Fender Jaguar

I first read about the jag on the fender website, then i researched it, and found one on ebay and managed to get it for $500. I guess it was hot.

Where to start, well, the colors that come with it are awesome. The tone is even better, nice and twangy. I also like that you have complete control over the pickups and their volume with the guitar, which is really cool.

There are exactly 2 things i would change about this guitar. 1, it is kind of heavy, but its not heavy to stop people from buying it heavy. 2, the bridge is a real pain, just get the lighter gauge strings, and you should wipe out that problem.

Well, i bought it damaged new. And it sounds way better than any guitar i have played undamaged new. Again, the bridge stuff kind of gets loose, but it only gets in the way of palm muting. So, its no big problem if you are just playing like a 6 hour gig. (who plays gigs longer than 2 hours though?)

Bottom line, get this guitar if you like twangy noise. But let me go further, if you are considering not buying the guitar because its production was so short, let me enlighten you. They quit making it because people like Hendrix and Buddy Guy were all using the strats, and the strats were selling. Then, the 70s came, and surf music was completly wiped off the charts, so the jag was really not selling. It was a marketing reason why they dropped it and not a technical reason, so again, GET THIS GUITAR, IT ROCKS!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I am mainly a bass player, but i do like to play 6 string guitar regularly too. I have only really been seriously player for a year and a half, but i have sorta played for a few years before that.

I was looking to find a cheap guitar to play and have fun, maybe gig with. I always look at the music section of my local paper anyway, and i saw this squire jag for 120 pounds, with a 10 watt amp, strap and lead. I went along expecting a beaten up guitar for the money but the condition was exellent. Bargin!

It has a sexy shape, smart black paint job that glitters just when you catch the light just right.A large headstock added flair to the other end too.A quirky little pickup selector and decent humbuckers make for a perfect combination. The humbuckers can easly be changed to upgrade the tone. Sounds ok when played through my 10 watt, but when i took it round my mates and whacked it through a marshall stack it really shone.

Not much to say here apart from the tuning can be prone to slipping out a bit, especilly when the whammy bar is used.

The guitar was four years old when i got hold of it and didnt show its age one bit. When new strings were fitted it felt brand new! It seems impervious to knocks and dings. A real workhorse instrument.

A great first or intermedeit guitar, perhaps outclassed by more expensive instruments. For something other than the regular strat or tele, at least try the jagmaster out!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This was a Fender Jaguar with single-coil pickups, finished in Candy Apple Red.

Primarily a singer, I've been playing guitar for about 10 years, been in a band (drummer!), and have continued to record and play with other musicians on a non-professional basis. My styles range from folk to hard rock, with heavy power-pop leanings -- Big Star, not Green Day.



I played this guitar for 10 minutes at Guitar Center in Hollywood, CA. It was selling for $800 or so.

The short scale length of this guitar means it's not difficult to play (though it has severe limitations -- see below). It looks nice, with a well applied finish and hardware that inspires confidence. It has a certain thin, wiry sound that is signature to a certain kind of music -- the Television/Elvis Costello sound.

There are guitars that you pick up by chance and they instantly feel like old friends. Then there are guitars you fall in love with and can't put down because their sounds draw you in. This Jaguar is neither.

I've been fascinated by Jazzmasters and Jaguars for years, and unfortunately they've always rubbed me the wrong way once I picked them up. The Jaguar has so many switch combinations, none of them intuitive, that I felt like I was playing a computer console rather than a guitar. There are at least four or five switch combinations that would turn off your guitar completely. Not sure if that's a design thing or if some of the wiring on this particular guitar is broken, but not good either way -- I don't need five kill switches on my guitar. The Jaguar shares some features that are on two Brian May models I own (one Eastwood copy, one official Brian May Guitars model), and the Brian Mays are far easier to figure out, with much more useful on/off and phase switches that make sense.

The Jaguar has a short scale (24") is like the Brian May guitars. But while the shorter length of the Brian May models make the guitars slinkier, more responsive, more comfortable on the left hand and marvelous for bending, those advantages aren't on the Jaguar at all. The frets feel very unfriendly for vibrato and bending; maybe they're too skinny, but it's probably also because this guitar has a long string path, which increases string tension. And this body shape doesn't feel comfortable -- there's so much space after the bridge that you feel like you're lugging a lot more weight outside of the playing areas.

Despite its other shortcomings, construction quality is good. The Candy Apple Red finish looks splendid -- one of Fender's masterstrokes -- and all the hardware appears to be well fit. Visually, it's beautiful.

The Jazzmaster and Jaguar designs continue to leave me cold. While the Jaguar does have a certain signature sound, I feel I can get the same sound with my Brian May guitars or my Gretsch, and the Jaguar's legion of faults just make it very unappealing to me. I applaud the construction quality and aesthetics on this guitar while being completely unimpressed by its player-comfort and design dimensions. To me, this is just a guitar that's designed wrong, getting wrong all the details that the Fender Telecaster (for sound, utility and layout economy) and Stratocaster (for ergonomics and comfort) had gotten so right. I think the Jaguar is perhaps Fender's greatest failure.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This is the Jaguar 4-string bass made my Fender. I have a 2010 model in Hot Rod Red. The color is sort of a mix between Fiesta and Dakota Red.

I was in a local music shop and saw this marked down from $1100 down to $599. That was a steal for a nicely crafted in Japan Fender bass. I think that is the same price that a made in Mexico Jazz Bass costs.

The block inlays, matching headstock and extra chrome like the old Fender Jaguar guitars give this bass a really hip look.

Tonally it is very Jazz Bass like.

The neck, nut and string spacing are identical to a Jazz Bass.

The electronics are in my opinion overly complicated. You have two pickups, a master volume and tone, an active treble and bass boost as well as on/off switches for the pickups.

This could easily through you for a loop and is a bit daunting at first. You'll get the hang of it eventually, but yikes, they could have made an easier control layout.

The bass looks awesome. It plays and feels like a Jazz bass. Fender Japan has always put out a decent instrument. The body is made of alder which gives you a very Fender-y tone, the neck is a hard maple and the fretboard on all of the Jaguars is rosewood.

The pickups are the pickups that go in a Jazz Bass.

Bottom line is the Jaguar Bass gives you the classic sound of a Fender Jazz bass with added style points for looks.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com