Fender apparently just doing whatever this year...

[Lurker13]

placing an order for the player jaguar tomorrow. i sold my last jag and have regretted it every single second of my miserable worthless life since. this is a godsend.

That's awesome! Which finish?

Let us know what you think after you get it. I admit to being intrigued.

[ummohyeah]

i think i'll go with black. it looks good, i guess the only gripes are that it has a full pickguard as opposed to the chrome plates jags usually have. will see how the bridge is but i'm gonna guess it'll need a mustang bridge.

i'm gonna try and get 2nd day air shipping to get it by saturday, i'll let everyone know how i feel.

[Lurker13]

i think i'll go with black. it looks good, i guess the only gripes are that it has a full pickguard as opposed to the chrome plates jags usually have. will see how the bridge is but i'm gonna guess it'll need a mustang bridge.

At about 24:30 these guys claim it comes with a Mustang bridge, so (hopefully) that's taken care of.

I agree about the pickguard. I'm not crazy about this trend in simplifying the controls on the newer Jaguar models. I love those dizzying arrays of controls they traditionally have. Still, this one is pretty hot, and at a reasonable price, so I'm interested.

[ummohyeah]

thanks for that. i thought for sure fender would have advertised that as it's pretty much the most common mod to jags/jazzmasters.

i am drawn to the classic aesthetic of the chrome plates and switches, but had played a johnny marr jag at my local gc a lot, and thought that since i am not looping as much anymore, the dual circuit isn't needed. i like the series/parallel switch a bit more. i was thinking of getting a s/h pickguard cut and throwing a blade switch plate on the bottom, but can't find an upper plate with just one switch so maybe will get by with taping over the empty holes. or, just leave it, nothing wrong with it as is honestly, it just looks like one of the cheaper fender models.

i was all set to buy either the american pro or the johnny marr jag this week and i'm glad these went on sale when they did, literally saved me $1000ish. i sold my last jaguar (classic player) to fund some custody attorney costs and ended up with a les paul, not my thing at all. back to the jag. will be here tomorrow.

[ummohyeah]

Got it a few hours ago. A lot of people are interested in these so I'll share a few thoughts.



This will be my only guitar for probably quite a while. I think it will do okay, honestly it suits me.

First impressions: Neck is thin, I've never been a fan of satin finishes either, but I don't think there's a concern at all. The bridge is nice, in fact better than anything I've seen on a Fender offset in the sub $1500 range. Looks to be a huge upgrade on the old Jaguar bridge, and it doesn't look like the Mustang bridge exactly. It looks better. It looks like something Staytrem might make (though it's not).

The Jaguar I used to have was the Classic Player (MIM) series. I liked the neck on that a hell of a lot more (vintage gloss tint, a little thicker). Comparatively, this neck feels cheaper but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Frets look okay and there's no buzzing/dead frets out of the box (bridge humbucker needed to be adjusted and I'm putting 12's on it so whatever). It's lighter than the CP Jaguar I had, which is a good thing. The bridge/tailpiece are also set up at the traditional spot, as opposed to the CP which put the trem and tailpiece closer to the bridge, so you'll get more of those sympathetic overtones and ringing from the newer Jag.

Pickups sound okay. Nothing special, coil tapping is nice because admittedly I'm not a humbucker guy, and I have to say I do not miss all the switches. There's a little less tonal variety here, and I do miss some of my favorite "switch settings," but I don't think anyone but me will ever notice. If anything it will be easier to switch on the fly.

Worth the money honestly. Pick one up if you can. I threw mine on a no-credit payment plan from Zzounds and got it in 2 days.

Edit: Sorry for the huge image. Postimg apparently went down and I don't know where to post forum-friendly sized pics now.

[Lurker13]

^^^Thanks for the info dump, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. Overall, your review sounds pretty positive. Now I want to play one so I can see if I like it enough to return the Hagstrom H-iii I just bought. I like the Hagstrom a lot, but if I like the Jag better, then I might make the switch.

Edit - somehow I forgot to congratulate you on your new guitar, so, congratulations on your new guitar! NGD rocks!

[ummohyeah]

No problem.

