CREEPINGNET'S WORLD
FENDER JAGUAR
Leo Fender's Last Top of the Line and first Short Scale Guitar
Preface - The Fender Jaguar was a 24" scale updated version of the Fender Jazzmaster released in 1962. It sought to address the issues players had with the Jazzmaster such as the wide-flat noisy pickups, now replaced with thin Strat-Like pickups, although usually wound up to a kilo-ohm or so hotter, with serrated metal side pieces ot help prevent noise and widen the magnetic field, smoothing the sound out. It retained the separate rhythm and lead circuits of the Jazzmaster but improved serviceability by putting all of the controls onto metal plates that could be unscrewd with 2-3 screws and easily worked on by a technician when needed. Not just was this practical, but this gave the Jaguar it's really cool, chromed up look. It also introduced a gag of a string mute that most players removed like they would the "ash tray" bridge covers on their strats and Teles, of which the Jaguar had one of those as well. Clarence Leo Fender has been quoted as saying this was his "best" design when working for Fender, though by the number of extreme players of the Jaguar (very few) you'd think this was untrue. The Jaguar had it's heyday in the early 1960's as Surf was at it's hottest, waning down by 1965 and joining the Jazzmaster in relative obscurity, and being the first top-of-the-line offset to be discontinued along side the Bass VI deluxe bass in 1975. The Jaguar found a handful of players in the New Wave and Post Punk scene for a little bit in the early 80's, but it's true claim to fame came when Kurt Cobain of Nirvana bought one and it started showing up in live footage and music videos on MTV, making an entire generation guitar-mad for Jaguars, even though Fender Failed to oblidge until sometime around the mid-late 2000's. Today, the Jaguar is one of those instruments ubiqutously associated with Grunge and Indie music, but it's abilities stretch way beyond that.

Famous Players - Carl Wilson (Beach Boys), the Trashmen, The Surfaris, Tom Verlaine (Television), Ric Ocasek (The Cars), Danny Elfman (Oingo Boingo), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Jane Wielden (The Go Gos), Nancy Wilson (Heart), Belinda Butcher (My Bloody Valentine), Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), John Fruschante (Red Hot Chili Peppers),
The Fender Jaguar was designed over the course of 1961 and 1962, and was the first Fender guitar to not go with a fully-brand-new design unique to it, as it borrowed elements of the Jazzmaster and the Bass VI in it's design. Coming from the Jazzmaster and Bass VI was the offset-waist body design, and the floating tremolo. It owed it's pickup layout to the Jazzmaster (but not style), as well as it's Separate Rhythm and Lead Circuits (albeit redesigned a little bit), while pulling the metal control plate concept that is a big part of how the Jaguar gets attention, from the Bass VI. New original features included the shorter 24" scale 22 fret neck (one more than usual), a new, hotter, traditional FEnder-style pickup design designed to remove feedback and noise and provide a similar wide magnetic field artificially using "claws". Also, a late "gimmick" included in the final design was a flip-up-string mute or "Vibramute" as it was branded. At the time, Gretsch and some other makers were trying to get players to leave the bridge covers ON their guitars, so they included a "mute" device. However, these usually messed with the setup in a negative way, and were clunky and inconvenient, so most players removed them, and the Jaguar is no exception.

The name was derived from some early photoshoot where someone at Fender bought a Jaguar E-type convertible car and took photos of the yet unnamed guitar leaning against the car in various positions. And so started Fender naming guitars after cars. It fit, the Jaguar was an expensive, sleek, high end guitar, just like a Jaguar is a sleek, expensive, high end car.

The Astronauts Performing FireWater in the movie "Surf Party"

The Jaguar caught on right in the midst of the Surf craze and for that brief moment between 1962 and the British Invasion circa 1964. Lots of guys were playing these in surf groups, such as Carl Wilson from the Beach Boys, Bob Berryman of the Surfaris, the entirety of the Surfin-Bird single-e-chord jamming Trashment all used identical Burst Jaguars. In a dose of irony, the Jaguar even found some Jazz usage with Joe Pass around that time while he was cooped up in a mental ward.

