Fender '62 Reissue Jaguar

I own a CIJ Fender Jaguar reissue, in vintage white, which in my opinion is very nice. It has the standard jaguar set up: rhythm and lead circuit, floating trem, vintage style tuners and the infamous jaguar bridge. It has a very nice maple neck with rosewood fretboard, it is slim but not too slim, as i feel my fender highway one tele neck is. also uses standard stock pickups.
only problem i find is the tone and volume controls for the lead circuit pretty much cut all volume if turned a little off full.

the guitar has a wonderful clean sound that (personaly i find) cuts through any mix well. the pickups are well voiced and slightly hotter than other single coils. i find the best sound comes from using both bridge and neck pickups together, with the tone switch down. with this switch up, i cant personally find a usable tone, or sound, it cuts the bass, making the sound extremely thin and trebley

i bought this second hand so i cant comment on the factory set up. it was well set up when bought, but is very simple to do yourself anyway. unlike others i have found no problems with the stock bridge, no buzz, string slippage or tuning problems, even when excessive tremolo is used, i have it set up with 10 gauge strings. tuners stay stable also, are relativity smooth to use and require little readjustment. along with this the floating trem is simple to use and set up, although my bar would not sit tightly in the hole, to correct this i took it off of the guitar and used pliers to tighten it. as said above the volume and tone pots, are poor and cut much of the sound and may need re-wiring or correcting

this is a solid guitar, that seems like it will be usable for a good many years to come

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this guitar is superb! i highly recommend buying one, i can not comment on its comparison to the MIA jaguar, but is extremely good value for money and worth looking at for any style of music. i own a fender highway one tell and a epiphone ES-335 (dot)and have began using this jaguar as my main guitar as it sounds wonderful and feels like a nice compromise between the thick neck of the es335 and thin neck of the tele, along with a somewhat midway sound between the two.

I realize that this review contains both the Japanese and the American made Jaguars. I own an american made Jaguar but tried a japanese made in a music shop and let me tell you that the difference is huge!
So, we are voting for two different guitars in this forum but my opinions is for the USA Jaguar! (The CIJ Jag is a joke)

Sunburst with a splendid finish, no modifications at all, mute is still there.

This is THE guitar if you're into surf music, Beach Boys, Grunge (Nirvana ;-)).
It's very diverse and you can even play most rock tunes on it too. With the uppermost switch in the upper position, it produces a very jazzy sound and is perfect for both rhythm and solo play during jazz sections.
I've mostly played rockabilly and 50/60's pop/rock and roll on it and had on stage alot of times.
Since the sound is unique, it helps creating an odd sound for the band as a whole.
When I first bought it, I just played surf riffs but I discovered some new settings and nowadays I play even AC/DC on it :-)
I give it a 9 for a tremendous sound but it's lack of good sustain keeps it from a 10. (It's easilly solved with an extern compressor sustainer pedal)

It wasn't new when I bought it, but everything was extremely well set up. No hiss, buzzing strings or whatsoever. I've read alot about the problems with the jaguars but cannot understand what they mean ... until I played the CIJ Jag.

This axe is hard as a rock. It weights alot more than my strat, the mechanics is stable and solid. It's obviously not made of crap.

Never contacted because there's no need.

Playes guitar for 17 years, have owned about 15 guitars. I also have a Strat (Am. standard) and a Jag-Stang (CIJ) but this is the one I would save if the house was burning. I'd definitely buy one again if it was stolen.
I like its looks, finish, form and sound, but maybe most of all its short scale neck that is really playable. If I shall complain on something it will be the mute device. I guess it's there just because it is a reissue model. I've tried to use it but it's functionality is really really poor. Well, since I don't use it, I never think of it, it's just there.

Traded a busted up old hagstrom for this 2002 CIJ Jaguar. Knew virtually nothing about the jags besides who played them (Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine). Did a lot of research and people who love 'em REALLY love 'em. Thought I'd give it a whirl.

This particular one was Ocean Turquoise. Wasn't really a fan of the colour, particularly with the factory white pickguard. I replaced it with an aftermarket white pearloid and it made it a ****load more attractive.

