Fender '62 Reissue Jaguar

Usa made reissue. I think it was made in 2002. you know the features from the other user. I can say that the controls are not easy to undertand, but after one day of playn you enjoy the guitar sounds, moore sounds that tele or stat.

I was searching a good sound, from Campilongo to Frisell. I like blues, country, folk, swing.
Now I can play what I like, really. Tha short scale is not a problem, but the best sound comes from 011 strings.
I had to raise the bridge pickup to hear a good blues sound and now the guitar has clear sound as well as dirty (I think the sound is on your hand...). Big noise when you cvlose all pickups.
If you select the upper switch (rithm) I have a fantastic jazz sound, as a serious arch top. But I like the other sounds with treble switch. I don't know if this may be the one and only guitar. But if you want swing, blues and 50' vibe this is the machine.

I don't like the old tremolo or the bolt on system. but theese are not a problems.
the finish on the neck and body is amazing

hardware is really solid.

I like Jaguar for the old vibe and special sound I have not found on tele or strat.
This my be a strnage guitar for the short scale or for the not simple controls.
But the sound you ear is amazing. Just raise the pickups and play with the switches.

Fender 62 Reissue Jaguar
made in USA
date : 2005 August
Ocean Turquoise finish with Mint Green pickguard
comes with brown Fender deluxe hard case and accessorys.
Good overview for pickups, knobs, tuners etc. you get in other reviews or Fender website.

My music style reminds something from The Seeds, Velvet Underground and The Smiths and Jaguar is extremely right guitar to play this kind of stuff.
Jaguar is more known as bright sound guitar.
But at this moment, it seems to me that my Jaguar
sounds almost like bass guitar: previously, I played six months with a Squier Telecaster and got used with its extremely bright sound. Jaguar is a VERY versatile guitar with many totally different (but all useful) settings and a cool tremolo. The only suspicious feature is Fender Mute as when one puts it on, the guitar goes a bit out of tune. However, played alone it produces nice muted sound. As to switches, I tend to use solo position more. Solo position gives more combinations, because three switches below strings worked only in solo system. Solo is on when single switch above strings is underside position. Rythm position (switch up) sound is quieter and foggy, but works better with an overdriven wah. Depending on the pedal usage, you will get aggressive and powerful sound, which, at the same time, is fully under your control. Many guitars with humbuckers go muddy before you get something really good out of them. My pedal gear consists of a Vintage ProCo Rat, Boss Blues Driver, Shin Ei Companion Fuzz(FY-2), Colorsound Tremolo (reissue), Dod FX-17 Volume/Wah and Toadwork Meat Booster. There is one thing I can promise: if you have ben playing a no-name cheap guitar for a long time, you won't believe how good a Jaguar can be.

Factory setup was not fully perfect and needs professional overadjustment. String action was too high and guitar?s tuning was incorrect. Ok, you will forget these problems immediately when you start to play, but for $1100 you probably want a best. Pickups and bridge adjustment was ok. The neck is very comfortable. The neck is not as straight as an arrow but don't be scared: as the manual says, it is necessary to get a lower action. All in all, forgiven little set up problems the guitar is flawless.

All features of the guitar are very classy; at the same time, the guitar is strongly and well made. The lifetime warranty is not a big overstatement. The reissue side is felicitous body-pickguard-pickup colour combinations, tuners feel, harsh sound and smell of nitrocellulouse laquer finish - all stuff is real 1962. The guitar is not noisy at all, no feedback, stays in tune with using tremolo and sounds excellent with different amps and pedals. Guitar and case (case is cool and well made!!) is balanced very well. OK, low E had a very little fretbuzz compared with other guitars, but its just Fender Jaguar's individuality and that's it. You won't hear it from an amp at all. I was playn' maybe 1000 lives and never had a backup guitar why I should now?

I have been playing guitar for 15 years. Right now I dont have any other gear, because I sold everything to buy this Jaguar. I must say one thing: I never put them on mustang bridge or saddles and I don't like 011 flatwounds at all. Don't underrate Jaguar's bridge, it is an
important part, on which the Jag's unconventional sound (clean with a bit of spice in it). Every little modification change sound. I tried 011 flatwound strings and the sound was boring. According to my taste a Jaguar with 010 roundwounds sounds much better. The lesser sustain of pickups is good because it gives you better control over the sound. But it is, of course, a question of individual taste. I must say that I love my Jaguar.

Review for a CIJ Jag, sunburst finish, dark shell pickguard.

So many more features and almost all of them useful. I won't go into detail because it's listed on the Fender site and other reviews. Suffice to say I use every setting on this. Not all in one song, mind you.

Now this is a modified Jaguar. I've got the Buzz Stop, Mustang saddles and I removed the pickup claws, which increases hum around monitors and TV sets but cuts down on excessive feedback. I also have it strung with Ernie Ball Power Slinkies (011s). If you are planning to use these guitars for anything other than what they were designed for (surf/ambient) these are ESSENTIAL upgrades. They're easy to fit and fairly cost effective, plus they increase sustain. The guitars stock, strung up with 009s, just won't cut it. I might upgrade the pickups for a set of vintage repros made by Curtis Novak.

