From the early nineties to the present day, Troy van Leeuwen continues to resonate in our ears with his extraordinary guitar work, especially playing in bands like A Perfect Circle, Queens of the Stone Age and the Eagles of Death Metal. Reason enough for Fender to produce another signature instrument for him, the Fender Troy van Leeuwen Jazzmaster Copper Age! His Jazzmaster consists of an alder body with a bolt-on maple neck and offers a vintage-style maple fingerboard with 21 frets. For the signature sound, two classic Fender American Vintage 1965 Jazzmaster pickups are used, which with their extremely wide winding conjure up a raw and powerful sound in P-90 style. Of course the Troy van Leeuwen Signature, as a genuine Jazzmaster, has the famous "floating" tremolo with matching American Standard bridge.
I've had this guitar for about 6 months now and can still hardly put it down. It's been played on stage, in studio, at home, etc. and it really has a versatile sound. Between the pickup selector and the lead/rhythm switch, you can get interesting and quite differing tones from this setup...anything from 'buttery' strat to twangy tele and much more.
It's a beautiful looking guitar and has a great 'feel' and weight.
The only drawback is the vintage-style bridge. Not having the precise string radius causes the high E string to pop out of the nut, and the low E to pop off the groove in the saddle. Maybe not an expensive replacement, but a necessary one.
All in all, I would recommend this guitar to anyone who loves jazzmasters, retro-looking guitars, p90 pickups, and general versatility.
Overall, the guitar is great: the neck is comfortable, sounds good clean and with distortion and crunch, great weight balance, the Mustang bridge is a good improvement.
The finish is very nice also but has some imperfections: the black neck binding's edges look worn out on some parts (binding missing), which is unacceptable for a USD 1'500 instrument !
Also, the toggle switches (the rhythm one in particular) are wobbly and need tightening.
Finally, the high E string was not aligned properly with the neck, but this was resolved with a quick little adjustment.
I will see how it goes in the following weeks of playing it but I can say I am overall satisfied by the guitar and would recommend it to anyone looking for something with a bit of a vintage flavor (sound-wise).
The communication with Music Store by phone and email (UK and Germany) was great and I received the guitar in 8 days via DHL.
The guitar is amazing and it was everything i hoped so and even more. Worthed every penny But it came with a broken tuning peg. I had to replace it by myself because you asked me to deliver back the whole guitar. Other than that it had no scratches and fitted right in my had. It’s 10/10 guitar but the whole experience was a 9/10
This guitar is just beautiful in everyday, the look, the finish, the feel, the variety of sounds and the versatility. So far I've played through Slayer, Dinosaur Jr, The Cure, The Smiths, Tool, U2, My Bloody Valentine and find it more than capable of hitting the ranges I need.