Played this guitar for a few weeks and decided that the buzzing from the factory saddles needed addressing. Replaced them with a mustang's and that helped a bit.

also strung it with D'Addario EXL140s Extra Heavy gauge strings and that seemed to help as well. Never fully went away though and the guitar was painful to play acoustically whenever I just picked it up to noodle.

I would describe the single-coils in this a just average. Would have thought to replace with Fralins or Lollars.

Thought this guitar definitely had some character and grew to love some of the quirks, but overall it just didn't suit my style. I lean more to the overdriven humbucker sound of bands like Mogwai.

Currently I play through a mesa triple rectifier head run through a carvin legacy 2x12 (with celestion V30s). Found that the jag brought out too much of a treble sound out of the amp. Too piercing to be enjoyable no matter how much you tried to roll it off.

This guitar would be better suited to an AC30 for a more brit pop sort of tone or to the classics it was made for, SURF.

A nice guitar in it's own right but not versatile enough to be my main guitar.

The guitar was set up like shit but who knows what the previous owner did to it. Took it in to my shop of choice, Capsule Music in toronto, and added the mustang saddles and got it set up properly.

Rest assured though, once that was done it felt like a much better quality guitar. Was a real fan of the short-scale neck. It was highly playable.

My biggest complaint was that the tremolo system was super frustrating. I know they were trying to maintain the specs of the '62 but I think some kind of locking mechanism would have been a blessing. It continually fell out with any front to back motion.

This guitar never made it to my live show, which basically says what I think of it in this category.

I ended up trading this guitar in because it just didn't suit me. I think in the right player's hands it would be a much bigger threat. Far too jangly and thin.

It did help me figure out that I'm more of a humbucker guy. Thought back on my 26 years of playing and almost all of it has been spent playing Gibson SGs or SG copies. As I do love the feel of a Fender (particularly Jazzmasters) and decided to trade up for one: the reissue Tele Deluxe.

I think I made the right choice.

This is a fairly new Crafted in Japan Jaguar. Hard to tell exactly when it was produced because of the inconsequential information about serial numbers on Fender's site, but I'd guess 2005. Standard sunburst model; wanted a custom colour but was unwilling to pay more. Seems I can't get away from bloody sunburst even though I don't much care for it.

22 frets, short 24" scale which is nice for girly hands like mine, loads of controls, two singlecoils which are shockingly awful - microphonic and lacking any sort of decent drive tones even through a nice valve amp, passive electronics, medium-grade alder body, rosewood fingerboard with vintage-correct 7.25" camber which is great for chords, nitro finish, "offset waist" design which feels more comfortable than any other guitar I've played (sitting or standing), rattling bridge with threads that fall out, good quality Kluson copy tuners, weird tremolo system which is a bugger to set up but is more stable than a Strat if you do. I skipped on frills so it came only with a Mustang bridge already fitted, no case or lead or anything.

A lot of the features on Jaguars are, to be fair, very poorly implemented. One of those "it looks good on paper" situations that fails in the real world, but with some coercing the Jag can be turned into a beautifully versatile instrument. If you're faint-hearted and just want a reliable guitar off the bat, stick with one of the many permutations of the Strat or Tele. Me personally? I can't stand those guitars and was willing to tangle with Fender's "ensemble darkhorse" to get it up to code.

Even the American Vintage model I played some years ago reminded me of a voluptuous fresh-faced blonde; stunning to look at but absolute hell to live with. Unlike the blonde though, the Jag can be given certain personality upgrades that actually make it play and sound as good as it looks. And since it looks like a 50s hot rod (all that shining metal and switches galore) this is a wise choice for those who enjoy a bit of DIY and hours of research.

I had a Jag on loan before and it intrigued me. Even though it was weird I just had to stick with it because it made me not want to stop playing even when my hands were tired. And the things it made me play (between the bridge sinking and the trem sending the whole damn thing out of tune) were inspired things I just couldn't get from any other electric guitar. So over the course of a year I amassed as much knowledge as the internet had on it and went nuts chopping and changing things as money allowed. I now have a checklist of modifications I need to do for my own instrument (beyond the standard intonation/action setting stuff), many of which are already done.