It suits most everything I like to play. The clean sound on the bridge PU is sometimes a bit weedy, but with EQ this is balanced out well enough. The neck PU is a thing of beauty... really smooth and well-defined, definately my favourite neck PU sound on any guitar (close second is a Les Paul with tone rolled all the way down).

I use the bridge PU mostly, and I use a fair amount of heavy overdrive for rock-orientated stuff. The tone is pretty unique... I think gradually these instruments are coming back, partly because they give you a great sound on any setting, with lots of attack. Even with a lot of gain the character of the instrument is preserved rather well; you can still hear the Fender single coil snap and bite, and twang (if you have it EQ'd that way).

I've used this with two Laney amps (VC50 combo and GH100L halfstack, both of which I've gigged out with) and currently a Gallien-Krueger SS backline bass amp for home practice. Sounds great on all of these as long as I EQ right... I can't stress this enough, especially with the Japanese models, you have to work with the pickups to balance out the sound. Compared to the AVRI Jags I've played, which do have more balanced pickups.

I record with this a lot. It's a joy having a guitar I can use for almost anything, due to all the switching combinations. It layers upon itself well. The 'strangle' switch is especially good for those times when you need a solo to really cut through the mix.

God alone knows how this was setup from the factory, but when I got it it was appaling. I had to put in serious work. The bridge was a complete nightmare, the saddle threads were loose, rattling and sinking, as did the bridge itself. You can use loctite or wrap the parts in blu-tack, either works well. I replaced the bridge threads with screws from an old Squier Strat and now it never sinks. It does mean you have to slacken the strings and pull the bridge out to adjust, but once you have it set this is a rare occasion.

After doing this and adjusting the neck to give me a low action with minimal choking and buzzing, plus heavier strings, moving the PUs closer to the strings for more signal, it is very well adjusted.

The finish is flawless, or at least it was. It has some dings and scratches from playing live.

Now I have it set up to my preferance, it rarely goes out of tune and is as solid as any other Fender instrument. The hardware is good enough to last, sure, the electronics are a bit cheap but no problems as yet. The finish is poly I believe, and is harder than the standard Fender nitro finishes.

Strap buttons are average. I always fit those plastic straplocks just to be sure, more so as this guitar weighs a tonne (got to be made of basswood).

I do use it at gigs without a backup, as it's more or less the only guitar I've owned that fits me like a glove.

My experience with Fender has been complete crap. I asked for some information on their crappy serial number system and that was months ago... still waiting for a reply. Still waiting.

I have my own preferred luthiers for more complex jobs like levelling the frets.

I've been playing solidly since March 1996. I play other instruments including mandolin and harmonica. I've owned enough good Gibsons, Marshalls, Fenders, Voxes etc to know what I like.

I should hope it'll never get thieved. I keep a close eye on my stuff at all times.

This guitar is still for a select few ready to wrestle with the poorly executed designs present (or to change them). It's still unique looking and sounding, for the time being.

I wish Fender would devise a way to get four single coils on there, arranged like two humbuckers. Then they could make a switching system to move from standard Jag config to dual humbuckers, but all done with single coils. I also wish they'd start selling these with Buzz Stops and Mustang saddles as standard, maybe then they'd sell more of them.

My fender CAR CIJ.
22 fret,
S/S,
24" Scale,
Alder Body,
Maple Neck,
"Vintage" Pickups,
Chrome Hardwear,
Floating tremelo.
And of course the pickup selecting system is something special.
2 Circuits, along the bottom of the Jag we have 3 switches set in a chrome hexagonal plate, The Strangle, Bridge Pickup, Neck Pickup. 1 Volume, and 1 Tone knob besides that. The seperate circuit, on the upper switch plate; the rythym circuit, on the once activated, only the neck pickup is engaged, and volume/tone can only be controlled by the scrollers by the circuit switch, perfect for presetting so you can switch between two totally different sounds, just by flicking a switch.

I play anything from blues-classic rock.
Suits perfectly. I'm using an MG Marshall amp, not the greatest, but it still sounds amazing.
On high volumes/gain you can get some pretty annoying feedback if you're too near the amp.
It handles distortion wonderfully, will handle metal.
The neck pickup is very warm, it sounds as though the strings have melted together, sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing.
Bridge pickup is beautifull, rich, full, bright, all of it. Creates a bit of twang on clean.

Apart from the bridge, it's fantastic quality and perfect.
But then, this is where the Jaguar quite famously lets itself down, the bridge. More specifaclly, the saddles. The screws fall out, low E slips out of place, it buzzes a hell of a lot, (Probably due to the loose screws.) of course, it's fixable, fitting mustang saddles and 12's should fix it right up. And people have mentioned putting grease on the bridge screws to give the thread more hold.
You're deffinately going to spend a few days getting the bridge sorted.
And the trem isn't too good, if the trem is falling out, you havent pushed it in far enough, it needs quite a bit of force to get it to lock in. It tends to knock strings out of tune every now and then, but I don't usually use it.
But how amazingly assembled the rest of the guitar is, makes up for the faults.

