Fender Troy Van Leeuwen Jazzmaster Electric Guitar

Got mine recently and it was advertised as “Rosewood Fretboard”.

This is not a RW fretboard. It is a Pau Ferro fretboard and that fact should be disclosed in neon.

Fender are offering real RW on a less expensive Vintera II model, but not on a $1,700 guitar?

It’s a principal matter. It may not matter to some, but to me it’s a big deal. Pau Ferro looks terrible and is not a true rosewood species.

Do better Fender

I’ve been eyeing this guitar for years, and finally decided I needed to have one before they discontinue it.

It’s drop-dead gorgeous; Fender doesn’t really offer blocks, binding, and a matching head-stock on other regular-production guitars, so if that’s your thing — and it definitely is mine — then this is one of the only options, if not the only option in its price range. (I don’t even think you can get those options on a custom shop unless you go with a Master Built guitar!)

The Oxblood finish is excellent; it looks burgundy in some light, deep purple at other times, and can appear almost black with no direct lighting.

The alder body on mine is nice and light too, which is a good change compared to previous Jazzmasters I’ve owned.

I had my doubts about Troy’s replacement rhythm circuit switch, but it’s a really satisfying switch to throw, and it makes changing between circuits much faster/easier.

Finally, the pickups sound great. I can’t really elaborate any more; I just remember that when I plugged it in for the first time the tones were heavenly, and there are a lot of tonal options available with the various switching combinations.

The bad parts are related to quality-control, so here are the issues I had:

1) Fender supplied me the wrong vibrato arm; the tailpiece on this guitar is for a screw-in arm, but the included arm was push-in. Fortunately my local tech had a correct (threaded) arm and just swapped me out.

2) The neck was crooked in the pocket. The fix was to loosen the bolts, force the neck into the correct position, and tighten the bolts. This works fine, but at this point Fender really shouldn’t be producing any instruments at any of their factories with this kind of problem. The only downside of this — other than having to correct it — is that the pick-guard doesn’t look like it’s cut properly, as there are gaps. Hopefully the neck doesn’t try to shift back over time. (Update: It did, so I’ll have to dowel the neck and drill new screw holes to keep it from shifting.)

3) Fret ends were a little sharp on the treble side. I understand this is pretty normal for cheaper import guitars, but for a $1,600 factory-produced guitar the fretwork should be near perfect. (Could have been a storage/humidity issue, too before I bought it.)

4) Nut wasn’t cut great, and some strings bind. Again, this is to be expected on cheap guitars, but for a guitar this price it’s ridiculous.

5) The case was kind of cheesy. Included with this guitar is a Chinese, Fender-branded, G&G-inspired case. (I have several G&G cases for comparison.) Mine came with the storage fastening strap completely disconnected from the case; I could see where the screw almost pierced the leather, but didn’t. The case is also a little fatter than a G&G, the plywood feels thinner, the edges aren’t as round, and the instrument doesn’t fit as tightly. It’s great that a hard case is included at all, but I don’t think it will last long on the road for any serious musician. I would have honestly preferred to pick my own case and save the $200 which Fender charges for these.

Overall I feel this should be an $800 guitar at most. If you go play something like a Yamaha Revstar — which is under $800 — you’ll really feel like $800 is a steal; it has so many great features, a near-perfect setup, and such immaculate craftsmanship you’ll wonder how they can sell it for that price. I’ve played so many instruments in the $600-$1200 range, and just about every single one of them (Schecter, Reverend, Ibanez, of course G&L, and even Epiphone) was better off-the-shelf than this thing.

The extra $800 for this TVL is pretty much for the Fender name, with $200 of that being for the case. There are so many companies doing similar designs with much better quality control that I personally think the $1600 price of this instrument is unjustifiable. If you’ve got to have the Fender name though: probably none of that matters to you, but then again you probably don’t need to read this review.

If I didn’t want this specific instrument as a piece of art as much as I did an instrument to play, but I still wanted a Jazzmaster: the new Squier Jazzmasters are almost as good (they also need work) for 30% the cost.

I have no doubts I’ll be able to continue to work on this instrument to get it playing great, but the amount of effort I’ve had to put into it is not consistent with its price point.

(Yes, I realize some of these issues are covered by Fender’s warranty, and I did reach out, but ultimately my Fender-licensed tech said it wasn’t worth the paperwork for him.)

I have dreamed of this guitar since it was released. It is the most beautiful guitar ever IMO. It has been on my Christmas list at least 4 years now.
I finally got one this Christmas. Open the case, it’s beautiful. Go to tune it up and the A string tuner gearing is stripped. No problem, mistakes happen.
Send it back, get the refund on that one and reorder. Got the new one today … A AND D tuners won’t work. And the action/setup on this one sucks.
VERY, VERY, VERY disappointed with quality control for a guitar that costs as much as American made.
I will probably try one more time but not expecting much.