But by the end of the sixties you almost NEVER saw a Jaguar on stage. Jimi Hendrix had one on stage - once - but he pantomimed with it on one of those TV shows (a photo of which inspiured the Squier Super Sonic almost 30 years later). While the Jazzmaster was still getting around sneakily in teh scene, getting stolen from a Who Concert, goin down to the Crossroads, or hangin' with Hendrix during a performance of a R&B group singing "shotgun", the Jaguar was oddly absent. It followed the stylistic changes of the Jazzmaster, with binding added to the neck in 1964, and Blocks in 1965 post-CBS buyout. However, it lost it's "top of the line" status to Hendrix's use of the Stratocaster in the late 60's.

In the 70's, you still did not see Jaguars much, actually even less. Gibson was the word of the day, andd the Jaguar and by extention, Jazzmaster, were mostly cast into the dustbins of the past as "surf relics". You could get a Jaguar as cheap as $50 back then, they were that unwanted. But they still had a few people. It seems when Elvis Costello might have boosted the Jazzmaster a little bit around 1979-1980, some people started using them more. Elliot Easton found a candy apple red one in a hock shop in 1980 for Ric Ocasek, which he took on the 1980 Panorama tour with him, and was later used in the 90's on Weezer's "blue" album, particularly on "Say it Ain't So". A few others were spotted with Jaguars at the time, like a TV performance of Barracuda saw Nancy Wilson playing a pink one, and one of the GoGos had a burst model around 1984 or 1985. But there was oone important one...

Martin Jenner w/ Cliff Richard live in Chinchester 1980

Martin Jenner was a session musician for the Everly Brothers and some other country and Americana rock acts in the 1960's-1980's. One of his gigs was with Cliff Richard of The Shadows on a kind of half-Christian Rock half-Pop-Rock thing he was doing solo at the time touring the world. And What did Martin Jenner get but a Left-Handed 1965 or 1966 Fender Jaguar, and modify it to the hilt. Looking at other guitars Jenner had, such as an SG, and a Telecaster he used prior, he was alreay modifying his guitars. Likely he saw he had a good "world travel" guitar he could soup up to cover the range of territory Cliff wanted him to cover - if he hotted it up. So he added an extra tone knob or volume knob, a 3-way switch to make pickup switching more convenient, and re-drilled the right handed vibrato unit for left-hand use, and then put in a pair of DiMarzio Humbuckers - a popular choice at the time was the PAF in the neck, and Super Distortion in the bridge - does this guitar sound familiar to anyone (sans the block's and binding neck)?

In the 80's,on the industry side, Fender was failing at first, while Dan Smith rebuilt the company, focus was on the most popular models to help save the company. Howwever, in 1985, the Jaguar was introduced in the Japanese made collectors series, built at the Fujigen Gakki plant in Japan until late 1997, when the Crafted in Japan A serial models (like mine) were built at the Dyna Gakki plant. But other than that, you did not see Jags much in the 80's.

Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Live on Scottish TV in 1991

So skip ahead about 10 years of a decade nearly Jaguar-less, and a young musician named Kurt Cobain was about to embark on a world tour with his band Nirvana. He finds a Fender Jaguar in the LA Recycler for around $350 with a anvil case from a guy living where Jenner was said to be living at the time. Months later, the third music video for Nevermind - Lithium - comes out, and what's on screen but a sunburst, left handed, left-hand-drilled vibrato equipped, dual DiMarzio Fender Jaguar with a Tune-O-Matic bridge, 3 knobs, 3-way switch, and a oddly newer looking bound left-handed neck with a Pre-CBS Strat style headstock on it with a strange late-80's/early 90's reproduction logo. Whodathunk that guitar playing "Every Man" and "Devil Woman" in 1980 in Chinchester England with a session man would become a part of a iconic punk-inspired piece of music history 10 years later. Crazy huh. But either way, the impact this guitar had cannot be understated. Scads of younger Gen X and older Gen Y like myself saw this guitar, and we WANTED ONE. But of course, Fender, at the time, was more interested in placating to better heeled Bluesmen and Shredders. But Kurt was not alone in Jag-wielding musicians that much is for sure. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden had one, Sonic Youth was already using them, Kevin Shields and Belinda Buther of My Bloody Valentine were using them, Eric Erlandson of Hole not just had one of his own but used Kurt's Jaguar in the "Doll Parts" video. Still not as common as aMustang or a Jazzmaster, but they were there. As the decade went on, the lead guitarist of Smash Mouth played a custom shop model for awhile, as did one of the guys in the Counting Crows. The Jaguar was finding itself all over the place. Even Ric Ocasek's red The Cars Panorama tour Jaguar was on Weezer's blue album in 1994, and Ric himself used that same guitar on national TV at one of The Cars last shows before he died. It was said Kurt had a second Jaguar somewhere, but this one has not been seen live at all.