I think if you spent a few good weeks on fixing up the bridge, it will withstand live playing and be fit to gig without backup, hardware will last, finish will last, seems to take quite alot of knocking into things, strap buttons have never failed me.
I wouldn't quite depend on mine yet, once I modify it, it should be perfect.

Never dealt with them.

Wonderfull guitar, you're going to need a hell-of-alot of patience if you need this. No way a begginer guitar.

But I love it,

Like most of the others described here, this is a Japanese '62 Reissue Jag (not sure of manufacturing date). Therefore, it has all the features except the useless string mute (I tried one on a Jazzmaster and hated how it 'tuned' the guitar up -- it isn't even an accurate 'palm-mute' sound!). The color on the body is Lake Placid Blue (a kind of sparkly royal blue), although I am not sure of the wood used. I am sure that the neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. And don't forget, this is the short-scale 24" neck -- perfect for those with small fingers (like myself). Although it can be harder to play past the 12th fret for some people (due to the short scale), the thin neck is one of the easiest I have ever played. The pickups are definately and acquired taste, although I was able to master them in about 5 minutes in the store. 3 on/off selectors below the strings (neck, bridge, treble boost, which all correspond to 1 volume and 1 tone knob near the output), 1 active/passive selector (with 1 volume and 1 tone roller above the strings). The two single coil pickups even look cool, with the metal "teeth" alongside of each of them. Like the pickups, the body shape is one-of-a-kind. I recall reading that some Fender honcho in the early 60's said it looked like a pregnant goose or something...who the hell cares it looks completely different and original, something that drew me to it(more on that later). The strap buttons are the tightest out of all the guitars I usually play with (Korean Epiphone ES-335, Mexican Squire Strat, Korean Danelectro 12-string). The bridge/tremolo system, while interesting and somewhat inovative, is also somewhat flawed and could have been improved on. I've noticed most people who have posted here have changed it to something different, but they just don't know how to 'work' it, I guess. The tremolo arm is definately a disappointment. With no threading on the arm, it just sits in its hole, meaning that if you lean forward even the tiniest bit, it falls out! Not good when playing high-energy shows. The only other drawback to the guitar is the tuning heads. The other problem with the bridge is that the screws sometimes come loose from the string saddles, occasionally falling out and making the saddle crooked. The crooked saddle in turn allows the string to slide out of its proper groove (this is deinately a problem with the low-E). The only solution I can find, which works fine, is to keep a set of those screws and a corresponding allen wrench in my case. I just make sure everything is set before a show, and I'm golden. You can get these screws from a Fender dealer (I got a set at the place where I originally bought my Jag...more on that later). While the knobs are perfectly fine, I've always had trouble with the heads where the string has to go down into a hole in the center (like bass guitar tuners). This makes for string changing a quite tedious and frustrating task for me. Based on how the guitar's features work for my purposes and the distractions from the last three features I mentioned, this Jag rates a 8.

I first became fully aware of Jaguars and Jazzmasters when I got into Television nearly 2 years ago. Tom Verlaine's sound was so unique (and he looked so cool with those guitars), that my interest was piqued, and barely 2 months later I bought the Jag, after trying out that and Jazzmasters. I believe I chose the Jag over the Jazz because its sound was closer to a Strat. Besides, my ES-335 could handle the sounds I got out of the Jazz. I started off playing it through my Fender Princeton Chorus amp, which in conjunction with the Jaguar makes beautiful ringing bell-like sounds (the distortion sounds best with the amp gain low). With the chorus sound, I can get some tones similar to that of Peter Buck's Rickenbacker on early REM records. At the time I bought the guitar, my band was playing a hybrid of Beach Boys-esque songs and more Strokes-like stuff (check out our website at www.thedemos.net). (It was also cool to know that Carl Wilson played a Jaguar too...which cemented my decision in purchasing it!) I have found the guitar works great for pretty much everything we've played and recorded, especially in conjunction with our rhythm guitarist playing my ES-335. When I started playing through a Vox Cambridge 30 amp 8 months ago, the Jag easily made the transision with me. The Vox amp is tube driven, and allows me to play more vintage overdriven sounds, and with the amp tremolo it is just as unique (but still unique from) the Jag-Princeton sound. (I have since switched back to the Princeton, but both sounds work great for different situations). The pickup choices also give the guitar a versatility within a single amp. There are 7 combinations of pickups on the Jag. Both the neck and bridge pickups work great for cutting leads. I never use the treble boost, however. Depending on which amp I am using, it just creates a thin, hollow, banjo-like sound. Both pickups have a great thick, but cutting, sound when both engaged. The real gem is the other pickup circuit, which gives a nice, mellow, jazzier sound. Really warm sounding! This comes quite in handy when I'm playing in jazz bands (At a competetion once, I got acknowledged my a judge for being able to so easily switch between a funk song and a jazz ballad. I neglected to tell them that one flick of a switch on the Jaguar made that possible!) I now play in a Velvet Underground-esque art-rock band too. When I run the guitar through my Behringer Blues Overdrive pedal, I get ridiculously squeeling bursts of feedback which are completely unpleasent to my other band's ears and the ears of most people. However, it works great for our noisier songs! It is also hard to get sustaining feedback, which would be nice to use on some more melodic leads. Since this works with pretty much all the sounds and situations I need (besides using the 12-string, which is obviously different, I switch to the Squire Strat for a thicker lead on a couple tunes), I'd rate this a 8, seeing as that 'banjo' sound and lack of sustaining distortion detracts!

