Fender Jaguar

This is the HH special addition. Same features as a standard jag, only with humbuckers and a tunomatic bridge. Read other reviews for all that jazz. I have played alot of guitars in my day, in this order, fender, ibanez, epiphone, jackson, gibson, esp, back to ibanez, prs, now back to fender. My original strat had alot of problems, but ill link that to being a "noob." I saw this jag at the musicians friend retail center and pulled it off the wall. The ease of switching from totally opposite sounds with a few simple moves sold me in all of 10 minutes.
Taking off 1 point because I would still like the original jag tremelo on this baby. Theres nothing like end of the world feedback/ noise AND a whammy bar!!!!

I have owned many guitars, about 15 in all, my current collection features an ibanez artcore, gibson les paul studio, pre fender jackson soloist, prs se, an esp viper, and now the jaguar hh. This guitar smokes them all in terms of versatility. where the viper and artcore have their niche sounds, they are one trick ponies. The jaguar was stunning to begin with, but I play on a 5150 with a roland jazz chorus for cleans. The super distorted sounds were a bit too "twangy?" for my taste at first, So I tore the bridge burstbucker out of my les paul and swaped it with the jags bridge hb. Instant gratification. The way everything is wired up helps to keep my tone when I roll the volume down to kill the gain, but in 1-8th of a second I can pull total death metal out of this "surf" guitar. I can get everything from sonic youth , chili peppers, industrial, country, jazz, and metal. The bridge really helps for sludgy death metal chugging. Im not counting off anything because I had to change a pickup, this thing is not designed for "metal" but I am taking off a point simply because for something to deserve a 10, it must be better than any guitar ive ever
"played." not owned, but played. The best sounding guitar Ive ever laid my grimey mits on was a heavily modified 70's les paul that will forever haunt my dreams.

Came setup mighty crappily, it was sitting on the wall for a bit, strings were dead, but there was just something about it that grabbed me despite the funk growing on the strings. I spent an hour or two at home and its good as new. In my hurry to buy the damn thing, I didnt notice that the neck joint was not so tight. About a 1/16th gap halfway down the joint. No bother though, it still plays and sounds good to me. Finish is black, yay. Looks good. Im gonna knock off 4 points for this obvious lack of pride concerning the neck joint. Looks like someone wanted to go party on a friday night instead of spending a few extra minutes with my neck. Since this was a display model, the crappy setup should not be fender's fault.

well, as usual, I figured I would have to replace the tuners. Good tuners/ tuning is my biggest pet peeve, and I have to say that Im happy with the stock vintage tuners. I have yet to have any knobs go loose or any other indication of shady workmanship. As for durability, the second night I had this baby was a party night, and in all of my drunken glory, I was distracted before I zipped up my soft case. well, I hoisted it up on my shoulder and felt all the weight jump off my shoulder. The thing hit the ground HARD!!!!!! Not even a ding anywhere. The thing even stayed in tune!!!! I lost an older epi les paul due to a dog knocking it over one time, so for the jag to take this like a champ.... tears of joy!!

The hell with fender customer support. I went through hell trying to get my old strat fixed when it was still under warranty.... the neck repeatedly bowed, and it was a problem with their badly crafted truss rod, not me being an idiot. Funnily enough, I have hopped on the fender saddle again, and I've yet to have to deal with them on the jaguar. I think they got it right this time, so Im giving a big fat no opinion!!!

kick ass guitar for anyone looking to getaway from conventional overpriced crap.

This is a followup review from the one below. Since I submitted that one I've come to learn what all the switches ACTUALLY do, and felt like a bit of a fool leaving it as is. Also I've since made mods to the guitar, and gigged it, so I have more input to give.
I still give the features a ten, it's still as versatile as always.
I also found out that despite it having what is definitely a '93 serial number according to Fender's site, the "Crafted In Japan" means it was made in '97 at the earliest. Wierd that.