The 2000's, when X and Y were getting enough money to actually buy something expensive, was when we saw the Jaguar grow into maturity and get a bit more popular. In 2008, the flood of new Jaguars started. First we had the Jaguar Special HH with a stoptail and Tune-O-Matic and a pair of 7K ohm Dragster Humbuckers (I owned one for awhile), which was a Japanese model originally introduced in 1998 in Japan only. After that came the Mexican Made models, one in HH with alternative wiring, and another one like a stock Jaguar, these also had the tailpiece moved forward for better breakover over hte bridge. Not long after that came a new HH Squier model to sit next to the dual Jazzmaster pickup jazzmaster model. A Fender Korean made Modern Player Jaguar with Dual P-90s was also released around this time. Then we started to see the first signature Jaaguar in 2008 with the Johnny Marr (The Smiths, Modest Mouse) Jaguar, and then in 2011 the Kurt Cobain Signature Jaguar was released, based on his modified 1965 guitar that started all this. Not long after that came the Squier Classic Vibe series Jags, and several other variants over the years.

In 2022, we now have many models of Jaguar availible, the Classic Vibe Squiers, the Modern Player (a newer verson with an HS config and simplified electronics), the Cobain is still around, as is the Johnny Marr. While still not as popular as the Jazzmaster, it seems to have etched it out a seemingly more permanan place than 20 years ago. We will next observe every release of this guitar in a table....
Fender Jaguar Varations released (1962-present)
The Fender Jaguar has really grown it's product line in my lifetime, when I Started playing guitar in 1995, you had two choices - either the 1962-1975 vintage version, or the 1985-present MIJ/CIJ Japanese reissues, and that was it. Now there's been almost 50 or more Jaguar models between the late 1990's till now.
PICTURE + MODEL & YEARS DESCRIPTION + SPECS
Fender Jaguar (1962-1975) The original Fender Jaguar as released in 1962 was an alder bodied instrument with a maple neck with a slab, later veneer, rosewood fretboard. It featured 2 special design single coil pickups with taller bobbins roughly the same width and length as a Stratocaster pickup. These screwed directly into the wood via special covers, and had metal "claws" on the underside. It featured the same floating vibrato and rocking bridge assembly from the Jazzmaster introduced in 1958, and featured the same Separate Rhythm and Lead Circuit design as well, except with the toggle switch for the lead circuit pickup selector replaced by 2 slide switches, and a third slide switch for a bass-cut function (or "Strangle Switch" as it was called). Late in the design stages it had a flip-up mute similiar to what Gretsch was offering on their guitars as a marketing gimmick - most players removed this as well as the bridge cover to facilitate more precise playing. In 1964, binding was added to the neck, and in 1965, block inlays were added. Toward the latter half of the sixties, the headstock changed to the CBS shape as well, and Fender "F" tuners were used instead of Klusons. Early 1970's Jaguars included some rare varaitions with maple fretboards, featuring blocks and binding in black plastic, and even some odd colors such as Butterscotch Blonde like Teles were only available in normally. Unlike Stratocasters and Telecasters, Jaguars were immune to the Bullet Truss Rods and 3-screw neck joint - retaining their original body-end truss rod nut and 4-screw "bolt-on" neck adjustment. In 1974 they stared reducing color options to Sunburst and Olympic White, using Ash on some bodies, and started using B/W/B pickguards in place of the Tortishell and W/B/W pickguards used on earlier builds. The Jaguar was discontinued in 1975 due to poor sales.
Fender Jaguar 62' Reissue (1985-present, CIJ/MIJ) In 1981-1982, Fender went under a massive restructuring and rebuild due to investors and fans of the brand after a darn-near-crash caused by the infamous "CBS Era". One of the improvements was their contracting/hiring Japanese building house Fujigen Gakki to build import models of their famous guitars for the Japanese and domestic markets. Prior to this, Fujigen was making guitars, IIRC, for Greco and Tokai, among other makers. In 1985, they introduced their "Collectable Series" - a series of reissues of vintage Fender guitar models aimed at collectors and players alike, and one of these models was the Fender Jaguar 62' Reissue. These guitars started with E-series serial numbers in 1985, featured Basswood bodies initially (changed to Alder in 1997), and came initially in Just 3-tone Sunburst, Olympic White, or Candy Apple Red. THey also lacked the bridge cover and mute from the origial Jag release. In 1992 a special run was done in white blonde with red tort pickguards and gold hardware (coinciding with the same for the Jazzmaster as well). Also starting around this time, Fender Japan had been working with Kodak on a "Foto Flame" finish that allowed them to superimpose flamed-maple wood marks on an inexpensive basswood body, and this option was also available on the reissue Jaguar from 1992-1996. In 1997, Fender changed building houses from Fujigen Gakki to Dyna Gakki, and the bodies were changed to alder, and the Foto Flame option was dropped. Mine is one of these transitional instruments (12/97 neck, 1/98 body), and along with it changed the Serial#'s to "A" series with a "Crafted in Japan" in a fancier font. The Japanese guitars listed at $799.99 in the late 1990's, but usually sold between $450 and $800 in local guitar stores, usually used as most stores did not stock them. Fender has continued this line off/on again via FGN and Dyna since then.