The guitar itself and pickups seemed to be set-up fine when I bought it...but I don't recall much about buying it, other than the shop also did a set-up of it after I purchased it. I had to have them re-set it a couple weeks later when I found the problem with the screws on the string saddles (which I then found out doesn't happen too often...at most a couple months can go buy without me needing to do some major fixing). The guitar has worked like a charm since then. As I've stated, the neck is so easy to play. There's just no other way to say it! Those with larger hands may find it difficult, but it fits mine like a glove (pun not intended). Since the output jack is on the face of the guitar, I've found it's smartest to use an elbow shaped patch cable here, and feed the cable through my strap. This prevents the cable from wiggling around and loosening the jack (common sense solves all problems, and you can't fix stupid!) There were some flaws in the finish when I bought it, however. But if you know anything about the House of Guitars in Rochester, NY (where I bought it), you'll understand. Even between the day I purchased it and when I picked it up less than a week later, there were noticable dings and scratches on the body and head, including some mindless scratching on the pickguard, as if some 5 year old came in to try out a guitar for the first time and beat the hell out of it (which I am sure is the case!)!! This is not the fault of Fender though, so this will not affect my rating on a 10.

This guitar must be built like a tank! As much as I cherish it, I do play very heavily on it onstage. This is where I used to have a problem with the low-E string sliding out of its saddle, but like I also mentioned, I was able to easily remedy the problem. I've fallen over onstage many a time, and the guitar didn't sustain any damage at all (what a trooper!). The finish is thick and I don't have to worry about scratches or dings (unless it's inside that claustrophobic fire-hazard House of Guitars). Unfortunately, I've never been able to get those pickguard scratches off. Thankfully since the pickguard is white, it's only noticible when the light is angled correctly. The strap buttons are the most solid I've come across (as I've mentioned before). Also as I've stated, I've been able to solve most problems I've encountered, probably due to my love of this guitar and determination to keep it going! I've been through quite a lot with this guitar.

I've never dealt with Fender, and I've only had the guitar re-set up once. I don't recall if it was even under warranty...

I had been playing electric guitar for about 4 years when I got Rhonda (named so after the Beach Boys tune, since this guitar seems to be identified with surf music by my friends). This guitar is my best friend - I get frustrated with her occasionally, but she always pulls through for me! (Fortunately I never get that Kurt Cobain crap - I bought this because of Tom Verlaine and Carl Wilson - I hate Nirvana!!) This will probably be my main guitar for quite a while, until I can get enough money to buy a vintage hollow-body Vox Mark VI. I definately like how unique the guitar is -- I've yet to encounter another band on the Rochester circuit with a Jag or a Jazz -- it's allowed my own voice to come out. I'd recommend the guitar to anyone who digs clean tones, classic Fenders, Television, or indie rock. And I'd make sure to find another if it ever got stolen...after of course smashing the guitars of the band who stole it over their own heads...if any band ever steals it I know which one it will be...

I'm back with another review for my second Fender...the 62' Reissue Jaguar. While I'm sure you know the specifics, my particular axe differs just a little, however, the customizations only changed 2 or three characteristics, and added a few features....

-CIJ (Crafted In Japan)
-22 Vintage Frets
-Rhy/Lead Selector, Rhy Vol, Rhy Tone, Lead Vol, Lead Tone/Coil Split, Pickup On/Off X2, Strangle Switch (Low-Cut)
-Twin Seymour Duncan SCR-1 "Cool Rails" Pickups, Passive
-Alder Body, Maple Neck, Rosewood Fretboard
-3-Tone Sunburst Finish
-Jaguar routed Offset-Waisted Contoured body
-TOM In place of Rocker Bridge (I'm chaning that to stock, explain later)
-Floating Tremelo Tailpiece with nifty friction held bar and Trem-Lock feature
- Gotoh Kluson Style Tuning Machines
- 24" Scale, 7.25" Fretboard Radius, roughly 1.3" nut width
- Included Hardshell Case

Because of these features, this guitar is like a tonal candy store, there's hardly anything it does'nt have!

I bought this guitar as I had played an original 63' Jaguar years ago through a high gain Mesa amplifier turned to 11 and found a sound that I've been looking for for a real long time. All in all, Jaguars keep getting more expensive, so I decided to fix one up, however, I was met with some fairly pleasant surprises along the way....