Suffices to say, now it's modified it kicks ass, is stable and reliable not to mention VERSATILE AS HELL. I don't use anything else if I can help it. See below for a list of recommended alterations.

One thing I will add is that even with higher-output pickups a treble booster is always useful, but I say this about the majority of singlecoil instruments.

Craftsmanship on the woodwork (body, fretboard, routing etc) was impeccable - especially the frets which won't require levelling or crowning for years! Leo Fender's design and the bargain basement electronics inside though; not so much. Do the following modifications to dramatically improve the guitar:

* Change the bridge for a Mustang one which is a drop-in replacement, or at least use loctite or blu-tack (roll the saddle threads in it) to make the existing one stable. To stop it sinking to the body I replaced the threads with screws from the original bridge saddles. You can't adjust the action with allen keys now, but once it's set it stays there!

* Turn the lead circuit (3-switch diamond panel) around 180 degrees. Then if you knock all the switches down by accident it won't cut your sound mid-song at a gig, making you look like a moron!

* Replace the 1M pots on the lead circuit for 500k ones. Keep the rest of the wiring the same. Even with the stock pickups this will thicken up the tone noticably, and balances out the change between the rhythm and lead circuits.

* You don't NEED to use flatwounds, but using 11 or 12 gauge strings is highly recommended to keep the strings from popping out and ensures better tuning stability when using the tremolo system.

* Lubricate the tremolo system about once a month, ideally when changing strings. Remove the plate at the back and spray in lots of WD40. This'll stop the spring sticking, which once sent the whole guitar out by nearly a semitone when I used it live for the second time. And again, tuning stability after whammy dives is much better.

* Buzz Stops are something to consider. I don't think they make a huge difference once you've got the heavier strings on, but any rattles you can eliminate help. In my opinion also gives a very slight sustain increase; worth dealing with if you can live with the increased string tension.

* The trem arm as is doesn't give much range and often bangs on the controls. I had real trouble trying to strum and dip the bar until heating it and bending it upwards from the point where it curves. More downwards dive range as well. Taping part of the bottom of it (where it inserts into the plate) makes it sit higher and this is also a good move.

* Shim the neck; take off the neck and insert a thin piece of card long enough to cover the back two screw holes. This pitches it forward a few degrees allowing you to raise the bridge, making it more stable even if you don't do any of the other mods. You might find the pickups can't be raised further so those might need to be unscrewed and shimmed with cardboard themselves (place it underneath the rubber pads which are affixed to the bottom of the pickup claws).

* Removing the pickup claws can help with the tone, but they do increase RF interference in some cases. I seem to remember that this makes a difference but it's not as important as the other changes.

* Finally - and most crucially - get those stock pickups out of there! The Japanese made ones will scream like dying birds even with moderate gain, if you're playing at gig volumes. They have weedy tone too. I recommend the SJAG-3 Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder for Jag set, matched pair for humbucking. They have a fat midrange sound that is reminiscent of P90s but with more sparkle (not piercing brightness like the stock ones) and the high-output design leads to some compression, smoothing out the Jaguar's huge attack while retaining the better aspects of the trademark tone it is known for.

Stock it's a complete piece of junk... or rather, it shows potential but falls down under pressure. After some changes it can be better than a Strat while doing a lot of the same tones, and many more besides (try getting truly awesome jazz tone out of a Strat; the Jag can get much closer). After lots of research combined with personal trial and error, I've found a combination of variables that works.

It's still high-maintenance though, to keep it in the very tiny sweet spot. But once you've hit that spot the guitar will outshine most any others, and I'm not talking about the reflections bouncing off of the metalwork under bright lights!

Fender Tech Support... meh. I've asked for feedback on all the changes I've made, I've tried to enquite about a custom shop model that is like mine but with a custom blue sparkle finish, and got nothing. I was polite too!

Screw it. I know a couple of good techs and THEY have good customer support.

I've been playing just over sixteen years, since I was just a little kid toying about with acoustics in the basement and stealing scotch from the decanter. I used to work in one of the better known Denmark Street stores so I've played thousands of guitars and owned a couple dozen of the best ones, and a handful of firewood piles masquarading as guitars.