Turns out that the switch up on the top arm is, as you would know if unlike me you did your research first, to switch between volume/ tone circuits, not pickups. On the rhythm setting you can only use the neck pickup anyway.
The other switches apply to the lead circuit, and are, in order from left to right looking down on the guitar, on/ off for the neck pickup, on/ off for the bridge pickup, and a bass cut/ boost.
Now, I know I said I loved the pickups, but the bridge pickup needs sorting. Gigging the Jaguar meant having to roll ALL the tone off for it to be used at volume. So I've booked in to have the bridge rewound fatter by Tim at Bare Knuckle to get rid of the harsh highs on it. Half the problem is also in the fact that the pickups aren't wax potted, but Tim'll sort that for me. Still adore the neck pickup too.

The crap stock bridge has been replaced with a Gotoh ABR TOM bridge. By some happy accident the Gibson bridge fits this guitar, and fixes all the problems the stock one caused. The neck radius doesn't match, but are you really going to notice, or care?
For that modification, the setup goes right up to a ten.

Don't need to cover this again. I've already gigged it, once you find the right volume to tone ratio on the bridge pickup you can keep going on this guitar all day.

Nope.

It's still not perfect, but it will be. If you want a very, very versatile guitar, get one of these, and kit it out. Kick ass.

Mine is a '93 CIJ Jaguar, I've been playtesting it for the past week, bought it today. Candyapple Red finish, matching headstock. Looks great, although there are a couple of knocks in the finish, nothing you wouldn't expect from a guitar with an albeit short history. I'm sure that if you're looking at the reviews you already know your stuff about the Jaguar, so I won't bore you. Anyway, I love it, I love the sheer variety of sounds you can get out of it with a mere flick of a few switches.

Pickups are a little noisy, but if you can pull your head out your arse and get over that, these are fantastic pickups. Your closest comparison is a strat pickup, but these are a little different. For one, your neck pickup isn't as bass heavy, and generally sounds more like the neck/ middle blend of a strat, it retains that jangle. Similarly, the bridge pickup is nowhere near as harsh as that of a strat, but can still get kind of tinny and skratchy at high gain, but you can just turn the tone control down a bit a bit and you'll be safe. I wouldn't change them.
As I mentioned earlier, the massive range of tones is astounding thanks to the rhythm/ lead circuit. As far as I can tell, one switch cuts/ adds mids, one cuts/ adds treble, and the third cuts/ adds bass. So as you can imagine, you'll have to play about a bit to get a sound you like. I know famous Jaguar users like Kurt Cobain tended to set the guitar to their favourite sound setting and then tape over the switches and forget they were there. I wouldn't want to do that though. I like being able to tweak my sound between songs, and using different tones for recording.
I think this is a guitar where it's very important to play around with it to find the sound that suits you, and that's probably what puts a lot of players off them, because they're not immediately playable to some. With this in mind, it loses marks, but have a tinker with it and you'll make a good friend with this guitar. There are no real boundaries to how you can make it sound as far as I can see, although it would definitely be unsuitable for you metalheads out there. If that's your thing, go and get yourself some spiky Dean heap of crap with flame graphics.

Now this is where the Jaguar falls a bit short. The saddles on the bridge are, well, shit. They buzz (although you won't hear it through the amp), de-tune, don't hold onto the string very well, and generally make a mess of things. But don't write the Jaguar off for this, you can spend like ??20 on some Mustang saddles (the Mustang bridge is otherwise identical). Much better saddles, very simple to replace. This is something I plan on doing first chance I get. But out the factory, this does make the guitar suffer a bit. I will point out though that this particular Jaguar does seem to be all to badly affected by these problems compared to others I've played, but that's just luck really.
On a plus, the floating is trem is brilliant for subtle wobbles, and manages to stay in tune quite well despite the saddles.

Solid as they come as far as I can see. I would gig this, in fact I intend to. Finish isn't bullet-proof as on some Fenders, but has held up nicely over the past 14 years. Hardware is nice and solid. Might want to get the bridge sorted out before getting on stage though, but not too worried.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing now for 4 years, and will play pretty much anything except death metal. This is my 5th guitar. I currently own this, a 1983 Washburn HB35, a 2002 Gibson SG Special Faded, and have been through 2 American strats. This definitely beats both the strats and the Washburn, though my favourite is still the SG. I play these guitars through a Marshall AVT50 combo outfitted with a Celestion Classic Lead 80 speaker, with a Crybaby and a Vox Big Ben tube overdrive in between. This is a simple enough setup for me given that the tones I can get from the guitar itself are so varied. I love it. Other people may not, but that'd be their loss as far as I can see.

