Fender Jaguar

1997 Jap, white with red immitation tortoise shell plate, rosewood fingerboard. Purchased as standard, u know the one?.?? i have since fitted two seymour dunc quarter pounders, a good quality tune-o-matic saddlepiece with individual string height adjustment and a bone nut. And of course schaller stap locks. Threaded with XL 11's.

Following my recent purchase of Sonic youth's latest album 'Nurse' i have embarked upon a nostalgic voyage of reokjn bollox.......!
simply a hugely diverse instrument in the hands of somone who has the patience and creative intuition to tame the beast.
Boss turbo overdrive, Boss srv 30/30 digi reverb, Tl audio valve compressor, cry baby, Boss super chourus (stereo to two ac 30's), rotovibe.

Factory set up rubbish as usual when u buy Fender in UK.
Crappy christmas cracker style saddle piece can be easily changed, check out all parts.com (somthing with 2 1/6" E to E spacing)plug and re-drill.
Fit some tighter springs to the trem or block it up all together with maple, the floating trem thing is essentialy a rickety piece of shit. (rating judged after mods)

mine has been on tour twice and it still works ( hiscox lite-flite recomended). Obtained loads of dings and scratches but nothing has snapped off it yet, why buy a custom shop relic when u can make youre own?

Think i might send it back to Arbiter UK and say 'the paint is chipped'.

I would'nt play anything else.

Fender's Reissure 62' Jaguar has the fastest neck ive ever played.Thin but not as thin as a mustang neck for leading playing as well as chiming chords.Features include slide switches and dual circuit pickup combinations, which can seem complicated at first.Researching this guitar years ebfore buying one,i was fully aware of its advangates and drawbacks,mainly being the bridge. Initial buzzing and tuning problems were fixed with a mustang bridge,which changes the tone into a more mellow mustang sound. Being the USA Reissue,this guitar came with a very nice vintage style case.

Fender went to great lengths to make this guitar quiet,icluding metal pickup claws and metal shielding taped underneath the pickguard.While this guitar's stock pickups offer a great clean sound,under moderate to heavy distortion they can produce alot of hum.Very bright on bridge settings,and somewhat dark on most neck settings.Both pickups together produce a nice combination of both sound qualities. I later replaced the stock pickups with fender gold lace sensors for a more bassy strat/mustang sound and lower noise.Perfect for Clapton/Henrix styles under tube distortion. (Mesa Triple Rectifier)

TThe neck pickup selector shorted out after some time with heavy usage.I assume this is a factory defect.Switch was replaced with little hassle or cost.Guitar fretted out at the higher registers as buzzed at the low E string.

Ive mostly owned humbucker equipped guitars up untill now,all being medium to high output.This guitar is nice for strat players looking for something a little different or a humbucker lover looking to change their sound dramatically. Wanting this guitar for years now i can say i am satisfied with it. In a sense,a dream come true.

My Jaguar was purchased in 2004. Made in Japan ... some kind of reissue I guess. All the same features as described in other reviews.

The tone of this guitar was a major disappointment. Although it is the "coolest looking" guitar in my collection of 27, it had one of the worst sounds. The pickups sounded muddy and even after they were replaced by Seymour Duncan "Hot Jaguar" pups, the sound was still only OK. Usually SD's make a guitar scream, but not this one. The rest of the sound problem was in the bridge. The Jaguar bridge is a MAJOR ENGINEERING FLUB. The bridge wobbles to accommodate the tremelo, but it is a guarantee for being out of tune. Adjusting intonation is a nightmare. The saddles also wobble, thus further throwing the guitar out of tune and out of intonation. Finally, the strings lie on an adjustment hole which kills sustain. I am purchasing a replacement bridge from Stew-Mac in hopes this will cure the problems. Does anyone out there have any ideas that could help me??? Coming from a country (Japan) with such incredible engineering capabilities, the Jaguar saddle will go down in history as one of the most ill-conceived devices ever designed.

Other aspects of sound from this guitar are pretty unique. It has more switches and dials than a 747. I still haven't figured them out fully, but I suppose it's possible. This is another case of extreme over-engineering. The hardware looks cool, but it isn't easy to use.