I've come to the conclusion that the best modern production guitars (even if that modern production is making repros of half a century old designs) are coming out of Japan. It's a tightly-knit competitive market but those fellas are the best. Haven't played a bad one and actually prefer the Tokai-made Greco Les Paul's (late 70s) to real LP Standards of most any production era. This Jag is no exception and none of the two handfuls of other Jags have been different, though I have to say this one is the very best by just a whisker.

The Jaguar is a pain to set up but once it's there it will stay there and reward you with huge dynamic range, lots of tonal variations and the potential for "extended techniques" like behind the bridge bends and shimmers (strumming chords while dipping the whammy bar after applying lots of delay and reverb to your sound). It opened my eyes to a whole different approach to the guitar. When I want to bang out some power chords, it'll do it with authority. When I want to daisy-chain delays I can carve out some wonderful soundscapes. When I want to do multiple overdubs I don't need a whole fleet of different guitars to make each take fit into the mix; I just play with the switches and volume/tone controls. Where I go, it goes with me, and forces me to play the best I can time after time.

Having gushed for pages, it has to be mentioned: Nine out of ten players will hate this guitar, or at least should avoid it where possible. There's a chance one of them is reading this review now thinking about picking up that suspiciously cheap Jaguar they saw recently; my advice is forget about it. Be happy with your Strats and Teles and Les Pauls and SGs and Pacificas etc. (All good instruments, just not MY kind of good.)

But to the other 10%... perservere. You might just find the guitar you've been looking for for a long time, that has an off-kilter tone and comfortable playability that outstrips the initial horde of problems that have to be overcome. I did, and I'm pretty sure I'll be playing these kinds of Jaguars until I die.

Oh, one more thing. Don't be fooled by the HH Special models or any of the Classic Player ones. They changed the bridge, the radius and moved the trem plate forwarf, thereby robbing the Jag of a lot of uniqueness while still keeping a lot of the same flaws (the 1M pots on the lead circuit for example). My mods were tidying up loose ends; their mods were keeping the look while losing that special jangly tone.

Feel free to email me for more advice, or to pull my review apart ;)

The regular features (is an American-made, so whatever that entails)Early 2000's (used). Sort of a Tobacco Sunburst finish. Bridge pickup seems to have been replaced with seemingly older, ever-so-slightly larger, slightly yellowed Jag pickup (sounds great). All the switches, bells, whistles, etc, that you know and love. (Bridge cover and mute in the case - do not use). Very solid, unique and atractive guitar.

This was an impulse buy after years of heartbreak, in the wake of having my '65 Mustang stolen! I love the "Fender sound," but slightly prefer that extra grit, snarl, twang, scratch of the "other" Fenders (well, primarily the Jag and Mustang!). Is really great for indie rock and alternative because it has an edgy and unique tone that grabs the lister's attention. It achieve "rock-ness" without being all "badass," if you get me. A real left-field guitar with a limited audience, I'm sure. Not great for metal. Possibly great for stoner rock. Does have some twang that could appeal to a regular Tele or Strat fan, and honestly, the neck pickup and rhythm circuit settings are just as good as the neck pickup settings on any other Fender - possibly even Gibby's (to an extent!). I could easily picture jazz or blues on a Jag with a warmer setting (there's a great vid of Joe Pass playing one on YT to great effect!). Be aware that this guitar has idiosynchrasies that you have to decide how to handle. The strings are over the bridge at such a weak angle that it affects the sustain, attack and resonance that are at once part of the appeal for some and part of the problem for others. Allparts or StewMac has a device to aid this, and even knowing what I know, I'm not sure which way to go. I am thinking it would give me improved attack, which is the only thing the Mustang had over the Jag, but I do like the resonance of the Jag as is. Hmm. Is not a simple guitar, but is unique and does have the ability to grow and change with you, as there are a host of resources available to the Jag community out there!