Got this almost a year ago, I was needing a 'proper' guitar, as all I had at the time was a terrible Westfield Strat Copy. I made the mistake of buying this as a relative beginner, which you shouldn't do: you'll need to basically set it up yourself.

Sunburst finish, with a lovely tortoise shell pickguard. The regular Jaguar set up as far as electrics are concerned: 2 single coil pickups, volume and tone knob for one, and another 2 dials for the other, up by the selector switch. There's also the bass switch, and 2 on/off switches for the pickups. it looks very, very pretty.

The bridge is awful however, i'll come to that later.

Jaguars have perhaps the most gorgeous tone in the Fender camp. It's quite thin, but it has a fantastic amount of bite and aggression. Very colourful. It suits all my styles (i.e. crunchy rock, post rock, blues). Probably not great for metal and heavy rock, unless you were to install humbuckers. The stock pickups are better than expected. Not bad at all, albeit not as exciting as i'd like. when I change them it'll bring out the full potential of the Jag sound. Which is totally unique amongst the other Fender guitars.

There was a bit of hum, but it remains to be seen if this was down to the pickups or the bridge.

This is the bad bit. The bridge. Horribly tacky, after a couple of months the saddles had started rattling, and turning on their sides (=/), knocking my strings out of place. My high e string was caught on the edge, and has little/no sustain because of it. Until now I'd been too afraid to make adjustments and risk screwing the guitar. Now I think I'll definitely install a Mustang bridge. The tailpiece too seems quite screwed: or at least the saddle for the trem arm. For some reason thing the thing just won't lock, but rather than replace it I'll just try and fix it myself.
The action is actually perfect, which I was pleasantly surprised by. I probably won't need to adjust anything.
The strings are getting a bit worn, I'll change them. The stock strings, like the pickups, were sufficient but not mindblowing. I'll maybe get some new ones that are slightly heavier.
Tuning pegs seem fine, not too loose, easy to reach around and operate.
The finish is lovely, theres no real problems that I can be bothered with sorting: it all looks very good.

As it was from the factory, I would definitely not gig with it, it felt horribly fragile, down to the bridge. But once I've set it up right I can imagine it being a lot sturdier and I'd be a lot more relaxed about playing it in a gigging context. I'd use a backup though, but that's me. I get worried. The strap buttons are fine as far as I could see.
The hardware seems ok just now. I've not really had it long enough to say.

Never called them.

I've only been playing for about 2 years, 10 months or so. I'm not incredible, but I can do enough. I'm 16, and here's no real taste for much other than punk rock/emo here in Edinburgh (Scotland), at least amongst people my own age, so I haven't been in many bands, I get offers I just turn down. My tastes revolve around things like John Cale, The Velvets, Mogwai, Yo La Tengo etc. For this the Jaguar is ideal. I had to travel all the way up to Kirkcaldy to buy it, as no other shops in Edinburgh/Glasgow sold Jaguars. :P So I knew it was something special, I'd hunted for it for ages, resiting the urge to buy a crappy les paul or something easier to find.

I own a nylon acoustic thats about 25/30 years old, a Boston steel-stringed acoustic, a Westfield E1000 strat copy which I tinker with and take apart for practice. I have a crap Meridian practice amp (which I'll soon replace with a Fender Blues Jr or Hot Rod Deluxe), and pedals-wise a Proco Rat 2, Boss DD-6 and Jim Dunlop Cry Baby.

The Jag is my only real 'good' guitar just now. And it's like the best guitar ever, trapped in a big treasure chest. It has the potential to be the greatest ever, but you need to get around the inital, crappy setup. Well no, I make it sound unusable. With pickups, bridge, and strings changed at least, I can see this thing being a monster. A genuine 9 or 10-rated beauty.

