“While many contemporary offsets simply borrow the outline, there’s a lot more to these original recipes”: Fender Vintera II ’50s Jazzmaster, ’70s Jaguar and ’70s Competition Mustang review

Can’t afford a vintage Fender? Neither can we. So until we win the lottery, the Vintera range aims to satisfy our lust. Let’s jump on the offset train and go back in time…

Fender Vintera II '50s Jazzmaster
(Image: © Future / Phil Barker)

Guitar World Verdict

There’s character in plenty here and, while probably not for the journeyman function band musician, we’d wager there’s a song or two to be found in these.

Pros

  • +

    Jazzmaster and Jag are tidy repros.

  • +

    Full-scale Jazzmaster most Fender-like of them all.

  • +

    Jag has expanded features.

  • +

    Competition Mustang has a good lightweight build.

  • +

    And it has a versatile voice with out-of-phase potential.

Cons

  • -

    Jag and Mustang's short-scale is not for everyone.

  • -

    Ditto the 'board radius and fret-size of the Jazzmaster.

  • -

    Jag is a little heavy.

  • -

    Competition Mustang's vibrato is not that smooth.

You can trust Guitar World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing guitar products so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

The second collection of affordable vintage-era Fenders, the Vintera II range, was introduced last year and to say we were impressed with the ’50s Nocaster/Telecaster and ’60s Stratocaster we reviewed is an understatement. But could we get our hands on the new trendy offset guitars? Not until now.

While the first wave of Vintera offsets centred on the ’60s, the second wave jumps either side with the ’50s Jazzmaster and ’70s incarnations of the Jaguar and Mustang and – as we reported in that previous review – style aside, the primary changes are the switch back to rosewood fingerboards from pau ferro, a pickup upgrade across all the models and, yes, a slight price increase.

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