I run this multi-faced monster through a Behringer V-Amp Pro rackmount processor straight into my computer for recording, and needless to say, anyone can tell when the Jaguar is laying down the tone...

Clean, the cool rails keep the original "Jaguar" tone, sort of like Abigail put a few too many turns around the bobbins in a stock vintage one. The tone is very warm due to the shorter scale length, yet very bright and sharp at the same time, with a nifty "thwack" to it that no other guitar can manage to get. The sound is kind of like a Bright Les Paul or a Darker Stratocaster, but not exactly, very much it's own tone all in all. Clean with a Blackface Twin setting on the V-Amp and the Reverb cranked brings about visions of surfboards, bikin's, and waves, like it was meant to. Kick out the Reverb and punch up the treble, and you get Ric Ocasek's "My Best Friend's Girl" tone nailed easily with both pickups on.

Overdrive brings out a rather good 70's Dino rock type tone with the Cool Rails (and even without if you happen to luck upon a good set of Jaguar pickups like that old 63' I played eons ago). I usually run with the Brit High Gain through a Standard 78' Cab, which pushes the Jaguar into sounding kind of like a Les Paul in the bridge position, with a few upper midrange frequencies cut off. It gives off a really snotty kind of growl usually reserved for Gretches and some LP's, which works great for rhythm as well as lead, and for lead it really packs a lot of punch without losing the lows, which in my minds eye, is a perfect lead tone.

Now time to crank it up. Put the V-Amp on Rectified Head with the defualt cabinet, turn everything to 10 except the mids, and you end up with it sounding like most other metal guitars, the "thwack" is augmented by the heavy distortion, leaving the guitar sounding like another humbucker equipped shred machine played through a rectifier with the mids scooped out. I've pretty much deducted this to me believing that just about anything with a bridge pickup and strings is good enough for metal.

Either way, I have not been able to find a sound that DOES'NT work on this guitar. I can't say it's the pickup swap because it sounds much like the old 63' I played, just without hum. I've come to the deduction that the Jaguar tone is not just the pickups, but the body, the neck, the hardware, and how each piece of the equation relates to itself. If someone CAN'T get a good sound out of one of these stock, then they just have not found out how to get it yet!

Never saw it when it came out of the factory so I can't really comment on that. When I got the guitar, the pickups were swapped out, the pickguard had been replaced with a brown tortishell with the provision for the string mute on it, and the bridge had been swaped out with a modified Gibson ABR Tune-O-Matic that someone tweaked for the Jaguar's fretboard radius. It was fairly well setup, but it still will never be perfect until the standard Rocker Bridge is put back in (either Mustang OR Jaguar iterations).

The Tremelo had been disabled, it took me about 5 minutes after removing the 12 Gauge strings from it to fix that little issue. I ran it with 3 different tremelo bars, the first one being washburn "Wonderbar" trem bar, then I installed one from a 62' Reissue stratocaster, then lucked out, went to Guitar Center, and there was a 62' Jaguar bar in the clearance bin. Bent it upward a little, and changed it up for my kinda trem "abuse".

My re-setup (Which I do routinley) lead to the guitar playing great afterward, however, my setup for Jaguar/JAzzmaster style stuff deviates from the normal version. First off, I strung it up with 009's, which is not a mistake as I use the bridge/neck angle to compensate, which now yields really good sustain with the light feel I like. Then I tightened the spring and bypassed the trem-lock button which is a tad bit unusual. However, this lead to three discoveries, 1.) The Jaguar actually has some decent Dive Bomb potential despite not having the ability to go lower than what would be an open A string on a bass, 2.) This has to be one DAMN good trem system as it stays in tune reliably, even with a Tune-O-Matic installed in place of the normal bridge, and 3.) The Trem Lock can act as a Quasi-D-Tuna type device. I just push the bar down, lock it, and can play in a lower key all of a sudden, talk about versitile.

My only complaint is the fretting out, which on Japanese Fender guitars I have deducted to having something to do with the frets on the top part of the neck not being inserted into their slots fully, a problem I'll be removing when I go to refret my axes soon, as plenty need it at this point. People say it's the neck radius...but if it was, then how is it a 63' Jaguar with equal action and equal fretwear can NOT "choke" when being bent.

This thing was MADE for the stage. It has all that flashy chrome, that angular body, a punchy, LOUD tone, what else do you need? I've sat down practically all day with this guitar several times recording and playing it, and it's given me less trouble than most of my stable (with my Jag-Stang being the only equal in the house).

The hardware leaves me with only two insecurites, one once get the rocker bridge. First off, I don't entirely trust a Tune-O-Matic on a Jaguar, even if Kurt did use one, he did not use the whammy bar like I do. Second, I I'm a little undecided on how safe doing downward trem tricks on a Surf inspired whammy system is, but so far it's held up beautifully, so I probably haven nothing to worry about. I've been using the Dynamic Vibrato on my Jag-Stang like a Floyd Rose for the last 8 years and it's held up incredibly well, and still stays in tune, the Jaguar should be infallable if nothing else.