Fender Jaguar HH Deluxe (1997-2012, MIJ/CIJ) - The Fender Jaguar HH Deluxe started out around 1997 with 2 models - a Greenburst and a Redburst variant. These guitars featured 2 humbuckers, a "Adjust-o-Matic" bridge, and a stop tailpiece. These early editions were only available on the Japanese market, but it's possible people had them imported via places like Ikkabe Gakki (a guitar shop in Japan). Later on, variants in Gunmetal Gray with a black pickguard, and Shoreline Gold metallic were available to the american market in limited quantities. It was not until about 2005 or so when Fender started importing this guitar to the USA as the "Fender Jaguar HH Deluxe". These versions had alder bodies, 2 Fender "Dragster" humbuckers with a similar winding and output to 1970's GIbson T-Top humbuckers, an "Adjust-o-Matic" bridge, stopbar tailpiece, and only came in black with a black pickguard and chrome hardware. This model continued to be produced until sometime around 2012.
Fender Jaguar "Kurt Cobain" Shop Modded Series (1997-2000?, MIJ/CIJ) Japanese Guitar Shoppe Ikkabe Gakki (or it may have been another one) saw an opportunity in Fender's lack of attention to one of their star players of the 1990's by offering "Factory Modded" versions of Kurt Cobain's guitars toward the end of the 1990's. These guitasr were basically 62' Reissue Fender Jaguars (MIJ/CIJ) that were modified to Kurt's Specs. The Jaguar version came in 4 "phases" - Phase I just had the two humbucker pickups, Phase II had 2 humbuckers and the TUne-O-Matic bridge, Phase III had 2 humbuckers, tune-o-matic, and a bound neck, and the final version included the custom metalwork toggle switch. These guitars were hand-modded at the shop, and could be imported using a Japanese importer. There were some critiques on these about pickup placement and other small inaccuracies.
Fender Jaguar AVRI 62' Reissue (1999-2012, USA) In 1999, Fender's Corona California plant started making "accurate" reissues of their original releases from the 1950's and 1960's, likely in responce to the growing prices of vintage guitars caused by the "vintage guitar boom" of that time. One of the first models on this list was the 1962 Fender Jaguar American Vintage Reissue (AVRI). This was a accurate reproduction of the Jaguar as it was released in 1962, featuring a new AVRI version of the vibrato, the bridge cover, the mute, and accuratley speced vintage-style pickups. It lead to an offshoot below - a special "limited edition" and "special run" variants for high profile Fender Dealers. These were available in 3-tone Sunburst with a Tortishell Pickguard, Candy Apple Red with a W/B/W pickguard, Olympic White with Torishell, Ocean Turquoise W/B/W, Surf Green with W/B/W, Fiesta Red with W/B/W, and Lake Placid Blue with W/B/W.Other colors were rotated in and out including Inca Silver, Aztech Gold, and Coral Pink (all with W/B/W). They were replaced with the 1965' reissues in the American Vintage (AV) series in 2012.
Fender Jaguar "thinskin" Exclusives (2008-, USA) During the vintage guitar boom of the 1990's and 2000's, when Fender Jaguars were at their hottest in the market, special retailers, such as Wildwood and Dave's Guitar Shop (I think Gruhn's shop in Illinois was another) got to sell dealer exclusives including these "thinskin" reissue Jaguars. These were basically a regular AVRI 62' reissue Jaguar but with Nitrocellulose paint - painted very thinly, to encourage "checking" and "aging" of the finish prematurely to make the guitar look vintage (sort of a cousin to the "relicing" fad of the 2000's).
Fender Classic Player Jaguar SPecial (2008-2012) The Fender "Classic Player" Jaguar Special was basically a modernized, Mexican Built, version of the classic Jaguar design. It featured 2 hot-rod Jaguar pickups in it (hot-wound), stock vintage style wiring, a relocated tailpiece to increase breakover angle over the bridge, a Fender Adjust-O-Matic bridge specially setup for working with the vibrato, alder body, maple neck, rosewood board, 22 medium frets, 9.5" fretobard radius, and the classic Jaguar style headstock. They sold for between $450 and 800 typically, about the same range as the original Japanese Jaguars did. Came in candy-apple red, olympic white, and 3-tone sunburst.