For the price I think it's a good guitar, nothing wrong with it, and still far more interesting than most of the options out there -- plus, it's rare you find a black Jaguar. Once these have been on the market for a minute they'll probably go for $450-$550 used (USD). This guitar is a player for sure and it sounds good, easy to play, etc. I will have to get used to the tremolo, I don't think I mentioned it but it's not the same as my last Jaguar, which had a screw-in tremolo arm and sat quite a bit higher than this one. This tremolo arm, at its natural spot, is right above the strings and if you play with the tremolo in your hand to get that MBV sound, it feels a bit difficult, so I'm kind of turning it around and positioning it under my wrist to get that movement. Super weird.

No gig bag or anything came with it so I got a Gator offset case. I'm good to go now.

[Lurker13]

And now I'm kind of GASing for this too:

I could use an SSS Strat in buttercream. I would so sticker that up with hippie stickers and turn it into a psych machine.

The marketing psychology used by guitar companies is wicked. The gear lust just never ends.

[BitchPudding]

All I want is strats to have the big headstock as a standard thing. No complaints, cause I love strats. But cmon man, the big shit looks soooo good. If this had it, it would be like the malmsteen strat.

[Lurker13]

All I want is strats to have the big headstock as a standard thing. No complaints, cause I love strats. But cmon man, the big shit looks soooo good. If this had it, it would be like the malmsteen strat.

The big headstocks do look good, they have a lot visual presence. But I really don't mind the smaller ones, they have their own charm by looking sleek.

I'm kind of smitten by this one, its siren song is getting hard to resist.

[MechaGodzilla]

i like tele headstocks and huge cbs headstocks but some of the strat ones look weirdly small, especially when it looks like someone played "pin the decal on the headstock" and lost

[Lurker13]

i like tele headstocks and huge cbs headstocks but some of the strat ones look weirdly small, especially when it looks like someone played "pin the decal on the headstock" and lost

If it looks that bad, you might want to check the authenticity before handing over your hard-earned money.

[BitchPudding]

To be fair, if the guitar plays well, then I can look past the headstock size. But I agree with mecha in that it can look weirdly small. The big headstock just add symmetry that I like.

Regardless, im not shitting on that strat cause it does look gorgeous.

[MechaGodzilla]

i like tele headstocks and huge cbs headstocks but some of the strat ones look weirdly small, especially when it looks like someone played "pin the decal on the headstock" and lost

If it looks that bad, you might want to check the authenticity before handing over your hard-earned money.

i don't think it signifies very much coz back in the day, it was just people slapping them on, cutting them up for lefties, factory-authorised refins. erratic decal placement doesn't really point to authenticity or otherwise but then there are lots of other ways to tell a fake/fucked up fender

rule of thumb i saw somewhere - the 'd' in 'Fender' should point roughly to the 4th string tuner (D)

[Lurker13]

:lol:

To be fair, if the guitar plays well, then I can look past the headstock size. But I agree with mecha in that it can look weirdly small. The big headstock just add symmetry that I like.

Regardless, im not shitting on that strat cause it does look gorgeous.

If they made the Player Jaguar in that color scheme - buttercream finish, white pickguard, maple fretboard - it wouldn't even be a decision, I would have already beaten up my credit card. But I've kind of been wanting a Strat with the traditional SSS pup arrangement. My Strat HH sounds like a Strat, but it sounds like a Strat on steroids. But I've never had a Jag before either, and I've wanted one for a long time, so there's that too. The Player series is replacing the Standard series, so hopefully they will both be in production for a while.

i like tele headstocks and huge cbs headstocks but some of the strat ones look weirdly small, especially when it looks like someone played "pin the decal on the headstock" and lost

If it looks that bad, you might want to check the authenticity before handing over your hard-earned money.

i don't think it signifies very much coz back in the day, it was just people slapping them on, cutting them up for lefties, factory-authorised refins. erratic decal placement doesn't really point to authenticity or otherwise but then there are lots of other ways to tell a fake/fucked up fender

rule of thumb i saw somewhere - the 'd' in 'Fender' should point roughly to the 4th string tuner (D)

A screwy logo would still make me suspicious. A Q&D resource for checking authenticity is the Fender forums. The aficionados there are usually pretty helpful when people pop in to ask about a guitar they're interested in buying.