The strap buttons were another reason I was set on this being the guitar for me, it came with Schaller Strap-Locks pre-installed! Those are about as solid as solid can be. I've used them religiously since 1999, and it's a standard tweak on ALL of my guitars.

As far as dependancy and gigging without a backup, why the hell not, but then, I like to keep the Jag-Stang around for the tunes that need more of that Humbucker girth to pull them along, so between me and those two, it should be an unstoppable team.

My experience with Fender is this, they are works of art, but they are also FRIGGIN workhorses! You can beat on em, and drag em' around, and put them in conditions that most glued together guitars can't bear. They are built like old Ford trucks, that's why I like them, they practically run forever even in the harshest environments.

However, I'm not as mean to my guitars as one might think, actually, they get pretty babied compared to lots of others I've seen.

I've never had to deal with em. Their stuff always works, and the designs are simple and reliable anyway, why bother.

I've been playing almost 11 years now, and this is my second Fender. I bought a Jag-Stang in 1999 and it's been probably the most reliable guitar I've ever owned. I also own a couple Kramers, scads of homebrews, and other stuff that would take miles to list.

If by some chance it were stolen, I'd be REALLY F***IN pissed. Since it took me THIS long to get a Jaguar. After 10 years of harassing music stores, parents, and other Jag/Jazz players with my so called "stupid" setup ideas and so on, It's finally paid off and I've got one. But then, nobody'd get far anyway, since I have the serial down, and it's pretty hard to miss a guitar I have with all the ID's on it, and even harder to get at it as I live with a good deal of useful and painful weapons that I know how to use in a moment's notice, as well as a cellphone on me 24/7, so needless to say, a perpetrator would have a hard time making off with my stuff.

THe only thing I wish for, is that people would quit pigeonholing guitars with a particular genre. So what, I shred on a Jag with what passes for a stock setup. That would be like me saying a Les Paul with P-90's and a Bigsby would not work for surf!

You know i just got a MIJ one of these; I give the sound a 7 only because I was inclined to change the pickups and after i put in SD antiquity pickups it was a clear 10. I dont know what everyone is talking about with the no metal thing but i have tuned it down to D and played many of the songs from my metal band ( i usually use a double cut les paul) and it sounds great. I was using it through a 65 bassman with a japanese Boss overdrive with both pickups together and it was amazing. I have even run it high gain through my 5150 and it totally screams. Wolftickets on no metal.

Review for a three-tone sunburst CIJ with turtoise pickguard, as far as I can tell it's a late 90s one (can't get an exact date). As the other reviews: very short scale 24" fretboard with an un-Fender-like 22 frets, hardwearing poly finish, rhythm/lead circuit. Guitar is all stock so 2 single coil pickups. Three-piece body, quite heavy so I'm thinking it has to be basswood.

Gotta love that offset waist and Strat-esque contour on the top; both of these factors make it a real joy to play when sitting, equally it balances well standing up. Unique and crazy bridge design shared with the Jazzmaster. Comes with Fender gig bag.

Unlike the original '62 models and the American Vintage reissues has no bridge cover or mute. Although these missing features aren't that useful to me, it is all part and parcel of the Jaguars mojo, so it loses a couple of marks.

So many well thought out features, easily more than double the 'standards' (I'm thinking Strat, Tele, Les Paul, SG etc here) and I find I use every control except the tone roller on the rhythm circuit. A more than balanced 8.

You're dealing with a real Gibson obsessed player here - I don't much like the Les Paul Standard for reasons I won't get onto here, but I own a Liberty ES-335 copy and Gibson Les Paul Special as well as loving the Flying V and ES-175, among others. So for me to give a grade this high to a Fender is heresy but sorry Gibson, this guitar is too damn good not to.

What do I play? Rock, punk, funk, blues, metal. Suits all but the latter style. A lot of players say these guitars sound bad with low to medium amounts of gain, well in my opinion they are WRONG.

Truth be told - and this is my opinion remember - this sounds amazing clean, great with blues/blues-rock levels of gain and pretty darn good with medium amounts. So yes it does work on a sliding scale BUT ONLY JUST. With that in mind it won't do metal unless you want to throw some fatter pickups in there - I don't, I have P90 and humbucker instruments already and don't require another.

I'll break down what I like into style catagories. I adore this for blues - it has that delightful single coil spank and bite when you dig in. The surfy background of this instrument makes it so very percussive - doing chord sweeps and mutes sound so rewarding I could do it all day, so this guitar is a real funk machine. Punk: I like it fairly trashy and this guitar will deliver. A lot of the great punk guitar sounds are single coils with plenty of bite and the Jaguar keeps up easily.

For rock, including the more contemporary sounds of Strat/Tele wielders like the Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and cream of the crop Bloc Party, any setting will work depending on what you want. Creamy and smooth chords and solos, rhythm circuit. I love playing stuff like 'Take Me Out' and 'Helicopter' with the lead circuit, using the bass cut and bridge pickup switches; nails that funky/cutting sound perfectly. In fact I think a lot of new bands going for that sort of sound would love the Jaguar. Also keeps up well for early Zeppelin albums too - I know Pagey used a Tele, but the Jag can do those sounds just as well, in its own brilliant way.