Fender Classic Player Jaguar HH (2008-2012) The Classic Player HH Jaguar was similiar to the above, but with 2 Humbuckers, and altered switching. Now the rhythm circuit was omitted in favor of each roller wheel acting as a gradual coil-split for each pickup, and the rhythm/lead circuit switch was repurposed as a "kill switch". It featured 2 Fender humbucekr pickups of high output, and the same bridge setup as the Jaguar Classic Player Special. Came in Olympic White, and 3 tone sunburst.
Fender Modern Player Jaguar (2008-2012) The modern Player Jaguar was a chinese built guitar featuring no pickguard or control plates, 2 P-90 pickups, 3-way switch, adjust-o-matic tailpiece, and stop tailpiece, with a maple neck with 22 frets and a rosewood board. They came in 3 tone sunburst, and most often a satin chocolate brown stain.
Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar (2008-2012) These were the earlier version of the VM Jaguar which had 2 humbuckers, simplified switching, less control plates, and came in Candy-apple Rest most often (though 3-tone sunburst and possibly olympic white were also seen). It seems these did not sell too well leading Fender to replace the line with vintage-styled guitars using the same branding.
Fender Blacktop Jaguar (2009-?)
Fender FSR Blacktop Jaguar (2009-?)
Fender "Johnny Marr" Signature Jaguar (2009-present) Fender's first "signature model" jaguar was for The Smiths/Modest Mouse guitarist Johnny Marr. Johnny Marr's Jaguar model features 2 BareKnuckle Jaguar pickups, a 4-way pickup selector that includes series/parallel switching, 2 strangle switches on the bass-side control plate where the Rhythm Circuit normally is, and a Staytrem vibrato and Mustang-style bridge.
Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar (2011-2019) The new Vintage Modified Jaguars released in 2011 were basically reissues of the 1962-1965 style Jaguar with souped up pickups. The Squier VM Jaguar featured an 11.5K Ohm bridge pickup, and a balanced out neck pickup, Mustang bridge, import vibrato without a trem lock or Fender branding, and a 22 fret maple neck with Indian Laurel fretboard (or pao ferro). THey came in 3-tone-sunburst with tort, olympic white with tort, sea foam green with w/b/w, candy apple red with w/b/w, and I think some were black with w/b/w as well. They were discontinued and replaced with the Vintage Vibe 70's Jaguar in 2019.
Fender Special Edition Jaguar Thinline (2012-2013) On the Fender Jaguar's 50th Anniversary in 2012, Fender released two models, this one was a Japanese import thinline Jaguar, featuring a bound, hollow body, in black or 3-tone sunburst with an "F" hole on it, and a w/b/w pickguard.
Fender Jaguar 50th Anniversary Edition (2012-2013) The Fender 50th Anniversary Jaguar Player edition took all "the best elements" from the Fender Jaguar's 50 years and put them together in one $2500 instrument. They featured 2 hot wound, single coil pickups, w/b/w plastic pickguards, maple neck with rosewood board, block inlays, binding, and 22 vintage frets on a 9.5" radius. These only came in Burgundy Mist Metallic, and Lake Placid Blue Metallic, with matching headstocks.
Fender Jaguar "Kurt Cobain" Signature (2011-present) Coinciding with the 30 year anniversary of Nirvana's breakthrough album "Nevermind", Fender released the Fender Jaguar "Kurt Cobain" Signature, a remake of Kurt's famous 1965/66 Fender Jaguar as used on the 1991-1992 Nirvana tour. There were two versions of this guitar: the "relic" version that attempts to faithfully reproduce Kurt's Jaguar in it's current road-worn state, and then the "NOS" version that is basically as if Fender made a brand new signature model for Kurt as if he were still alive. It's made at the Fender Mexico plant, and features an alder body painted 3-tone sunburst, brown tortishell pickguard, special lead circuit pickup selector switch control plate to accomodate the 3-way toggle switch, 4-hole lead circuit/output plate to accomodate an extra volume/tone control, black Tune-O-Matic style bridge, and a special profile and shape neck with a Pre-CBS Stratocaster style headstock, Jaguar in a tiny font like the bad repro logo Kurt's guitar had, and binding with dot inlays, and 22 frets on a flatter 9.5" Fretboard radius. The guitar sold for around $1200-1500 and early purchases got a special "Kurt Cobain book" with it showing much of the guitar and talking about Nirvana's history. There was even a package deal with the 30th anniversary release of Nevermind.
Fender "Pawn Shop" Jaguarillo (2012-2019) The Fender "Pawn Shop" series was a line of guitars designed to look like refined but modified instruments like you'd find in a Pawn Shop. These included the "Jaguarillo" - a Fender Jaguar with an HSS Pickup configuration basically, all angled.
Fender Jaguar 1964 American Vintage (2012-)
Fender Player Jaguar
Squier Classic Vibe 70's Jaguar (2019-present)
Squier Contemporary Jaguar HH ST
Fender Jaguar American Original 60th Anniversary (2022-2023)
Fender Jaguar American UltraLuxe 60th Anniversary (2022-2023)
Fender Vintera 70's Jaguar (2023-present)

