CNZ Audio JM Electric Guitar (Fiesta Red (Ivory Pickguard))

This is a great guitar. It sounds fantastic and is probably the most versatile guitar in my collection. It was under three hundred dollars, but I'd put it up against any of my guitars with quadruple digit price tags any day of the week. I absolutely adore this instrument, and it's become my new favorite. As a left handed player, it's difficult to even find a lefty guitar. Most of the ones out there are either total junk, completely overpriced, or both. This guitar is affordable, plays like a dream, and sounds amazing. I will be going through CNZ for all of my future guitar needs.However, this awesomeness comes with a few caveats. This style of guitar requires a lot of tinkering to be fully functional. As a result, I don't recommend it for beginners. This particular model is a very well-built guitar. However, the following issues are endemic to all jazzmaster style guitars.1) The magnetic fields of P90 pickups have a huge range. As a result, they are even noisier than regular single coils. If you plan on using any amount of gain, youwill have to open this guitar up and shield the ever loving hell out of everything.2) This guitar has a vintage trem arm. It doesn't screw in like many modern trem systems. It's held in place by torque. This actually has some advantages. However, you're almost certainly going to have to remove the tail piece to adjust this to your personal preference, or it's going to constantly come loose and fall out.3) The trem system on this style of guitar causes the strings to go over the bridge at a very shallow angle. This means there isn't as much tension holding the bridge saddles down. The vibrations from playing will literally rattle the height adjustment screws out of the saddles. There are a number of ways to fix this. My personal recommendation is wrapping them in Teflon plumber's tape.4) This one is minor. The output jack is on the pick guard, so an angled instrument cable is a must.Like I said, these issues are present in all guitars of this style. The one I purchased arrived with a pretty decent set up job, and was ready to play straight out of the box. Over the long term, these types of guitar require a lot of adjustments, though. This is why I don't recommend it for beginners, unless they have access to someone who can do all that stuff for them. Personally, I like doing it, but others could potentially find it frustrating.

First off-- yes, it's an under $300 guitar and there WILL be cut corners: GUARANTEED.I came into this purchase knowing there will be shortcomings. You'll immediately need to change the strings and set it up properly of course, but I just didn't know how off it was going to be.THE BAD:1. The body sadly is a fifth smaller than an actual Jazzmaster (obviously for copyright reasons). I love larger bodies, so this was a tad of a disappointment I should have guessed.2. The bridge was just laying in the thimbles with barely any tension and without any adjustment on the saddles for the neck radius; as if someone just laid it in there and called it good. There also was a lack of a break angle with the bridge cause a TON of fret buzz. The bridge adjustment screw was actually BROKEN on the treble side. Couldn't even attempt to setup the guitar stock because of this and had to use a Mustang-style bridge for the moment. I'll have to find another style bridge to use on this thing since the radius is reportedly 14" and I either have to get a high-end bridge (yeah right) or another cheap OGstyle Jazzmaster bridge (gross).3. You need to shim the neck to even get a usable break angle for a low action setup. This is kinda the standard fact with Jazzmasters though.4. The fretboard says 'rosewood' in the description, but this looks like a SUPER DRY and then dyed Ovangkol. Not too sure what's up there. Had to lemon oil it 3 times and still couldn't get a solid rosewood-like shade from it.5. The internal routing is HORRIBLE. This thing has the WORST internal swimming pool job I've ever seen. Super rough cuts with wood shards just getting blasted over with paint right here. I was planning on either electrical insulating the cavity with either tape or paint until I realized I'd never be able to neatly do the job. The trem cavity is also just as badly routed.THE GOOD:1. The nut looks like it's cut properly.2. The tuners are solid.3. The tremolo system works decently well. So far this means tuning stability is good!4. The neck/body pocket is a nice tight fit! I've had twice expensive guitars without a nice fitting pocket before.THE OK:1. Minimal shipping packaging. I was lucky there was no signs of abuse from the package carriers.2. The neck is a little round, but comfortable.3. I originally order the sunburst finish, but it was out of stock so I chose the Black one. You can't screw up black finish I guess.4. The P90 pickups are week in comparison to other cheap pups in the sound spectrum. I adjusted the pickup heights, but they are dull and have smothered midrange honk to them. This might be a cool tone I can actually use in my arsenal.5. Electronics are inexpensive as you'd expect, but they work without dirty crackles and are grounded properly.PERSONAL OPINION:Get something else if you are looking for a 'out of the box' option (like something else similar to the sound of 'Firebug'). No offense to CNZ but I don't believe they check these guitars before they send them out. Sure-- every store won't check starter guitars when they sell them; but if they have your store name on them you better check it before it's out the door. There's a possibility that the bridge was broken in shipping from the store on it's way to my house, but since there weren't signs of damage in shipping to me I bet this was broken coming from whatever Chinese factory made these for CNZ.The fact I needed to do more work out of the box than any Squier Affinity guitar means I wouldn't suggest this to anyone new to guitar.

I like the Pickups, the Body Contour, the Neck and the Colour. Two Main Issues are: the Vibrato Arm Falls Out Everytime you lean Forward. That needs to be addressed. The BRIDGE is Horrible. All the Parts on it are SHARP. Most Guitar Players rest the Edge of their Pickung Hand on The Bridge to be able to Mute the Strings when desired. Otherwise, a Very Good Guitar for the MONEY. I would really like to see CNZ AUDIO Address these TWO MAJOR ISSUES. I really want to Buy several of these. I play in Different TUNINGS.

Love this guitar!!! Intonation was on point, just a minor set up and this jewel is ready to go! The green just looks beautiful. The tones this thing can get and the playability and the look and everything else is incredible for this price point. I saw a few reviews where they said, change out the pickups and you've got a great guitar. That's ridiculous. Then you have a different guitar. Why bother buying it if you're just gonna rip out the most important part of an electric guitar??? These pickups are fabulous! That's just stupid buying a guitar just to change it's whole personality. Buy this one and love it!

CNZ really outdid themselves..!I am really impressed with this Jazzmaster style guitar. They really need to get more Videos of people opening and reviewing this guitar... Mine arrived in record time, without any damage... The frets were already dressed nicely and the intonation was 'dead-on'... no adjustmets needed.Really like the p90's... all I had to do was tune it up, I bought this because I had purchased a Squier Jazzmaster (from a local dealer) and was not pleased with it... I took a chance on this one, but the chance was well worth it.I am very pleased with this guitar... Thank you Caleb, Nathan and Zachary...Outstanding..!