Factory set-up was totally inadequate, probably for the reasons enumerated before. I don't this the factory was any more capable of dealing with the bridge problem than I and my luthier were. In addition to the bridge problems, the tremelo was also set up poorly. I had to bend the tremelo arm so there was enough play to actually drop the pitch enough to make the tremelo useful. As previously noted, use of the tremelo is almost guaranteed to put the guitar out of tune.

The rest of the guitar bore excellent Japanese-level quality. Paint, finish, frets, etc. were flawless. The tuners seem to work well.

I'm a play at home person, so I can't comment on how this guitar would hold up on the road. Until the bridge problems are solved, it's a mute point anyway, because the guitar won't sound good and is likely to be out of tune anyway. I can't imagine a professional picker using this instrument for live or studio work. It is more a museum piece of an era gone by, not meant to be played. The quality of the wood, neck, tuners, etc. is otherwise excellent, so I suppose I'll have to give a middle score for this measurement.

How is Fender going to help with a guitar bridge they mis-designed in the first place. Absolutely shameful in a guitar with a list price of over $1,000.

I've a guitar "hobbyist" whose been playing over 40 years, but have never past an intermediate level of skill. I own 27 guitars ranging from a Gibson T2000 to a Lyon Strat copy. I've got 6 Alvarez, 3 Fender Teles, 2 Strats, 3 Dillions, 2 Agiles, 3 SX's, and others. I think my wife will kill me if I buy any more. With all of these guitars I've never had as much frustration as I've had with this Jaguar...so If it were lost or stolen I sure wouldn't be rushing to the store to relive this nightmare. It LOOKS really cool hanging on the wall ... otherwise, FORGET IT!!!

Ok its a japan reissue from 98, ive had it since nearly new.I learnt to play on fake strats etc and a jag was my wet dream since i was a sonic youth obsessed gimp.With the arrival of 98, i had a steady job(more than 3 days) and decided it will be mine. SO i went to a shop and bought one after 3 hours of playing for 430 pounds.I was more chuft than i ever could be for a week, then the tingly little flaws that id been ignoring became more obvious.I had to change these or i would grow to kill my hard on.So i got to work, i changed the bridge for a mustang bridge i took of my jagstang, i filed it down a little so the strings werent going anywhere, it looked just as authentic and did the trick.Then there was the whammi bar.That was irritating, the magnets are nowhere near strong enough so i wondered what all those other jag monkeys did to prevent picking it up every 30 seconds, i smothered the heel of the bar in sellotape then peeled it off and stuffed the bar in. It goes round well and doesnt come out witohut a good tug.I have to admit thats really crap but what else what i to do, advice appreciated.Apart from painting a picture of betty boop on the back heel of it i havent changed anything else.Its sunburst and plays with gauge elevens.I used to argue tens were better for this guitar but i grew to love the low end sound it blasted through with elevens.The electronics and pickups are fine, the necks a dream, and as a standard sunburst jag it basically looks great.As a japanese reissue it has proven far better than any japanese strats or telecaster reissues i have strummed, and it and a silverface fender twin seem to go like bread and butter,and electro harmonix inbetween does the trick.

The clean sound is brilliant,amazing, perhaps the best ive ever heard,a fender amp goes well with this fender guitar, i dont think it needs all these pickup changes, you can get all the sounds you want from it and if you cant then change your equipment.Apart from harmonic ease i guess.The sustain issue that some see in distorsion can be sorted by a big muff or other pedals with sustainers.

change the bridge as they can rattle like hell, but with a mustang bridge its, as smooth as a proffesinal strat,harmonics,upper fret access all seems to be too good, the finish is just too good, though quite chipped now,in places.Removal of too much beer and arrival of better strap locks are helping this.

I dont think ive ever dropped a guitar as much, as the possibly clumsiest guitarist in scotland,ive gave her hell.I play it everyday for a long time and it hasnt needed anything changed. Thats pretty reliable and durable.

The shop wouldnt help me if they had a gun to their heads, though i havent needed anything from them yet.

Its just good ok, better than most japanese reissues for sure, i dont have a big wallet so havent had the chance to play other good guitars for years but i know this one will be remembered.Ive bought other axes like my mustang or les paul custom replica and lets say they dont really compare, so theres a challenge.

