| SQUIER JAGMASTER Fender finally catches on that there's a demand for affordable offsets, and it takes them nearly a Decade to realize it |
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In the 1990's, Grunge and Alternative rock was HUGE, and the most popular guitars of choice were the Fender Jaguar, Fender Jazzmaster, and Fender Mustang. Oddly, Fender was mostly neglecting their "alternative" guitar models, only releasing the Fender Jag-Stang in 1995 as a cash-grab on Kurt Cobain's passing, as Kurt Cobain designed that guitar. However, if you wanted a modded Jaguar or Jazzmaster, you had to buy either a Vintage example for an insane amount of money (usually), or purchase a Japanese reissue, which was still not cheap (about $450-800 back then).
In 1997, enter Fender's "Vista" series - a line of Dyna Gakki/Fujigen Gakki built guitars that included the Fender Vista Musicmaster (a Musicmaster with the bass-style pickguard and a single humbucker in the bridge position, and six saddle tornado bridge), the Fender Vista Super-Sonic (a backwards, slightly chopped down Jaguar with 2 humbuckers and a stratocaster trem based on a photograph of Jimi Hendrix on a TV show playing a metallic blue Jaguar upside-down), and the Fender VIsta Jagmaster - what appears to have been an attempt to create a guitar to appease both fans of Kurt Cobain's 1966 Fender Jaguar, and fans of more recent Alternative band Bush - whose lead singer, Gavin Rossdale was well known for playing Jazzmasters, and the one he had on tour had humbuckers in it. The Vista series, however, only lasted until around 2000 or so, when the Japanese market crashed and Fender closed up a bunch of Japanese plants and/or reduced production of guitars in Japan. Let's dig into the history on this specific guitar.Squier Jagmaster history The Squier Jagmaster started off in 1996 with the original Squier Vista series model, with a listed price of $699.99 and a retail price of around $345-400. These guitars were built mostly by Dyna Gakki in Japan. These guitars featured a basswood body, maple neck, 24" scale 22 fret rosewood fretboard, vintage (Ping) Kluson style machine heads, and a 60's Stratocaster style vibrato unit. They had one volume, one tone, and a 3-way switch. They were available in Black, 3-Tone Sunburst, Sonic Blue, Candy Apple Red, and Olympic White, all with a reddish brown Tortishell pickguard. From an outside perspective, it was obvious that Fender was trying to make something that would appeal to fans of Nirvana and Bush, as both bands were known for using offsets with humbuckers. However, they did not sell too well (they were not all that available either if I remember - I only ever saw one for sale in Myrtle Beach at the mall on a high school band trip - I almost bought it). These were said to be produced until 1998. In 2000, the Jagmaster was redesigned slightly, and released as a Chinese "Standard Series" model. The scale length was bumped up to 25.5" scale, the pickguard shape was redesigned, and they started using Duncan Designed humbucker pickups in them around that time, as Fender had started workign with Seymour Duncan starting around 1999 or so (they were originally a DiMarzio shop). These Squier versions were available in Sunburst, Black, candy Apple Red, Silver Sparkle, and Black Sparkle. I vaguely recall a blue sparkle and a green sparkle version as well - but they are not that common. The earlier guitars just had in-house Squier pickups, but around 2002 or so they got the Duncan Designed HB103 set (HB103N and HB103B). The bridges on these started off as 2-point Tremolos but around about 2003 changed to the Six Screw vintage style vibrato unit. Starting around 2004 or 2005, Squier reduced the color options to either Black with a white pickguard and black pickups, or 3-tone Sunburst with a tortishell pickguard and 2 white pickups. Also, a new 24" Scale conversion neck was used to continue using the initial Chinese body style, but with the shorter scale from a Jaguar like the original Vista Jagmasters from the late 1990's. This is how they would continue making these until the Jagmaster was discontinued in 2012 and replaced by various lines of souped up Jaguar and Jazzmaster models under the Squier brand. The Jagmaster did not have a lot of famous players as it was a bit pushed-off as a "student model" or a "entry level" instrument from about 2000 onward. The original Vistas are rather sought after though due to the Japanese Fender reputation. The only famous player I know of is one of the guys in Los Straightjackets - a Mexi Surf Band or so I'm told. Otherwise, they did not take off. I think MAYBE Paramore's guitarist smashed one painted up like his Jazzmaster in a mid 2000's video...but that's about it.The Jagmaster in a Hard Rock/Metal COntext The Squier Jagmaster is one of the most hard-rock/metal capable offsets released. You basically have a n HH Jaguar or Jazzmaster here with a Strat trem, meaning that the modification options are basically endless. The biggest pieces of this puzzle are the humbuckers and the whammy - because, basically, you could just toss a Floyd Rose on there and you'd be running a straight up shred machine. The later models also have an advantage in that longer scale, Aftermarket necks can be used on these without any routing or modification. The 24" scale versions did the job they were designed to do perfectly, basically act as a surrogate "Nirvana" guitar for kids who wanted a guitar like Kurt's Jaguar. It has the right sound (for the most part) and the right feel, but gets rid of all the excess stuff that might have made the Jaguar look cool, but was not really utilitzed by Cobain, at least, not as much. The 25.5" Scale versions that came later on were a little more generic voiced and better suited to a more general use case compared to the originals. However, the move back to 24" scale by the mid 00's moved it back into Cobain territory again. The stratocaster whammies on these can be hit and miss. I've played one version from all three runs, and the best two for tuning stability were the first two (Vista and Chinese Standard 25.5" scale versions). The 24" scale Chinese models are a bit more hit-n-miss, and I feel that Fender was shifting their attentions from these as they brought more mainline Offsets into the mid-tier and budget realms during the latter half of the 2000s. It's pretty obvious that the pickups were always intended to be Kurt Cobain-ish in execution. Kurt's Jaguar had a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge - a 14K Ohm Ceramic humbucker, and had a DiMarzio PAF, an Alnico 8.something K ohm humbucker in the neck position. The Duncan Designed HB103 set seems to follow this as my 2007 Jagmaster's original pickups are 8.5K and 16.8K Each - putting it in J.B. and PAF territory duncan-wise (and making it very "Cobain-Like" tone wise). The factory pickups in these guitars are great and can probably have their priority for replacement lowered if you are looking for a high gain application. The only other thing that might set you back is the vintage 7.16" fretboard radius of hte original Vista and the later models. This rounder radius is not very conducive to low action because as you go up the neck, the fretboard curvature requires higher action to clear the middle of the frets. So some players seeking higher action, or a wider neck (as the neck is roughly the same as the Jag-Stang and some Japanese Mustangs and Jaguars), might want to either start with just a body and maybe the pickups as a base, and replace the neck, or get one of the later Chinese models to modify. Which inclosing, if you are looking to mod a Jagmaster, I suggest the CHinese models since they don't hold their value as well and are not at the same level of quality that the Japanese models were. They can also be had pretty cheap, and a lot of them have been abused to the point they're not worth much due to teenagers putting stickers on them and beating them around.Jagmaster Clones & Derivatives What designates an actual copy or derivative of a given model is when the copy is utilizing the unique characteristics of that specific instrument. What makes a "Jagmaster" a Jagmaster, is a simplified Jaguar or Jazzmaster shaped instrument that uses parts from more common models to make it cheaper and/or more accessible (ie Strat Trems, Floyd Roses, STANDARD sized P-90/Humbucker/Single Coil pickups, regular blade/toggle switches, no rhythm circuit).
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