The Fender Jaguar in a Hard Rock Context
The Fender Jaguar has classically always been a rhythm guitarists guitar after the surf age ended. It was that shiny, glossy, pretty guitar that the lead singer had that was low in the mix and pretty much ignored. Cobain gave it a little bit of a hard rock pedigree because of his Martin Jenner modified Jaguar, but that's not the classic Jaguar, that's the Cobainified-legacy that would not exist if it were not for the LA Recycler and Chinchester 1980. The Classic Jaguar was always way overlooked for it's surmised lack of potential as a lead instrument, a severe oversight because the Jaguar actually has a heck of a lot going for it even in it's classic 2 single coil garb.

The first thing everyone whines about with the Jaguar is the switches, which I admit, are very inconvenient in a traditional sense. The best thing to do regarding the Jag in a hard rock context, is to throw away everything you know about guitar switching and control because the Jaguar REALLY has some true shortcuts built into it's circuit. It's one of those things where traditional guitarists get too hung up on "how things have been, are, and always will be" - that stodgy, traditional, and often, I might admit, quite judgy stance I've been fighting since I started playing a Jag in 2005.

Typically how I start with a Jaguar is this - rhythm circuit plate, switch down, rollers all the way up, diamond shaped plate down, up, down (bridge pickup only, strangle off), lead circuit volume and tone full up - so you're in the classic rock traditional setting of bridge pickup on the lead circuit, wide open. When I change to both pickups, I just need to hit a switch, and if I want the neck pickup, I just switch to the rhythm circuit flat out for a very very smooth, round, lead tone (yeah, I know it's called the "Rhythm" circuit but what "law" tells me I NEED to only use that circuit for chords). If I need more clarity or to cut some gain, I'll use the strangle switch in conjunction with the lead volume like a Treble Bypass in the old way they did it in the 70's on back to clean up, rolling off thee volume.

The Jaguar tone by most is characterized as being "Ice Picky" and "trebly", and to some "weak" or "tinny". I hbave never found that to be the case, actually, it's the most midrange heavy Fender of the lot, it snarls somewhere between a Humbucker Gibson and a FilterTron Gretsch with the fruityness of a Gibson in the middle position. It's very much a "Les Paul by Fender" in a way, but with a Gretsch-like snarl to it that a Gibson does not have. It also has a tighter low-end and that spanky signature Fender top. THAT is the REAL Jaguar tone. IT DOES NOT SOUND LIKE A STRAT. I have a theory that a lot of the Ice Pick and Tinny comments come from traditional guitar players who picked up a Jag and tried to play one witout knowing what the controls do, so next thing you know they're trying to play smoke on the water with a thin, snorkely tone through a surf amp and saying "this sounds like shit". The Scale length has a lot to do with this character too since the attack is less as sharp, and shorter scales tend to scoop the low mids and high mids more - which is coincidentally, my favorite EQ curve for guitars BTW as the floor shakes, the eardrums are at their limit, and the midrange hits like a Mack truck.

