and held to the same high standards.

Please read further for all the details as it is well worth your time so you know exactly what you're getting:

Condition wise, most notable blemishes are some small finish chips on the neck pocket edges, a couple dings on the headstock top edge near the high E tuner that were touched up, and a small crack on the pickguard near the bass side of the neck pocket. There's also going to be some small finish scratches here and there on the body but aside from that the rest of the guitar would be in excellent condition with the neck being a brand new replacement neck with no fret wear and just the earlier mentioned blemish. Conservatively I would give this guitar a very good plus condition.

These Classic and American series vintage style "Offsets" from Fender sit on a great foundation, but I'm really surprised how they sell any of them because they're setup so horribly from the factory and buzz like crazy with anything less than a set of 12s. Starting with the prior American Original 60s Jazzmaster series, Fender started making the neck pockets angled which largely solved this problem and in most cases with those, the American Vintage II series, as well as the American Profesional/II and this Pro Classic you generally don't need to use shims anymore to increase the break angle on the strings after the bridge.

Please read further to see the list of upgrades as well as how the guitar was setup:

Nice and balanced lightweight at 7.8 lbs!

-Fender American Vintage 3-ply Mint Green pickguard. I originally had this listed with 3-ply Parchment pickguard but ultimately decided the Mint Green on Red along with the aged white trim just looks too good. This pickguard also has the the heel truss rod notch with is always a nice touch

-Modified Fender Vintera 60s Modified Jazzmaster pickups. These are similar to the stock '65 American Vintage Jazzmaster pickups but with a hotter and more balanced bridge pickup. These are highly underrated vintage style Jazzmaster pickups that read around 7k neck and 8k bridge (unlike the lower output 6.7k range of both the neck and bridge stock '65 pickups). Like the 65's they're vintage correct Jazzmaster style pickups with 1/8" height coils, Alnico 5 magnets, fiber bobbins, vintage cloth push back lead wire and plain enamel magnet wire with output.

The slight modification I did was slightly raise the D string poles on each pickup to give it that hybrid stagger like on many Lindy Fralin pickups to help compensate for the drop off in volume when going from a wound D to unwound G that usually occurs when the pickups are not staggered for this. This results in a more balanced sound

-Gavitt 22 gauge vintage push back cloth wire. Built a new wiring harness and the original PVC wiring has been replaced with the vintage push back cloth wire and color coded just like in the American Vintage and American Original series

-CTS 500K audio volume and tone pots. These are what really took these pickups to another level. The typical Jazzmaster 1meg pots can sound a little shrill with vintage style pickups, so I bumped them down to 500K which make that top end a lot smoother but still plenty of highs on tap.

-Treble bleed circuit (.001uf cap and 1/4w 150k resistor in parallel) to allow the highs to remain when you turn the volume pot down and not get muddy. Also great if you wanted less heat for a sound more like the stock '65s

-Orange Drop .033uf and .022uf lead and rhythm circuit tone caps. This is the same value as stock but generally considered an upgrade

-Fully shielded the pickup and control cavities with copper tape for reduced noise and much quieter operation. These guitars can be quite noisy without

-Lock washer added to the 3-way toggle and also turned the switch 45 degrees so it's at an angle and easier to switch than side to side

-American Vintage Jazzmaster Tremolo with lock and push in bar with aged white tip ($150). This was an upgrade over the stock tremolo which is an import variation of the American Vintage version. This allows you to lock the tremolo if you break a string as well as more easily measure the string tension via the tremolo. It's a lot harder to properly set these guitars up when you don't have the lock to help you gauge this

-Revised 2018 American Professional Jazzmaster narrow spacing 9.5" radius bridge with Mustang style saddles. This is an upgrade over the stock American Professional Classic bridge which is an cheaper import model with similar specs. This is the current updated version of the American Professional bridge that has the modern 2-1/16" (52mm) string spacing that brings the strings further away from the fretboard edge and a lot more comfortable to play. The original version of the American Professional bridge (and most stock vintage style Jazzmaster bridges) have the vintage 2-3/16” (56mm) spacing and are almost unplayable in my opinion. Fender quietly made this update a couple years ago and essentially makes this a lot more like a Staytrem bridge, which is no longer available outside of the UK (same spacing as the Mastery bridge too). Like the original, it still has the Mustang style saddles and tighter threading screw posts so it doesn't sink down overtime when you play

-American Vintage bridge thimbles. These have the wider standard diameter and are constructed better than the import version it came with stock (these are also wide enough to fit a Mastery bridge if for whatever reason you prefer those without worrying about changing the thimbles because it's already been done). When the neck pitch and break angle is setup properly on these guitars as I've done, I still prefer the American Professional bridge and also love the more traditional look over the Mastery

-Fender/Schaller strap locks and buttons with white felt washers

-Fender American Vintage tuner bushings replacing the narrower and cheaper stock ones

-Kluson Supreme 18:1 Staggered tuners ($79 upgrade). These are the best vintage style Kluson replacement tuners out right now and still retain that same classic look, but with a much finer tuning adjustment over the stock 14:1 tuners and also a better break angle over the nut on the D and G strings for better sustain. Not to mention these are genuine Klusons while the stock ones are not

-Radius'd, Sanded, smoothed and polished the nut and sharp edges for a more comfortable feel similar to the American guitars. A lot of these Mexican Fender guitars (and especially replacement necks that only have pilot slots) have almost no refinement finishing on parts of the guitar like the nut or fret ends. This is a lot more comfortable now.

-Stock American Professional Classic transition/70s logo neck plate retained. These neck plates are about 0.5 oz vs the normal 2 oz steel plates and help with shaving some weight off

-Fender Classic Series Wood Jazzmaster hard case in black tolex with black leather ends/handle and black interior. The original guitars didn't come with hard cases and you can't have one of these guitars without a vintage style hard case (a $220 upgrade alone!). Key included in the compartment

On top of these upgrades, it has also been cleaned, polished, oiled and conditioned the pau ferro fretboard and fully setup with brand new D'Addario EXL110 (10-46) strings with enough relief in the neck balanced for both lead and rhythm and a light touch (5/64" string height on the low E and 4/64" on the high E strings). The saddles have been perfectly intonated and the bridge already has the 7.25" fretboard radius. The nut slots have been cleaned and filed for optimal contact and take off points for better sustain. The neck and bridge pickup heights are adjusted to 5/64" on the bass side and 5/64" on the treble side.

I fully stand by the work and believe this guitar is going to feel and play better than most Jazzmasters you're going to pull off the shelf new at the store and will put it against any of the American Professional, Vintage, Original, etc. versions any day of the week all because of things like the quality components and attention to detail in the setup. You're just not going to get that from a new Fender production model unless you perform all of these upgrades and do or pay for the work yourself. Why spend over $2000 on an American Vintage Jazzmaster that'll still need work and not play as well? Why not just be done with it, have all the upgrades already completed with an awesome hard case and come out ahead with a better feeling, playing and sounding guitar? :)

Below are some additional specs:

Tech Specs
Body: Alder
Body Finish: Gloss Urethene
Body Shape: Jazzmaster
Neck Material: Maple
Neck Finish: Gloss Urethane Finish on Back of Neck with Gloss Urethane Headstock Face
Neck Shape: Modern "C"
Scale Length: 25.5" (648 mm)
Fingerboard: Pau Ferro
Fingerboard Radius: 9.5" (241 mm)
Number of Frets: 21
Frets Size: Medium Jumbo
String Nut: Synthetic Bone
Nut Width: 1.650" (42 mm)
Position Inlays: White Dots
Truss Rods: Standard