For the first year, I just didn't bother doing anything to it, but now I'm getting out of this stage and I'm going to really knuckle down and unlock this thing's potential. If it were stolen, I'd either hunt down the guy and feed him to my chemistry teacher, or get a new one: it's too good a chance to miss.

In conclusion, this could be the best thing ever: but you'll need to put in a lot of work to do it.

My Jaguar i believe was made in Japan in 1993, 62-63 re-issue. I bought it second hand a few months ago, in fabulous condition for it's age. The finish is metallic red, beautiful. Typical Jaguar, offset strat shape. The bridge is the original one, It's a little rusted now. Tuners i believe are Kluson, excellent tuners, still original. The neck is a slim C-shape. It came with the tremolo arm and a gig-bag. I'm not sure whether it's a solid or laminated top. The usual vast amount of controls that Jaguars come with. Two fairly weak single-coil strat pickups. The pickups are still the original ones. Passive electronics..and, the neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard, 22 frets, and i'm very sure the body is basswood, since it seems to dent quite easily.

Well, it suits my style perfectly, or at least the guitar itself does. I play anything from heavy rock, down to grunge-esque material ridden with wierd effects and what-not. Experimental, is probably the correct word.

I use a Boss GT8, with an Ashdown fallen angel stack. I can eliminate all the squealing and buzz people usually complain about, with my GT8, so i don't encounter those problems. The pickups aren't very good though, but they're certainly not that bad! I will be upgrading to Seymour Duncan whenever i can afford it.

You can get quite a rich amount of sounds from it, from tinny treble with no bottom end, to a very thick bassy sound, whilst still retaining that typical Jaguar sound. Certainly sounds best with little distortion, but with the right effects you can do whatever you want. My only problem with the pickups, is that with them being weak, you won't achieve much sustain. New pickups are relatively inexpensive though.

I don't know how well it was set-up from the factory, it was second-hand. But, i have read that they're usually set-up very well. The pickups needed a little adjusting when i got it, but, everyone has different tastes, so it's only expected. The guitar came with a few dents, and one chip on the bottom...but again, it's expected with it being over 10 years old! Apart from that, the guitar is immaculate. The nicest guitar i've ever seen. The bridge though, is a pain in the arse. I seriously recommend that people change it to a Mustang bridge, you don't want the strings slipping when your playing live!! For the time being, i adjusted it so that the low-e string could not slip down, whilst playing. Jaguars require regular maintenance, but it's only a simple setup. The bridge is a little rusted, and the tuning pegs need changing, purely because i don't like how you have to poke the string into the middle of the tuning peg...they slip out if you accidentally knock the string. But again, they're inexpensive.

This guitar will easily withstand live playing, if you do that one modification, the bridge. All but the bridge, is completely dependable. The tremolo arm is also the best i've ever used..it never sends the guitar out of tune, unlike the bigsby on my SG. The finish appears to be excellent, it's very thick. It's just the wood itself that isn't too durable, but you should be taking care of a guitar this expensive anyway! The strap buttons are not reliable, i bought cheap plastic strap-locks that do the trick :-). Once i've got it modified, i will absolutely be able to depend on it. I'd use it at a gig without a backup if i had to, no problem. I use both the Jaguar and my SG, for complete versatility.

Not needed to, and hopefully i never will! The guitar is superb, and i've heard very good things about Fender. Supposedly, they better customer support than Gibson...

I've been playing for 6 years, 5 hours at least, everday. I've owned a few guitars, firstly Encore for my first year, then a cheap Vintage strat, then i moved up to the Epiphone G400, which i still own, but it's completely modified. Only the body is original. It looks JUST like a real Standard SG, except it doesn't have the Gibson logo. I installed the Seymour Duncan's myself, and changed the electronics. I've played numerous Gibson Les Pauls, and SG's, and the Jaguar, for me, is the most comfortable guitar yet. If lost or stolen, i'd buy it again, same colour. I love it, it's extremely comfortable playing standing up, whereas my SG is neck heavy, and a pain in the arse. The neck is nice and thin, and fits my hands perfectly. All i need now, is to install some Seymour Duncans and change the bridge. After that, it will most certainly be my main guitar. Thank you Fender, for making such a beauty!