In a hard rock context, you want a high gain amplifier. At the lowest gain I'd go with a Hylyte Era Hiwatt Custom 100 with the Henry Joyce mod, or a JCM800 with the Jose Ardonio modification, and for those I suggest one of the hotter new variants from Squier or Fender like the Classic Player, Classic Vibe, Vintage Modified, or anything else with the golden 11K bridge pickup in it (yes, Jaguar pickups get that high - remember, we're NOT talking about Humbucker Jags here - not yet). These guitars chunk and sound just like my Cool-Railed CIJ. Marshall power really brings out a Andy Summers meets Phil Collen/Stanely Clarke vibe - Police meets Def Leppard - snarly midrange, aggressive, abrasive power chords, and a smooth lead with some texture to it - and because it's a Jaguar designed to be played clean, it cleans up REALLY good. The range is very wide in tone, ranging from early Thrash metal, to The Monkees. When I cover Master of Puppets these days, I use the Jaguar most of the time.

The Whammy system is another part where the traditional hard rock or metal player is going to need to drop all of their preconcievd notions and look beyond the expected. It's not a Floyd Rose, it does not act like a Floyd Rose, so don't expect it to act like a Floyd Rose. But it's not the ultra finicky light dipper everybody makes it out to be, it's actually - and I'm talking the old, knife edge version, not the new Panorama version - got quite a range to it, about a low "B" note on the low E all the way down, and about 1-step up on the High E. It works great for those Eddie Van-Halen slides into notes, or whipping up a string and pulling off before diving it. And it has some of it's own peculiar tricks. For one, you can do Pedal Steel effects by pressing down behind the bridge with a free finger while picking notes. Another one is picking notes behind the bridge and getting strange harmonic overtones that way all over the place.

The bridge itself can be really adopted if you utilize a unique playing technique and learn to master 2 things - muting individual strings while letting others ring out using your palm, and palm muting the strings behind the bridge, and palm muting BOTH the bridge and behind it when you are wanting a tight, metal "chugga chugga" thing. This is a tremendous part of how I play Jaguars and JAzzmasters and how I get the most out of them.

But a lot of this relies on another thing, a good setup. Unfortunatley, the Jaguar and Jazzmaster by extention, suffer from "Ahead of it's time" engineering. Basically, the tool tolerances and micro-sized mechanics of the whole device were requiring something tighter than what Leo Fender could provide in 1957. The common fix for this is heavy strings, but that's not how I do, and not how you get a lot of what I do above. I play with standard .009-.042 gauge, the same strings most offset players cringe when I tell them what I use. And the amount of Buzz i get is minimal at worst, as in does not hit the amp, I have VERY good sustain, and the tone is thick, fat, and has a nice "cut" to it.

How I get a Jaguar working with .009s is by doing a number of things to "solidify" the bridge. Basically, jam up the threads for the gross action adjustment, jam up the threads for the saddle height, and then put stiffer springs on the E strings to box in the middle 4. Then I iangle my low E saddle upward and use the adjustment screw hole to "Jam" the string in place. With all this stuff set optimally, and the strings properly stretched out, I think I only have to tune the Jaguar a few times between restrings.

For strings, if you are going this obnoxious, high energy route of playing, you want something that will hold up to the abuse. Originally I used Fender Bullet .009-.040 or .009-.042 gauge sets, in Stainless when you could still get them like that. When Fender dropped the bullet Ends sometime in the 2010s, because they won't unravel, Earnie Ball came out with the Paradiggm strings and had a huge hype-train getting guys like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Kirk hammet to try and break them and knock them out o ftune, and I can say, they hold up stupid well on a Jaguar. Another experiment I plan to do when I can, is take the .007 Billy F Gibbons Challenge with Rev Willie G's Mexican Lottery brand strings - in .007.038 IIRC. Nobody I know has run a string that light on a Jaguar before, and I'm interested to see what that will go like. I might adopt those if It gives more whammy bar travel. But best overall from about 2017 onward has been the Paradigms, I've had sets last me as long as a year and a half before they went dead or broke, so I can confirm it's not snake oil. I'm not nice to my strings, I paddle them around with a Dunlop Jazz III at speeds up to 212bpm, and a lot of the time, when I'm playing slower, I'm picking pretty hard.