Used, but the fit and finish from the factory are great. This is a guitar that is notorious for requiring attention, re: setup for each and every specific owner! As a result, I think this would frustrate the heck out of a young/new player. They'd be thinking, " this is a $1000 guitar and I'm having this much trouble getting the action/intonation/etc right! It also does work best with heavier gauge strings (.11's are great), which is not everyone's cup of tea. This is a "wirey" souding guitar that sort of "fights" with the player. The result is a great, unique sound. Not sure if a Jag is ever used on Television's Marquee Moon, but that sort of tough, difficult, brash, wiry sound is in there. It slightly results from a guitar that is more difficult to play than, say, a Jackson, Ernie Ball, Gibby, Ibanez or even a Strat. So be warned. This makes a Jag what it is, and adjustment can help, but this is not for everyone. Nirvana fans, please remember that Cobain put humbuckers in all his Fenders, ha ha!

Built Fender Tough!

Do not know.

I've been playing for 25 years and have had lot of guitars. Mostly Fenders, though also Rics, Burnses, Gibby's, Epiphones, etc. I'm addicted to Fender tone to a fault. I'm sure it makes no sense these days to fork out $1500 for a guitar, but once you become a fan of something, there's not much you can do! Just sell the guitar you're playing the least and move on the the next one! But the Mustang and Jaguar are the two guitars that gave me a sound I simply could not find anywhere else. It just has that character. For a run-of-the-mill guitar, a good Tele comes the closest. For something a little different, I suppose a Gretsch comes the closest (great guitar!) It's up to you whether you like the wiry, twangly sound of the Jag (and everything that comes with it!). If you never tried but are curious, you'd do well to give it a serious try-out before buying. If you already know you like it, well, all I can say is that the American reissues deliver on tradition. Love the tremolo, by the way.

My Jag is 2004 MIJ model in Sea Foam Green finish. I bought it from a guy down in Byron Bay a few years ago, and he had installed some sort of Seymour Duncan pickups in it, which I didn't really like. I had some gold Lace Sensors lying around in my garage from an old Strat, so I gave them a whirl instead. A bit unconventional, and odd looking, but it sounds brilliant. I did the standard Mustang bridge thing too.

I was a bit worried that the Lace Sensors would make it sound too "Stratty", but they definately came into their own. The rhythm circut can produce some really sweet mellow, almost jazzy sounds with the tone wheel rolled off about halfway. The lead circuit with both pickups active is just pure sparkle, and kick in the bass cut for some high-end sting.

I play early-Wilco-esque indie rock, and I generally don't use a lot of effects or distorition. I mostly play through the clean channel of a Mesa Boogie DC3 with a Tubescreamer and Memory Man when required, and this setup can do everything I need it to.

When I first bought it the truss rod was loose inside the neck causing some hardcore rattle (don't ask me how the hell that happened). Anyway, I got that all fixed up and she was right as rain.

The tuning on this thing is awesome, easily the best I've ever had in a guitar. I can get the tremolo arm and slam the hell out of it for five minutes straight without barely losing my tune.

In spite of a medium action, there are a few dead spots around the place when you give them a bend, but I hope to get a fret-dress done soon, which will hopefully alleiviate this.

I use it live regularly as my main guitar, and quite often as my only guitar. I haven't had anything wear out on me yet, except the tremolo arm, which is a bit loose in it's socket these days. But that's not a really critical issue anyway.

Never dealt with them.

Mine is a bit of a different Jag, but it still retains a lot of the unique nasaly tonal characteristics of a standard job. She's had some technical difficulties, but the tone is worth the hurdle. I used to be a Les Paul man for quite a while, but I got a taste for that crystaline Jag single-coil tone, and I just haven't been able to go back. If it were lost or stolen, I'd certainly put together a new one.

One of my favorite features of this guitar is the separate volume and tone rollers allowing you to have 2 different tone settings for the neck pickup, in addition to the independent pickup selection available on the lower part of the guitar.

I didn't think I would like the string mute, but I found I like some of the sounds it produces with distortion and other effects.

Also the ability to adjust the spacing of the strings is an interesting feature. I am considering adjusting the spacing of my G and B strings.

I haven't had any trouble with the tremelo. I added strap-locks.

The sound is great. Its slightly different from a Strat or Tele, but it's squarely in the fender family. No buzzing or feedback issues.