Mine is an American made '62 re-issue with the olympic white finish. I purchased it new about a year ago. It came with a brown hardshell Fender case and the various accessories that come with new Fenders. I have had this Jag for a year, and it is still stock. I haven't felt the need to make any modifications. I haven't even removed the string mute even though I don't use it. I will probably get around to removing it the next time I change the strings. The three standout features of the Jag are the short 24" scale length, the comfortable off-set body shape, and the versatile double circuit. I find the short scale length well suited to my smaller hand size and heavier strings. The body on this guitar is incredibly comfortable no matter how you stand or sit. And, the double circuit wiring allows you to go from a trebly twang to a warm jazzy sound with the flip of a single switch.

The Jag has a distinct sound. If you are trying to ape the sound of your favorite performers then don't buy a Jag. Buy whatever those guys are using. The Jag has that unmistakable Fender sound, but it is a Jaguar sound. The Jaguar has alot of character. The name "Jaguar" was an apt name for this guitar. Some people have likened the tone to a "growl." Furthermore, there is tremendous versatility possible with this guitar. You can coax mellow, dark tones out of the neck pickup using the rhythm circuit. And, you can get thin, trebly tones out the the bridge pickup using the strangle switch. There are also plenty of tones in between. Do not, however, expect the impossible. A Jaguar will never sound as dark and mellow as a Gibson hollowbody Jazz guitar. And, it will never sound just like a Stat.

The set-up on my Jag was just about perfect. I didn't even change the strings. It came strung with .11s and they are just about perfect for this guitar. The action was just right, and there wasn't the least hint of buzzing frets. The only flaw I could find was a small ding in the finish near where the body and neck are joined. But, I can live with it. There will be more dings in the finish over the years.

I have not experienced the problems other people have experienced with their Jags. I suspect there are two reasons for this. Number one, I believe most of the people doing the complaining own Japanese Jags. I believe the Japanese models produced in the 90s did have some problems. The most common problem was that the strings would jump out of the saddles. All Jaguars suffer from this problem, but I think the Japanese models may have been furnished with saddles that have shallow grooves. The bridges are often replaced with Mustang bridges or buzzstops were installed. It hasn't been much of an issue with mine. You should not be using strings lighter than .11s. The Jag was designed back when .12s were considered light strings (.13s were common). Number two, much depends on your playing style. If you really like to thrash your guitar this may not be the guitar for you. Jaguars are tempermental beasts. I suspect the reason you don't see alot of pros playing Jags in live venues is that the bridge, tremelo, and switches can be fussy. On stage, performers cannot take the chance that something will go out of wack. Otherwise, this guitar is just as durable as a Tele. It is a slab of hardwood with some hardware and electronic stuff on it.

Haven't needed it.

Back in the early 60s my older brother was a Ventures fan. He got a paper route and saved his money until he could buy a '64 Jag and Super Reverb Amp. I wanted to take up playing the guitar myself after watching my brother master Walk Don't Run, then Apache, etc. He lost interest and sold the guitar and amp to raise money for an apartment in the late 60s. I have played guitar since I was seven years old, but by the time I could afford a decent guitar nobody cared about Jags anymore. Jimi Hendrix was like some sort of pagan god when I was in high school and like everyone else I had to have a strat (there were, of course, no shortage of Les Paul fanatics). Over the years, I have owned more guitars than I can remember, and I have experimented with most styles of music. I never really thought about the Jaguar until a few years ago when I came across an old Ventures LP at a thrift store. I bought a Jag, and I am enjoying it more than any of the other guitars I have owned or currently own. If I could have only one guitar this would be it. If my reissue were stolen I would buy a '64 vintage model.

It was a stock 1999 CIJ Jaguar. I changed the saddles to Mustang ones, added a Buzz Stop, changed the pickups to Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder for Jag models. Also replaced the stock 1M pots on the lead circuit for Strat 500k ones. Sorts out the problem of getting a balance between the two circuits.

