After an hour of cleaning, sanding, wetsanding with oil, steel wool with oil, and buffing, I got it looking better. Still got a huge light area on the high strings: The dusty look is almost gone. It's still covered in file marks (you can see the high E edge looks like it's been chewed) but I tidied up the frets and it looks OK from a few feet away: Ironically I oiled the XII fretboard as well, and it did almost nothing!

tommy wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 9:31 am

matttkkkk wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 8:26 am Thomann were decent and gave me a 15% discount, which was the only sane solution given the shipping costs and the fact the model has sold out. I’m gonna get to work with some oil, fine grit paper and steel wool, let’s see how good I can get it.

It’s so funny. My experience is the same with the Squier Classic Vibe stuff. The standard colors and models are all awesome out of the box. But all of the special run ones have been extremely rough and in need of fret work, especially the fret ends. You’d expect it to be the opposite. My sample size is only like 5 or 6 though.

I keep eyeballing that fiesta red 12-string. Not sure if it’s worth the gamble.

Fiesta red is out of stock from Fender - but the blue one my coworker just got is perfect

matttkkkk wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 1:22 pm Fortunately the frets are well seated and not even that badly dressed. My problem was the pale, porous wood covered in tool marks and glue. I think it’s partly retrievable but was ugly af for a mid priced, brand new guitar.

That’s unfortunately (fortunately?) going to be more the norm as the available wood to utilize for guitars becomes far more restricted and aesthetically varied.

True, I guess, or more stuff like Richlite etc.

WHY has nobody ever told me how much fun it is to play a 12 string through an overdrive?

I need to stay out of this thread because I have too much shit already, but I come down with Squier offset fever hard every time I take a look.

Owen wrote: Sat Oct 07, 2023 11:49 am I need to stay out of this thread because I have too much shit already, but I come down with Squier offset fever hard every time I take a look.

years from now people will look back on this time as the best squire period ever

- good designs
- good finish options
- good fretwork/playability
- good (alnico) pickups
- blowout prices due to fender overstock

matttkkkk wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2023 11:59 pm After an hour of cleaning, sanding, wetsanding with oil, steel wool with oil, and buffing, I got it looking better. Still got a huge light area on the high strings:

The dusty look is almost gone. It's still covered in file marks (you can see the high E edge looks like it's been chewed) but I tidied up the frets and it looks OK from a few feet away:

Ironically I oiled the XII fretboard as well, and it did almost nothing!

That looks much better. As long as it feels good to your hands (the third and fourth frets look like they might not), then I’d be happy.

Damn you got me looking online at these. I also really like the silver sparkle option you can find sometimes.

After calming down about it all I sat and played the Jag for an hour or so last night, and it’s really great. Even the fretboard is fine and only a few feet ends needed a touch up.

^ If you're looking for pickups for that thing, my bandmate put Ep Customs in his Jag and they're out of control amazing. I'm not a huge single coil guy, but these are magic in a way no humbucker and few single coils are. They have that spanky attack you expect from a single coil but none of the harshness in the bridge even on the top strings of chords played assertively. There's a low mid richness I wouldn't expect that still is super articulate, just richer than a strat or tele might sound.

losthighway wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 8:17 am Ep Customs in his Jag and they're out of control amazing.
…
They have that spanky attack you expect from a single coil but none of the harshness in the bridge even on the top strings of chords played assertively. There's a low mid richness I wouldn't expect that still is super articulate, just richer than a strat or tele might sound.

Who makes those? Sound like winners. I love jags but some of them do sound too spiky and n the bridge position.