This is a very versatile guitar. I would argue THE MOST versatile you can get with only two pickups.

Action is great, I love the scale length. The finish is amazing. Mine was special order from Fender, so I saw it come out of the box and gleam! No flaws, frets looked great, everything was tight and what you'd expect.

It was also VERY well set-up. Intonation was dead on, strings were a low, comfortable height and did not rattle or buzz. I was worried that this was not going to be the case after reading some reviews, but Fender came through.

I have only had it for a month, but seems like its holding up great. Some people wrote that small bumps will mar the finish, but my clumsy playing hasn't left anything permanent on the finish.

dunno, hopefully never need to find out.

Honestly, this guitar seems better made than some les pauls i thought about purchasing for half the price.

Lots of reviews out there made me nervous to purchase this and I still bought it because it's so comfortable, I love the tone, its unique and I just kept coming back to them in the store.

I own a '62 US reissue made in 2007. It is ocean turquoise and very pretty. That whole 2 circuit thing is actually pretty sweet and i quite like the longish tremolo arm (i also own a fender mustang and that arm is too short)

I thing this guitar sounds quite lovely. I hear a lot of talk that the pickups are low output and not so good for the distortion and heavier music. I have seen this guitar melt faces when run through my aged big muff. You can get some sweet muddy stoner rock sounds out of this sucker. It is all in all the finest sounding 'tar i have ever played (though that isn't saying all that much). I think it can achieve quite a wide range of sounds and i actually like the ole "strangle" switch.

When i received this guitar the action wasn't as low as i would have liked (it was kinda high actually). I need not go on about the bridge (as it well know that it kinda sucks). I really only get the buzzing string problem on the low E (so all in all not too bad...it slips out of the saddle easily ...although i tend to hammer the crap out of it). It seems to be well made otherwise

so far so good mes amis.

never had to use their services.

I love this bastard.

The usual Jaguar features, I won't list them here again. This is for the CIJ reissue (if you have an original then you want another thread) and mine is sunburst. For a guitar there are lots of features and switches, if this is a good thing or not then it is a matter of debate.

The jaguar has a growling alt rock tone tone. It can be trebly, can be thin, but it's up to you to fix that with amps / effects. I love the sound because the pickups are nice and hot and the tone cuts through any mix. It's just what I want. Not the most versitile guitar (usless for metal or jazz) but ideal for surf, blues or alt rock.

There are a number of tonal options. The switch at the top of the guitar engages a rhythm circuit, which gives a muffled jazzy tone that is useless for anything unless you want jazz. There are two switches for each pick up and a "strangle" switch which makes the sound a bit more trebly, only it's so subtle it's kind of pointless.

Most people know that Jaguar / Jazzmaster bridges are awful. The strings pop out and the grub screws fall out. After one gig I replaced the stock bridge with a Mustang bridge and threw the original into the bin.

The guitar was well set up but buzzed on the bridge and wouldn't stay in tune. The guitar is shipped with 10 guage strings. The JAGUAR IS DESIGNED FOR HEAVY STRINGS (and the shorter scale allows greater playability with heavier strings). I replaced the strings with 11s and instantly all buzzes and problems vanished. If you can go up to 12s or 13s. It gives a better tone and controls the guitar.

The finish and action was lovely. The Body shape and shape of the neck make the jaguar one of the most playable guitars out there. The trem is nice and subtle and smooth to use, plus the arm is nice and long so you can strum chords and shimmer the tone up and down as in MBV.

If you are a beginner or are afraid of setting up your guitar then don't buy a jaguar. Once I made the adjustments above I have to regularly set up the intonation and bridge of the guitar. It's a lovely guitar, but high maintence.

The hardware and guitar itself are very durable but the switches are plastic. After carrying the guitar to a gig in a soft case the rhythm circuit was pushed inside the guitar and made the sound cut out. After another gig the singer bumped into me onstage and two of the three pick up switches snapped clean off. After this I ripped out all the circuitry and left it set to the bridge pick up permanently, with only the tone and volume knobs for control. It's much better now.