Wow. This guitar suits everything I like to play, short of thrash metal as there's only so far single coils can go before noise becomes a bit of a problem and you need 'buckers. For everything else though, it can do want I want and with such power and uniqueness that I can't help but love it. I don't award higher than a nine very often (one of the few others I'd mark a 10 is an SG Standard but it's nowhere near as versatile).

With the stock pickups, it was a hard beast to tame but I reeled it in... barely. With the SJAG-3 pickups in there, anything becomes possible. It makes sense to balance out the twangy nature with a pair of fat single coils to get better overall tone while still retaining the signature tone. It comes close to a P90 sound when gained but without losing it's Fender clean tones.

For me it's a rocking out instrument most of the time (bridge pickup, no treble cut), but switch to clean amp channel, rhythm circuit and your fingers and awesome jazz tone is spit out. Switch back to the lead circuit, engage bass cut switch and bridge pickup or both pickups on for an instant funk machine. Stoner rock, use the same setting as for jazz but with a fat fuzz and plenty of barre chords. I'm always impressed I can get that first QOTSA album tone without humbuckers. There's so much versatility with all the switching combinations and astute use of your volume/tone controls.

I cannot tell you how amazing it is to have a guitar that covers all the bases well but with something that most guitars don't have. I have a feeling that tremolo system has something to do with the unique tone. Of course there isn't much sustain, probably about the same as a Tele, but this makes you play in different ways especially when it comes to solos.

There is something to note. You can't just finger vibrato a sustained note and expect it to last a while like on a Les Paul, unless you have one of the new breed HH Jags with a tune-o-matic/stopbar setup. Not relying on sustain has made me a much more interesting player on lead breaks, especially when playing live. Therefore I don't miss my LP Standard or P90 LP Special much. More so because I can do full six string chords with lots of gain - often not just straight major/minor - and still retain definition. LP Standards turn to mud, for me at least.

Haha. Even if it was set up well from the factory, it'd still be poor. The reason is simple. In my opinion - and I'm hardly alone here - the stock bridge saddles and poor break angle of the strings over the bridge causes numerous tuning and buzz issues. It wasn't uncommon for some saddles to have lost threads and the bridge to have sunk after an hour or two of playing. Also, the bridge pickup was just TOO different from the neck one. EQ'ing to make both sound good was a pain in the arse.

Getting Mustang saddles, a buzz stop, changing the threads that hold the bridge up for screws and changing the 1K pots on the lead circuit for 500k ones - solved it. Also had the advantage of making it far less twangy, getting away from it's surf roots towards versatility. I shimmed the neck for a time, but after a little truss rod adjustment this wasn't necessary. It's worth having things a tad higher than maybe you'd like to make sure you don't lose what sustain there is from the 15th fret upwards. I have a medium action, a balance between ease of play and sustain.

The poly sunburst finish was flawless. The scratchplate is one of the darker tortiose ones, which looks alright with the black Seymour Duncan pickups. The neck was f***ing fantastic, the frets were a perfect fit and it feels really smooth. No need to sand it down.

Stock, the thing couldn't withstand any kind of playing. Modified, it'll withstand pretty much anything. The finish will last a long time, it's poly (although it won't age and check like the original vintage nitro finishes, a shame). Strap buttons are solid but I always use those plastic straplocks on top for when I'm throwing it around at gigs. Plus I turned the lead circuit controls round, so if you knock a switch down it'll turn on a pickup, not turn off as before. Better safe.

Since replacing the pickups (from covered stock units to open-coil Duncans) I've taped around them with black insulation tape to prevent anything falling in and damaging the thin copper pickup wire, or strings getting hooked under the lip. Both common causes of pickup death. And thanks to Eddie, this has the added advantage of making it look more rock.

Never had a lot of luck with Fender. People have moaned at Gibson but actually they've been very prompt and generally useful. I've sent Fender a couple of emails and got nothing.