Bought me '64 tri-colour sunburst "Maria" back in May of '79. Had taken an Ibanez Les Paul Custom copy into photo class for a portrait session. Instructor told me he had a '63 Jag for sale, if interested, for $200. 'Twas me best-ever I.R.S. refund purchase(asidem: when it arrived, with hardshell carrying case no-less, there were several spots in the black paint which were starting to flake; "aw man, it's nicked" this hipster complained, so he offered to drop the price to $150; "nope, we agreed on $200 & that's what I'm paying"). Inside the orange-felt-lined case was a short mono chord, a leather capo, & a "Jazzmaster" instruction manual(which still has the allen-screw wrench string height adjustment attached). Alder body, 4-bolt L-series maple neck with rosewood fingerboard & gold-coloured clay dots, 22-fret short scale, tortoise-shell pick-guard, stock threaded saddles over patent-pending floating tremolo with sliding lock, "custom offset body" is mentioned on oversized peghead with transitional lettering, stock Kluson tuners, which are a pain to re-string, but stay fairly-well in tune dispite heavy-handed abuse, & petrified rubber mute. Stock single-coil pickups were slider actuated, & one had April 9, 1964 stenciled on its' side. Frets are still stock, but are starting to get ground down! Was told Maria was stock when purchased.

Bypassed the volume-n-tone controls as they were more hassle than help. Replaced the stock output jack with 1/4" Ratio Shaq stereo jack. Direct-wired the stock pickups for stereo access via slider activation, with mono humbucking configuration available when series connected. 'Twas ok, but still sonically lacking. In 1990, replaced the stock plastic nut with brass for better sustain-n-tonality. Wanted to replace the stock pickups with those much lauded Seymour Duncan quarter pounders. "No you don't", my tech advised. "For your style of playing(open chord blues-n-rock)you'll be happier with Dimarzio HS-3s". Right he was! Via slider manipulation, each pickup can individually go from single coil configuration to stacked humbucker, as well as out-of-phase. In single coil mode, it's retro-Fender kewell; in humbucking, there's that stock Jag chunk-o-plank skank! You can even have one pickup in single-coil mode & the other humbucked, along with that out-of-phase option, for a truly individual tonal palate of expression! Unleashed from the stock tone-n-volume control limitations, Maria can caress or growl or singe or soar when need be! She has no problem rockin' along with Bowie's Ziggy-n-Alladin Sane-era mania, or gently weeping comfortably in a blues vein! One hipster, humbled to be playing a "real" vintage axe after several years living with an '80's-era Strat, said playing Maria "...was like driving a '54 Corvette"! Amplification is via a modded Sherwood S-7100A, which can go from retro-Fender Santa Ana sparkle to faux-Marshall sonic sledgehammer, depending on where the bass tone control is positioned. A modded outboard '80s-era Realistic mike mixer helps those 2x12" cabbed Celestion Vintage 30s roar, along with an out-of-phase wired Celestion G10T-75CE for added overdrive(although it might eventually be replaced by an Eminence Ragin' Cajun). Whilst compilin' this article, noticed that Maria picked up stray computer hum in single-coil mode. Humbucking mode, however, silenced that interference!

Since Maria was purchased used, had to adjust her to me preferences. Action is now low-n-fast! As previously mentioned, Maria was compared to a '54 Corvette in performance! The fingerboard HS-3 pickup has a black-coloured housing, & the bridge pickup's is red; so Maria is more colour-coordinated with her still-stock sunburst finish than the stock white pickup housings were. Beside the aforementioned flakes in the black finish, there are two screw holes on the alder body's backside from over-zealous replacement pickup installment! There are also a few solder bubbles left over from those pickup installments, also.

Maria could definitely withstand gigging, as she has in the pre-Cobain daze! Nowadaze, though, she'd be preyed upon by any number of five-finger-discount Freddies! Maria is a studio-bound tone-mistress & stays home with daddy! Stock strap supports were replaced with black Shaller strap locks for convenience & added colour coordination. Since Maria has survived a quarter-century of her 4-plus decade life @ this hipster's heavy-handidness, her durability is testament to Leo Fender's Santa Ana factory craftsfolk!

Fenders were designed to be mod friendly, & still take the abuse unruly gigs could heap upon them! But a Fender tech would probably shake his head @ Maria's blasphemous modifications!