It can get noisy but this is only a problem if you're piling the gain on, and personally you're not going to be using single coils if you want lots of gain are you? Or are you. Those magnetic 'teeth' around the pickup seem to cut the noise down at the cost of losing some sustain.

It can go from cutting and piercing to rich, warm and full with a flick of a switch and change of nuance. I find myself using all the controls on this, the volume controls are especially responsive when you have some overdrive cooking on your amp and you want to back it off. The tone control on the lead circuit is indispensible - if I want to go for full cutting treble on the bridge I'll leave it on 10, if I want less agressive bite I'll roll it off to around 2/3. Plenty of varied Fender single coil tones here, if I need more ballsy tones I'll switch to P90s or humbuckers.

Hmm. This is where this particular guitar falls flat on it's well-contoured arse. It is atrocious, and that is no understatement.

This guitar was loaned to me by a friend who bought it as a main intrument primarily because of it's looks. He is a great bass player and a beginner guitar player. As I found out, he couldn't get to grips with it because IT IS NOT A BEGINNERS GUITAR. It's just too damn high-maintenance for that, because when it's stock you have to wrestle to keep it playable.

I knew what I was getting into when I noted that Fender called the bridge/vibrato system a design failure. Every man and his dog hates those saddles - I mean, saddles should have one properly cut groove, not lots of shallow ones as this has. I've only had the low E come out once after a week of solid playing on it, but the chances of this happening live increase tenfold. Volume control is suffering from bad contacts. Truss rod requires some serious TLC as it's bowed and probably has been since my friend bought it. Gauge of strings is too thin I think. Pickups feed back easily, but I quickly learnt to make full use of this so now it only feeds back when I want it to, and how I want it to for the most part. Feedback can be musical.

It isn't all bad though. Tuning pegs do their job pretty well. The plastic nut didn't skip or jump after I'd put some graphite in the grooves. I don't find the switches too noisy although they are a little tough to change mid-song, however I like changing sounds mid-song so much I'm getting used to it. Although that tremolo system is flawed it does sound sweet for subtle wavers and flutters, I would say Bigsby but it's far easier to use!

This guitar has real potential. Some of the flaws are pretty easy to fix (cleaning the volume pot, adjusting the truss rod, fitting some 011 gauges instead of the 010s it currently has) while others are going to require upgrades. These are: fitting a Buzz Stop, changing stock saddles for Mustang ones (#1 most popular mod as voted for by Jaguar owners), possibly getting the pickups potted or changed (but not for humbuckers). These will improve tuning stability, sustain and general reliability and aren't too expensive to do.

The Jaguar could and would appeal to a wider range of players if it were more reliable; all Fender have to do is start fitting these with buzzstops and mustang saddles as standard, and perhaps do away with those magentic things round the pickups because they negatively affect sustain. It's a shame Fender haven't wised up to this else I predict they'd shift a hell of a lot more Jaguars, as opposed to it remaining a more cult kind of instrument as it currently is.

I can't trust this live. I haven't tried it and I am afraid to, what with the squealy pickups and wacky bridge/tremolo. I think I could keep it on best behaviour, but the thought alone worries me. I don't worry when I think about gigging with my other instruments.

The finish will last as it's rock hard polyurethane, the strap buttons are okay but I like to use those plastic straplocks to be sure. I think I could gig it as a main guitar and not worry if I did the mods I describe in the section above.

Well I'm unsure of the guitars exact year of making as the serial number doesn't correspond to those on the Fender website. I'm going to email them and I should hope they do a good job, considering the design flaws.

I have been playing eight and a half years. I've owned so much I won't both to list it all, though I've had the usual Les Pauls, Fender Twins, Marshall stacks, Vox AC30 etc etc and I have tried a wide range of equipment. My main amp is currently a Laney VC50 (which has awful stock speakers but that is another matter!).

If it were stolen or lost boy would I be in trouble as it isn't mine! I plan to get a used Jaguar at some point and mod it to perfection - I'll keep it as a single coil instrument though, I don't want another humbucking one.

What do I love? It's the sound of Fender without being just another Strat or Tele, which are great guitars but I am tired of those sounds they are not fresh any more. This guitar has it's own twist on the Fender sound and can approximate those others when needed. It can be refined and pretty or trashy and dirty. I love those switches and sliders and knobs for real control of the sound, very few guitars have such a big tone palette to choose from.

I hate the serious design problems this has. The guitars design is 43 years old and if Fender know it has design failures why doesn't it correct them? With a few simple changes the stock guitar could be as reliable as the other top Fender models... you shouldn't have to buy a $1200-1400 guitar then modify it because the company haven't changed the original design problems! Granted my model is a CIJ which is cheaper, but read some of the reviews below.