I must give a big thumbs up to Strings Direct, especially Paul who took my order for Seymour Duncan pickups. He was a fast, polite bloke who quickly sorted out my problem when the first neck pickup I had was defective.

I'd like to give it a ten, but I've had to modify it gratuitously to make it the best guitar I've ever had. Whereas Gibsons generally perform great straight out of the box after a quick tweak to intonation and action. Some say Strats work great straight out of the box but there are a helluva lot of replacement pickups available so I'm thinking, not necessarily.

If it were stolen I'd take the plunge and get that Japanese-made 'Old Lake Placid Blue' finish version with pearloid scratchplate. The new ones are made of alder too, a better tone wood.

It's near-perfect. I have no gripes now.

I have a Fender Jaguar Sunbrust made in Japan.

I play, rock, punk and grunge style music.. and the Fender Jaguar is not the Grungey guitar, although Kurt Cobain used it in the Nevermind era. It's not possible to play grunge on it without pedals or sound effects.

I use a Digitech Grunge pedal and a Boss Overdrive/Distortion Pedal and the guitar sounds great with the grunge pedal on. I feel its kinda noisy, but that soothes me well, i love feedback sounds and just making noise.

I feel its not much variety on the sound, but i havent really experienced much with it.. i just found a sound i wanted then taped over the switches.. (like Cobain).. and the two switchers that you dont take up and down, but side ways, (the two ones that are not taped over) i cant seem to find out what they are for.. so if there are other Jaguar owners know this please e-mail me (tor_e_steiro@hotmail.com)

I basiclly doen't know this much about guitars.. so i just fixed what i could to make it more into the Kurt Cobain jaguar.

But to other Kurt Cobain fans who would like to get the jaguar to make it into a Cobain Jaguar. Dont buy the reissue from japan. the sunbrust finish is much more darker that the Cobain guitar. And on the other stuff you must open your wallets...

I've changed the tone and volume knobs, but Cobain had another volume knob. And change the Pickups, buy another strap lock and put on the right wing. and the neck is different than form the cobain guitar.

I've used it for live playing.. and it works great. and i treat it pretty roughly, throwing it around and using stuff like knives to scrape off the finish, and then stabbing the knife several times into the guitar. The finish holds up well, exept when i use a knife.. but thats obviouse... the strap locks are very solid indeed. And i can depend on it. but i always use my two guitars on shows. for different sounds and stuff like that (my thired are in the mail)
but i could and have used only the Jaguar on gigs, without a backup.

I've been playing for about four years now. I Have A Yamaha Strat model. and a Epiphone Les Paul Special is comming tomorrow or monday.

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else? I would maybe buy another Fender Jaguar.. but maybe an old 60's jag, made in america.

Mine is a 2001 American made, 62 re-issue. Ice blue metallic. I bought it a week ago from ebay. Everything is original, including the bridge ;-). Before buying this guitar I had read all the reviews on this web site, including some other websites, too. So, after buying MY jaguuuaarr (:-DDDDD), I decided to write a review to help other lucky people who are trying to decide on buying one. The previous owner of my guitar was left handed, so the guitar was restrung left handed, though originally it is not. The strings on it are special flatwound fender jaguar/jazzmaster strings. Its strap is the vintage style leather. Like everyone else says, this guitar is a beauty. When I went to pick up the guitar from the previous owner, she opened the box, and everybody (including random people around) had their eyes WIIIIDEEE OPEEEN!! Jaguar is a beauty. This guitar has tons of features, you can always find/create a new tone that you have never experienced.

I like playing different stuff. I try to add some ethnic sounds to solos and riffs that I create. I have been involved in music for around 10 years. I like so many different stuff from radiohead, nirvana, pearl jam etc. to jimi hendrix, cream, and some ethnic musicians from different cultures, like turkish, azeri etc.)