Have been playing for a quarter-century, for thereputic reasons mostly! Have a '76 Ibanez Les Paul Custom copy, along with a mod project 50th anniversary Squier strat. Having nearly lost Maria on several occasions back in da stoned age, would hunt down whoever stole her & give them a pedal suppository! Maria is harmonic heaven! ... In Guitar magazine's 1989-90's Buyer's Guide, Dan Forte & Teisco Del Rey quoted, in their "Bull Market" article on the burgeoning vintage guitar market, this postulation by Skip Henderson of Brunswick, New Jersey's City Lights Music: "I'd say Jazzmasters will increase(in collectability & value); Jaguars I don't know - simply because the playability & sound aren't there, & they've got the shorter-scale neck. For $550 for a Jaguar, even in a custom color, people would rather buy a new Strat. But it's the same old story; if Jimi Hendrix had played a Magnatone ... if one guitar hero plays a Jaguar, or whatever, it'll all change". Less than 5 years later, Kurt Cobain & Jaguar were joined @ the hip! For others, Jaguars will always be asociated with Roebuck "Pops" Staples!!!

features were standard as any other jaguar, all these dials and switches which i guess at the time fender made it were considered somehow "modern" and therefore exciting. It was made in japan. it had an awful bridge and i'll get to that later

we used this with a couple amps, namely my fender deluxe 112 and also some awful crate - which, by the way, made a wonderfully chunky, destroyed sound because the jaguar's signal was too loud. the sound of this jaguar was actually really good, a great guitar sound, full bodied-and rich.

here's where things start sucking. i don't know what happened to this guitar but the strings would have absolutely no sustain above the 7th fret. my friend who owned this guitar always claimed he was going to replace it with a mustang bridge and thus solve the problem (never did, that deadbeat) and so this guitar pretty much stayed sucky and unplayable for any practical use.

this guitar has potential but right now it's shit. all it needs is for the bridge to be fixed, but until then...yeah.

1997 "Crafted In Japan" Stock everything, you know what it's got and that's what's it's got. It's white with the dark pickguard. I'm told the "Crafted In Japan" Jag's are something special, but hell, who knows! Either way, I love the guitar. The Kluson tuners on this thing are great and I would never consider changing them at all, nor would I ever change the pickups.

This thing is perfect for the style of music I play which is everything from 60's psychedelia to 90' grunge. I love how it sounds with my Big Muff pedal and Hendrix Wah. It's actually my backup guitar but it's gets used damned near as much as my Mexican Strat. The tone configurations I get with the switching is outstanding for my playing style as well and I would never change the pickups in this guitar.

I bought this guitar from an ebay auction and when I got it in, I was impressed with how well the action was and how great it played but I was a little upset over the fact that the guitar is 'reliced' pretty bad to be just a 97' model. I was aware of the fact it had a few dings and whatnot but hell, this thing looked like it fell out of a pickup truck going down a gravel road! Butnow, I FUCKING LOVE IT!! I don't have to worry about dinging it up or it falling over and it's already had a few bumps due to this attitude and the bastard stays in perfect tune!

As I mentioned, it stays in tune even when banged and bumped, I jack the hell out of the whammy bar and it still plays perfectly unaffected. It's sound is out of this world and I could depend on it in a heartbeat. As far as the strap buttons go, I can't tell you a damned thing about em' I put Schaller strap locks on ALL of my guitars.

I've been playing for over Ten years and besides this guitar, I own 2 Mexican Strats, a 96' Jagstang, a 60' Musicmaster, a homemade Strat made of a Mighty Mite Strat body, a Mighty Mite neck and all Fender hardware and Dimarzio pickups. Out of all of my guitars, this jaguar is my number 2.

us reissue...natural finish including tolex case and some 60s style strap and lead!! If it wasnt brand new and mint I would be fooled into thinking it was an original and I know my guitars. Features..well its a jag..thats what it is.

retro sounding...very cutting in the mix a bit like the bridge pickup on a tele but can also roll off to some jazzy tones if need be. A lot of room for experimentation...its not a one sound type of guitar but it makes some noises that i just couldnt get with any other.Tremlo sounds great with lots of atmosphere. I think you have to adapt your style to it ...its not a guitar that you can just thrash around on ...needs to be treated like a woman and if you treat it right it responds in kind.It suprised me how blusey this thing can get...real blusey but i cant recall it ever being used much in that field.
Personaly i play just about everything depending on my mood swing but i draw the line at punk or country and western!! Im presently in my robert smith meets the cocteaus with some bunnymen thrown in phase at the moment.

