FENDER JV MODIFIED ’60S STRATOCASTER

89
AUGUST 2022 GUITARIST
FENDER JV MODIFIED ’50S TELECASTER & ’60S STRATOCASTER
PROS Super build,  t and  nish;
well priced; great playability and
some interesting, un-Tele-like tones
CONS The White Blonde is actually
grey/blue, but that’s about it!
PROS Fantastic build; well priced;
easy playability; great range of
usable tones with clever switching
CONS Pickups set too low (but a
simple  x); pulling up the push-pull
tone pot can be tricky on Strat-
style knob
FENDER JV
MODIFIED ’50S
TELECASTER
PRICE: £1,249 (inc gigbag)
ORIGIN: Japan
TYPE: Single-cutaway, solid body
electric
BODY: Basswood
NECK: Maple, ‘thick soft V’ pro le,
satin  nish
SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
NUT/WIDTH: Bone/42mm
FINGERBOARD: Maple ‘slab’ style
with 241mm (9.5”) radius
FRETS: 21, medium-jumbo
HARDWARE: Nickel/chrome vintage
Tele bridge with 3x brass ‘barrel’
saddles; vintage-style locking tuners,
gold anodised pickguard, Fender
strap buttons
STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm
ELECTRICS: 2x vintage-voiced
Fender single-coil Tele pickups,
master volume, tone control with
push-pull option that puts pickups
out of phase; 4-way selector
(position 4 puts pickups in series)
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.175/7
OPTIONS: No
RANGE OPTIONS: Fender JV
Modi ed ’50s Stratocaster HSS
(£1,299) in 2-Color Sunburst; JV
Modi ed ’60s Custom Telecaster in
Firemist Gold (£1,299) with bound
body and rosewood  ngerboard
LEFT-HANDERS: No
FINISH: White Blonde
FENDER JV
MODIFIED ’60S
STRATOCASTER
PRICE: £1,249 (inc gigbag)
ORIGIN: Japan
TYPE: Double-cutaway, solid body
electric
BODY: Basswood
NECK: Maple, ‘thick soft V’ pro le,
satin  nish with large headstock
SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
NUT/WIDTH: Bone/42mm
FINGERBOARD: Maple ‘slab’ style
with 241mm (9.5”) radius
FRETS: 21, medium/jumbo
HARDWARE: Nickel/chrome
vintage-style Strat bridge with bent
steel saddles; vintage-style locking
tuners, 3-ply parchment pickguard
with aged knobs and switch tip;
Fender strap buttons
STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm
ELECTRICS: 3x Fender vintage-
voiced single-coil pickups; volume
and 2x tone controls, tone pot 2 is
push-pull activating neck pickup in
positions 1 and 2
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.34/7.35
OPTIONS: No
RANGE OPTIONS: See left
LEFT-HANDERS: No
FINISH: Olympic White
9. Our Strat’s pickups are
vintage voiced, and the
bridge features classic
bent steel saddles and
a screw-in vibrato arm
10. The JV moniker
originally stood for
‘Japanese Vintage’, and
the ‘made in Japan’ logo
assures the purchasers
of these instruments’
top-notch build quality
11. Plastic parts are
pleasingly tinted against
the parchment-coloured
pickguard. All three
pickups were set rather
low but were quickly
adjusted to taste
That both instruments have clever
switching offering very usable extra tones
is a great bonus. Particularly interesting are
the Tele’s two out-of-phase settings, neither
of which we’d heard before (although they
are available on other models), but the
regular sounds are equally personable, too.
Same with the Strat: those extra two tones –
all pickups on, and neck and bridge together
– offer new vistas for an instrument that’s
already one of the most versatile around.
Street price for both models looks to be
a reasonable £1,150 or so, and that’s seems
modest for guitars this well made with
such a broad and usable range of tones, and
which play so effortlessly.
We honestly thought Fender may have
missed the mark with these two, but having
given them the benefit of the doubt they’ve
completely turned our opinions around, to
the extent that we’d rate them something
of a mini triumph. In fact, we reckon these
mods are two rather excellent rockers.
Boom boom!
9
9
However you like your Strat tones,
this one would comply with pretty
much anything you wanted to do
11
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT487.rev_fender.indd 89GIT487.rev_fender.indd 89 09/06/2022 18:0009/06/2022 18:00