Still, despite all this crap the guitar is special. I cannot tell you how great it feels to have found a Fender I almost love after all these years of being a Gibson player. It has it's problems, but when you get past all those and down to business you can get some great things from it. It may not appeal to everyone (probably because you have to wrestle with it) but for some people it just feels right. I'm one of those people.

This guitar is a mid 90's jap reissue. Some really nice features about it compared to other guitars I've owned are:

1. Comfort- played sitting down, it's so-so, but standing up it's great, really well balanced and comfortable.
2. Neck- the shorter scale is great if you have small fingers (like me). Not too thick either.
3. Controls- The slider swithches are a great idea- why don't more guitars have these?? You can change pickups easily with much reduced risk of bashing off a toggle switch while playing. You also get a wide selection of pickup combinations

Biggest negative feature is that it's difficult to set up right- the truss rod is very inconvenientlly located, for example

The sound of these is an acquired taste, as the other reviewers here suggest. It's not a strat, and it's not a tele either. Personally, I love it, but don't expect a nice 'glassy' strat sound. It can be as 'bright' as you want, but personally I think the mids are a bit different. The clean sound of the bridge pickup alone is enough for me, but again it's all down to taste. Good for alt rock etc., which is why i bought it. If you're style is of the 'heavier' variety, change the stock pickups as they don't handle lots of distortion well. Personally, I've never had the feedback problems some other reviewers describe.
I use mine with a vox valvetronix, which I would recommend trying if you want to see what kinds of sounds these guitars are capable of.

Oh dear. The last guy who owned this left it in a state one guitar tech described as 'a mess'. This wasn't totally his fault however, as some amount of heartbreak is inevitable with one of these older jap reissues. Forget about fiddling with the existing bridge, simply change it for a mustang bridge or (heavily) modify it. Buzz on mine was appaling, with lots of dead frets. I've since had some modifications done to the bridge and tailpiece, but even so it's only 95% perfect. If i didn't love everything else so much I'd have sold it by now.

Firstly, I would not use this guitar on a gig without a backup. Prior to the bridge modifications, the low E popped out of it's saddle all the time. So if you're gigging yours with the original bridge, beware.
I really should stress though that aside from the bridge assembly, everything else about mine feels very solid. It's a pity Fender messed up with the original design.

Never dealt with Fender

I've been playing 10 years, and have owned and played a variety of guitars. If it was stolen or lost I would get another, although I'd go for a more recent US model. I love the jag primarily for it's comfort and playability- it really is one of the nicest guitars to just 'play' that I've ever owned, if not the nicest. As mentioned above, that unique sound compared to a strat also does it for me.
A word of caution though- if you get one, PLEASE pay to have the bridge changed/modified, and have it set up properly. It's worth it.

CIJ Jag, somewhere between 99 and 02 model going by the serial number. Alder body. Same specs as the rest. Switches for each pickup, for hi-pass and for rhythm/lead circuits.

When I first bought it, tuned it and plugged it in, I was a bit disappointed. I'd just moved up from an Epi Les Paul Goth, and the output on the Jag's single coils is quite low.

However, it has grown on me. I'm pretty much confirming what everyone else has said, but I'll say it again anyway...

-It's good for jangly strumming and arpeggios and such. The pickups are rather bright. You have been warned.

-It's -not- good for distortion, unless we're talking lo-fi "just a little bit" distortion a la Black Keys, which it isn't too bad at. But turn up the dist. a bit more and things get a bit muddy. Yes, the 'shimmer' is still there. Sonic Youth's 'Daydream Nation' will give you a good idea. Listen to the guitar carefully. That's what you'll get. I'm still a bit disappointed with it in that respect.

-Also, it's hard to get the EQ just right... I find that if I have it nice and jangly for the high 5 strings, my low E will be -far- too bassy compared to the rest. It's not quite as bad since I've upped to .11 strings, but still noticeable.

-I must confess, I bought one because Efrim from Godspeed You! Black Emperor plays one, and I too want to play epic post-rock stuff. But he has replaced the neck pickup with a (full size) humbucker, and I don't want to cut mine up so I'll just have to leave it as it is. I do miss humbuckers though.

The strings buzz, which is okay. But they also slip off the bridge, which isn't okay. Bash out a chord and, oops!, your low E has slipped right off and is now out of tune. One of the first things I did was get a Mustang bridge, and it's sooo much better. I recommend it.

Oh, and I am pretty short and have small hands, so this baby is just perfect for me in that regard... 24" scale and thin neck means I can play a bit faster than on the old Epi. Yay.

Overall it's good, but only if you add the Mustang bridge. The original bridge is just intolerable.

Hmm, don't gig with it, so hard to tell how long it's gonna last... seems to be pretty solid though. I reckon it would take a beating fine.

Bought second hand and don't have a warranty. Haven't had to deal with them anyway, should be fine.

I've been playing for about 8 years, and I'm never going to be great. But I think my new Jag suits me, just because of the short scale and thin neck basically. Very easy to play. Sound wise - I would prefer more grunt, but really, I should've known. Might go and buy another Les Paul as well, then I'll be set.

Hope this helped.