erm...well the setup is pretty bad. So why did I buy a new guitar thats basically buzzing more than any other guitar in the shop and needs a little retune everytime i pick it up? Well im sure that i can slap some heavier strings on it and set it up a lot better than it is at the moment but the thing about this jag is that i just dont care...let it buzz a bit...its all part of the charm....if say my lp tele or musicman develop the slightest hint of buzz then i go insane but this is a totally different animal and thats why i have it...good therapy.

seems solid enough and they do seem to stand the test of time. All this taking a backup along bit isnt exactly rock and roll...break a string...well change it...lets face it how many people here play in front of somone who cant wait a minute while you change a string and if anything else goes wrong ..well the guitar is probably just crap or badly maintained. The finish is superb by the way and looks like it will survive ..the bridge may not take a lot of abuse but then i dont trash my guitars.

no idea

well ive been playin 25 years and own lots of really good guitars. This jag inspires me to write music that i wouldnt dream of doing otherwise...very haunting and atmospheric..a real vibe...i used to think they looked cheesy...but now i love the look..the feel..very well made. If this was to be my only guitar then i probably might have gone for the jazzmaster but since thats not the case im totally content. Obviously technology has come a long way since this guitar was designed but its those dated design features that give it a very unique sound, tone and feel.

I just picked up this American Made '62 Jaguar Reissue. I'm not sure what year it was made, but I'm guessing 2003. I won't go into the spec's, as it has been stated before.

I find that this reissued Jag has great tone throughout the range of combinations of settings (and there are many). The brights are surfy and the rhythm settings are rich and full.

Factory setup was less than desirable, intonation was way off, and action was set to "cheese-cutter". Pickups seemed to be adjusted o.k.

I havent banged on it enough at this time, but it seems to be solid enough for my style of play (classic rock/blues) to use on a gig without a back up.

Comes with the typical "lifetime" warranty, though I'm not sure who or what's lifetime this refers to.... No warranty issues yet . . .

I bought this guitar because I had the pleasure of playing a Vintage '64 (on loan from my bro in law). Once I determined that the price of an Original Vintage Jag was out of my range ($2000 US minimum), I checked out the Reissue and found it to be very worthy at about half the price.

I have a jap jag i bought as a senior in high school based on looks alone. it remained the same candy-apple red, thin-sounding guitar I had bought in 1990 until 6 years later, when i stripped the finish on the body. It still had the same thin sound and intolerble intonation problems/bridge problems. It remained largely unplayed until it's next round of changes last summer. I put a Gibson tune-o-matic bridge on it (it fits into the existing holes with a little reaming) and a roller on the tremolo plate(to increase the angle of the strings to the tailpiece). I disabled the trem(you can unscrew the stud and flip the button to do this. I tore out ALL the electrics(pu's, switches, knobs etc.) and chucked in 1 Gibson P90 at the bridge. A toggle switch turns it off and on. A volume pot is the only other control on the guitar.

It now sounds meaty beaty big and bouncy. The lightweight poplar body has little sustain, but the p90 growls and screeches and plonks away. and hums. I have turned this guitar into a punk rock monster...

The factory set up was pitiful. I always assumed i was a bad guitar player, but it was all the guitar's fault. It looks strange now...the toggle sticks out of the rhythm/lead switch hole; the 3 lead channel switch plate has empty holes in it as does the rhythm volume/tone plate;the neck pickup is gone...in it's place is just the cover. It's slathered down with a gloopy coat of baby blue rustoleum spraypaint, which is weathering quite nicely.

My mods have turned this overchromed tinny piece of chintz into an indestructible road monster. Toured in Belgium, Netherlands and up and down the east coast with no probs. It used to go out of tune and tone...not to mention the butcher job the old selector switches used to do on my knuckles. I've yet to break a string on it...of course I do use a set of 11s...

I've been playing guitar for over 15 years. I have a tele ('81) and a les paul (also '81). I find myself drawn to fenders after my les paul's neck cracked on a flight to europe. but the fender pickups are crap. A tele is a tele and a strat is a strat...you can't mess with that. But the less popular fender pickups are awful.
I plat through a hiwatt lead 50r w/4x12 halfstack cab. With the monster jag, I am unstoppable. I would do the same conversion to a crappy strat if i lost this guitar...the jags lines are just a bit fussy...there's a lot to get tired of...