The Rise, Fall And Rise Of The Fender Jaguar |
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Jan 22 2021, 08:26 PM
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The FENDER JAGUAR is a guitar that has seen it’s share of ups and downs. It was the “Hot Axe” to have way back in the day, then was all but forgotten, then a small band that got big from Seattle stuffed humbuckers in a Jaguar and made the Jag the “it” guitar again. After grunge faded, the Jag faded with it. Now, the Jag rises yet again. There are listings for vintage Jaguars on reverb.com and other sites for insane prices.
There are multiple listings for Jags from the mid 60’s going for $6,000 to $8,000. At first I thought this was some sort of misprint or something. Nearly 10 grand for a fender jag? Really? But yes. These guitars have come in to their own again and people are willing to pay through the nose to have an original fender bit of history in the form of the Jaguar.  The Fender Jaguar was released in 1962 and cost under $400. This was actuallly more expensive than the Strat and Tele at the time. After all, the Jag was a bit more of an advanced guitar in some ways. It had wads of knobs and switches for one thing. More than other fender guitars of the era. Also, you could service the electronics without having to take the strings off, unlike working on a Strat or Tele. The Jag drew heavily from the Jazzmaster and was intended for Jazz players as the shape was meant to be comfortable being played in a seated position. Many jazz players at the time played sitting down. Not all, but many. Also, the Jag featured a shorter scale length than the Jazzmaster. While the Jazzmaster had a more standard 25.5 inch scale length, the Jag had a scale length of just 24 inches. This impacts the way the guitar feels when playing and especially bending. The shorter scale length of the Jag makes string bends easier and string travel is increased as well. For Jazz and Blues players, this is a very handy thing. The pickups and chrome pickup cradle on the Jag gave it lots of bite. It could cut through a live band sound and be heard even though the Jag pickup was low gain, it was distinctive. It didn’t sound like a tele or strat. Also borrowed from the Jazzmaster was the tremolo system. It’s a very different setup than the strat trem and fans of this type of trem truly prefer it to the traditional strat whammy bar. All these factors, along with the fact that the guitar had a very “surf” tone, helped it become very popular with bands doing Surf Music. The Beach Boys are a good example. All of the sudden, every surf/pop band in the 60’s seemed to have at least one guy playing a Jaguar. This was great news for Fender. However, it didn’t last. Once the 70s came, the style and tone of the Jag was seen as outdated and the guitars popularity waned quite a bit. By 1973, the Jag was dropped from the Fender price list. The 80s were even worse for the Jag, with used Jags being relegated to the back of most music stores. Sure, the guitar always had fans. Johnny Marr, for example has played one for ages and did so even during the 80s when most folks turned away from such designs. Recently however, there has been a huge uptick in demand for vintage Jag guitars. Why, one might ask, is the venerable Jag rising like a phoenix when more modern guitar designs are so prevalent? It’s partly due to wads of instagram/youtube guitar players embracing the “Neo Soul” style that bands like POLYPHIA have popularized. Also, the guitar does look unique. In a world packed with Super Strats, the Jag has a look all it’s own and a sound all it’s own. The demand has gotten so great, that prices have reached staggering levels. Sort of like the KLON CENTAUR, the Jag has become something of a Holy Grail for a new generation of guitar players. And, while you can get a 60’s reissue Jag from fender for only $2,000, it’s really the mid sixties Jags that seem to be pushing the crazy prices. It’s all supply and demand and demand is at an all time high. Maybe it should be renamed the PHOENIX.  New Jag for about $2,000  This piece from guitarworld.com was very helpful in my research for this article. https://www.guitarworld.com/features/the-ri...e-fender-jaguar |
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