Now let's discuss the big Sunburst elephants in the room.....

Jaguar Variants & Clones with Humbuckers

The Fender Stratocaster got it's first variants circa 1981-1983 with "The Strat" and "Elite Strat". The Jaguar had to wait almost twice as long to start getting any variants outside of the norm. Sure, they were reissued in 1985 made at Fuji Gen Gakki in Japan, but those were still traditional 2 single coil JAguars with the vintage vibrato and traditional wiring. Ditto the AVRI Series, or anything with "American Vintage" in the name.

Fender Jaguar HH (Japan) - The first true Jaguar variant official from Fender as a factory made product was the "Jaguar HH". This model is a regular Jaguar, sans vibrato, with a stop tailpiece and Adjust-O-Matic bridge in it's place, and 2 Humbuckers. The earliest models came in some pretty cool colors such as candy apple redburst and teal greenburst metallic, but later on got the usual suspects (Vintage White, Black, Aztec Gold, Inca Silver, and so on). These were made at Dyna Gakki starting around 1997 or 1998, and continue to be put into production off/on here and there. The longest US Run of these was from about 2006-2010 as the "Fender Jaguar HH Deluxe", which was a black on black guitar with chrome hardware, and 2 Dragster Humbuckers - I owned one at one point. I found the Dragster Humbuckers to be a bit lacking in the "power" department.

Squier VM Jaguar (original version) - The first Squier Jaguar model was released in 2008 and was sort of a low-cost ancestor to the Fender Blacktop Jaguar. It eliminated much of the chrome plates as a cost cutting measure and had a strange adjustable bridge setup on it unlike anything before or since.

Fender CP Jaguar Special HH - The Classic Player series was launched in 2009 as a series of Mexican made Jaguars both in the Traditional wiring with 2 hot wound single coils, or this variant that featured 2 Humbuckers, and the Rhythm circuit repurposed as a kill switch and a pair of "roller" coil taps, a feature nobody other than Peavey before had used on their guitars (the Peavey T60's Tone controls did this). The only other differences were an Adjust-o-Matic bridge, and a US Tailpiece located closer to it.

Fender Blacktop Jaguar - This was a Mexico made HH model with simplified wiring and a Tune-O-Matic and Stop Tailpiece setup. These started being made in 2009 or 2010 as well. It seems like a upscale version of the original VM Jaguar.

Fender Modern Player Jaguar - Chinese made dual P-90 Jaguar with a Adjust-o-matic, Stop Tailpiece, and no pickguard. These came in mocha, sienna sunburst, and a few other colors. Mostly Mocha seems to be the most common color. It's basically a Les Paul Special in a Jaguar body.

Fender Kurt Cobain Jaguar - This is a mexican made guitar released on the 20th Anniversary of Nevermind in 2011 to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain who brought the guitar back out of obscurity. This guitar was based on Kurt's heavily modified 1965 he likely bought from Martin Jenner in the L.A. Recycler. 2 DiMarzio pickups, Adjust-o-Matic bridge, 3-way switch, 3 knobs on the lead circuit instead of two - the whole nine yards. And of course it was availible as a Lefty and a Righty, and in Road Worn relic and brand new condition.

These models change the game substantially because they eliminate some of the more esoteric traits of the JAguar in favor of more traditional parts (Humbuckers, Tune-O-Matic bridges, simple classic 1v/1t/3-way wiring). But with that it takes away the unique character somewhat, with the exceptions being the CP HH Special and the Cobain model which have their own strange sonic pathways to explore.


Jaguar Clones & Derivatives
Surprisingly, the Jagmaster is starting to get some clones and close relatives.
PICTURE + MAKE/MODEL DESCRIPTION + SPECS
1968-1980 "Fender" Jaguar "Serviceman" guitars During that time, Philipeno allies and others were making unauthorized copies of Fender guitars of varying quality, right on down to the logo, and one model they copied a lot in the run from the late sixties till the early 1980's when these were built, was the Fender Jaguar. A lot of these came over from the Vietnam war in the Nixon era from returning vets who got these while off duty during the war to keep themselves entertained.
Late-70's Early 80's Greco Realsound Jaguar copies