No opinion

I've been playing for 10 years, gigging for 8 and been gigging round the country for 3 years now. I use the Jag, or a Fender Tele with lots of effects.

The Jaguar is a unique guitar. It has personality and with it it has quirks that you don't get with a tele or strat. It's up to you if it suits your musical style, if you can be bothered to modify it to your standards and then maintain it. If you do you'll be rewarded with one of the most playable guitars out there. Jaguars have a cool look and feel that you just don't get anywhere else.

Crafted in Japan Guitar bought in 2003. It has a two tone sunburst finish. The features of this guitar have been covered extensively over this site already, so there's no need to go over them again. I have mod'd the guitar though (more about that later).

I like a broad range of music, but was looking specifically for a bright sounding single coil guitar to play REM, The Smiths, The Byrds and any jangly sixties orientated music. I have a humbucker loaded guitar which sounds great overdriven, so I was only interested in it's clean tones. When I tried this in the store I was impressed by the range of tones it offered. The bridge pick up was excellent for arpeggios. As well as some pretty unique tones, it had some that sounded like either a Strat or a Tele. Before I knew it I was playing Johnny Cash riffs! This doesn't often get remarked upon, but if you're recording at home with a portastudio, this guitar is a real asset, as it's pretty versatile.
Switch to the neck pick up and you have a good tone for Jazz and blues. I have overdriven it when I have my Nirvana moments, and it handles it pretty well, with a distinctive sound. However, if you're wanting a classic rock sound you'd be better off with a Strat.
I got fed up with the pick ups after a couple of months, as through my own amp they sounded too bright and there were too many ambient sounds (buzzing etc) coming from them. I fitted Seymour Duncan Jag pick ups to it, which accentuated all the best properties of the guitar, adding a little more bottom end and depth too. I absolutely love it now, and have been playing it clean with a little reverb to the virtual exclusion of all my other guitars (except for the odd lead line on my SG when I'm recording). I'd rate it seven for the original pick ups, but 9 now.

The action was fine, but the bridge was really poor. It's truly shocking that Fender still put out these guitars with that bridge hardware. I can't help but feel this is what puts a lot of folk off Jags.
I bought and fitted Mustang saddles and a buzzstopper, and the difference was amazing. As well as increasing the sustain, it changed the playing feel of the guitar. Due to the short scale and light bridge hardware, playing a Jag can often feel strange after playing a Tele or Strat. The strings feel flacid. However, following these mods the tension increased and it feels superb to play, in fact it's my favourite guitar for action and playability now.
The offset body is well designed, as when playing standing up it's not at all neck heavy. It seems to rest in a very comfortable playing position.
I'd note it as 6 for when I bought it, but given that it only took a small outlay and a couple of minutes work to sort it out, I'm being generous and marking it as it is now...........

As stated, the original bridge hardware was a joke. You couldn't play it for two minutes without the strings popping off the saddles. Now, after it's been modded, it's great. The tuning is rock solid, and you can rely on it for gigging, no problem. I think it's madness to even consider playing a gig without a back up. The strap buttons are solid. It would get 6 for the guitar stock, but again, I'm marking it for how it is now it's been modded.

I've never dealt with them, so I can't comment.

I've been playing since the eighties. I've had numerous Strats and Semi-Acoustics. My current guitars are a Vintage SG, a Fender MIM Tele, a Washburn 12 string, a Takamine electro acoustic, and a Squire Jazz Bass. I'm playing through a H and K Tubeman to a H and H amp, but mostly use a Tascam portastudio to record songs. I have a number of pedals too.
If you're thinking of buying one of these guitars, do some research first (there's lots of good advice on the internet) and buy the Mustang saddles and buzzstopper at the same time as the guitar.
I love this guitar. Given that it's regarded as a niche guitar, it suprised me with it's versatility and as I said earlier, it's a great recording tool. I've mostly been playing Indie stuff on it since I got it, but its great for other stuff too. I mainly regard it as a rythmn guitar, and with this and the SG for the odd lead line, I find I can cover most kinds of music. It has a unique look and feel, and if it were stolen I'd replace it in an instant. Again, the rating given is for the guitar after modification.