Jaguar has very broad scale in terms of sound. I believe, even though it is designed for surf type stuff, it definetely sounds INCREDDIBBLEEE with OD. I have a crappy old zoom 505 effect pedal that I bought 6-7 years ago, and it was used when I bought it. I directly hook up my headphones to the output of the effect pedal, and hook up the guitar to the input, that's it! When I play some stuff from Hendrix, yardbirds, and zeppelin, it sounds just like their recordings (i am not saying I play as good as them :-DDDD). Generally, jaguar has a bright sound, but I get full/rich sounds from it, too, and it makes me FLYYYY!!!!

From the previous setup, the action was a little high. But I took the guitar to the fender service center and asked for a little lower action. This is a second hand guitar, but it has only a very very tiny imperfection on the finish. It is really hard to see that flaw if you do not look for it. Other than that, I think the finish is pretty good.

I did not play it too much. I have had it only for one week now and I have not had any problems. However, as every body else says, there might be a posibility that you would have a problem with the bridge. But I think if the guitar is setup professionally, even the bridge should not be a problem, unless you try to play death metal and stuff... I will not change the saddles, because I do not want the sound to change at all. I will try to keep everything as original as possible. Jaguar is very comfortable to play. The strap buttons are solid. The guitar feels strong. But the thing is; it is soo beautiful so you do not want to use it roughly, you want to be gentle with this beauty...

I called them only once, before buying the guitar. I asked if it was made in the USA or Japan. I gave the serial number and they were really helpful and it did not take even 5 min for me to learn where the guitar was made (it was in corona, california, USA in 2001). (I know there are a lot of differencies between japaneese and american jaguars, but I just wanted to make sure) On their web site they have all the dealers' and service centers' contact info and much more...

This guitar has been in my dreams for almost 10 years (looong time to wait). I could not buy it before, i did not have enough money ;-) Now it is mine, and I enjoy even looking at it. I thank God whenever I look at it. I am soo greatful that I have it. What I think is; Jaguar is not for surf music only. It can be used for almost any kind of music. It is beautiful. Its sound makes me fly, it puts wings on my shoulders. It is so gorgeous, it is my little wing ;-)

This is A Review for an '02 CIJ Jaguar. We'll start with the neck, It has that U or V (don't remember which) shape to it which feels perfect and perfectly lacquered right when you pick it up, 22 frets.
Mine is a Lake Placid Blue color, nice finish, the average nicks dings and belt rash of used guitars. One Volume knob, one Tone knob.
I'd change the stock pickups to Seymour Duncan Jaguar Vintages.
The bridge is the biggest pain in the ass on the face of the earth, change it, in fact if you're ordering the guitar order one with it, or drive to your local guitar store and ask whoever works there the options availible on it, the tremolo is fine really, other than it falls out alot, but that's a floating tremolo for ya.

I generally play grunge/metal or just flat out rock music, it works great, the cleans (with stock pickups) sound amazing, out of my 4 electrics (soon to be 2) this is THE best sounding. The stock pickups generally feedback, ALOT on high volumes, which is ok for me, but stand at least 15 feet away from your amp to prevent this.
When distorted, can sound very crunchy, or very dark, great for the style of music my band plays. The tonal versatility is absolutely wonderful, you can pull about 5-10 different tones out of a Jaguar, the rhythym switches let you select the frequencies that come out of the guitar, and the roller knobs control the volume of each pickup when the rhythym switch is disabled.

Everything seemed to be in decent condition when I got this guitar, I bought it used, so I don't know if they worked on it at the shop or not.

The thing about Fenders is you can beat the living hell out of them and they hold up. I've smacked it into walls a few times and nothing breaks, dings, scratches, etc.

Never had to deal with Fender themselves, the guy I deal with is a Fender dealer, and generally says they're good to deal with, but as with any major corporation money is king.

I've been playing 3 years, I have 4 electrics (soon to be 2)An Ibanez RG370DX(I'm selling), a Washburn Tabu TB300 (I'm also selling, rare guitar), An American made Strat, The Jaguar, and a Washburn D12SCE. I have a Crate GX212, which is being replaced by a Blue Voodoo half stack in about a week. I usually run the Jaguar like this :Jaguar, Wah, Big Muff, Chorus, Delay, Flange, Amp. I think if it were stolen i'd probably either kill myself, or by a new one, most likely the latter.