My third guitar was a used Fender lake placid blue Jaguar I bought second hand from a guy down the street whose band broke up. I scrimped and saved 6 months to finally buy his guitar. Not knowing much about guitars at the time in 1964 , I just thought if I bought the top of the line Fender at the time , I would play better. I was fairly disapointed soon after because the pickups would squeel like an open mic when I stood to close too the amp. Giving up on "surf" music anyway , I played a used Gibson SG at the local music store and traded even with $25 boot , knowing I got the best deal. I played Gibsons ever since. A Byrdland , 335 , '68 Gold Top LP with P-90s were among my favorites.
I"ve been looking at Jaguars again seriously becauseof the 24 inch scale length. They play like butter but I hated the pickups and that stupid mute and horrible tremolo tailpiece. Fender of Japan has solved all that in the Jaguar Special. It comes with a tuneomatic bridge and a stop tailpiece like a Gibson. (Wished they made a string thru version) The darn thing plays like butter and 1 and a half steps string bends are effortless. It stays in tune unlike the original version. I really don't miss the trem as I wanted another blues guitar anyway. The Fender humbuckers also totally change the sonic charactor of this Jag version from the original. It's not as bright as the original but has a creamy tone much like a Gibson LP Junior. I elected to change the pickups to Burstbuckers and now it's even better. Crafted in Japan is a good deal nowdays IMO. This is the 3rd CIJ Fender I own and honestly I can not tell the difference in quality from it's USA counterpart. The neck , a B width and a fairly flat radius are especially nicely finished and fitted. The chrome hardware looks very good too.
All in all the pros...........
Quality of construction
Excellant factory setup
Humbuckers
Short scale length
Balance
Excellant sustain
Tunomatic bridge
And the bad ......
Typical confusing Jaguar switches and controls
Scale length might be too short for big hands
Lower bout location of the strap knob. (Strongly suggest straplocks)
Difficulty finding a case. (strat and tele cases are too narrow)
The USA and CIJ pickgards won't interchange. So if you wanna change scratchplates be sure to get the CIJ version and you'll need to alter it for the 'buckers.
Only one color choice.........black.
I really am into Gibson/Fender design clones. I still like my Blueshawk and the 3 'bucker strat I made but Fender did it right on this one.
I gotta give it 4.5 MSG stars.
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THE MUSIC IS DOWN IN HERE ____________________________________________________
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.
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