Why a Jaguar?

…cause a tiger isn’t fast enough? :smiley:

Seriously, I’ve been thinking a lot about a Fender Jaguar lately. No, I’m not going to buy one. But I am curious why people prefer to play it. There are so many switches on it that it undoubtedly gives you a lot of tone options, but is it worth the hassle?

Thoughts?

IMHO
Its the scale.
A Jag feels like a chicks guitar to me.

I still own a Jag/a Jag bass and a Jazzmaster guit,
(got all three used back in 1976 for $300)
and all those tone controls while a good idea at the time,
don’t really give you the range of options one would think.

I don’t believe the transistor tech was
advanced enough back in those days but at least they tried.

All those knobs and switches did make those axes look kool and futuristic.
And since your post, I pulled them out to check and they still do.
{‘-’}

The Jaguar has become THE Indie-chick-rockers guitar of choice. It has a very identifiable sound, just like a Strat does. Of the few I’ve played, the switches seem to allow for about the same variation in tones as in guitar with multiple pickups

When I was 13 in 1966 a band member had a fender jaguar? It had the switches on the guard and looked very high tech at the time but I tend to remember we had more tonal versatility with our les Pauls . His looked cool as we played stuff like " pipeline,wipeout, walk don’t run, etc" especially with that tremolo bar. That what we called them then

Seriously, who plays a Jaguar that can really play? Maybe missing something but all I see are strummers. Which seem to be 75 per cent of rockers these days

Complete buggers to setup well…

Speaking of high tech looking because of all the controls and what, at the other extreme, I have an old Variax 300 with a strat body. It never fails, you get people giving it sometimes multiple takes with a quizitive look on their face (what am I missing here?) 'til they finally get it (or don’t).

24" scale length = less tension (easier to play)

Actually, not true. The few videos I watched of this guitar were of jazz players doing some very nice solo work.

Jags are great i use one ,but i think you will have trouble with one brand new straight from the shop ,they have lots of faults but these can be sorted out .firstly the strings pop off of the bridge if you pluck up with your fingers if the strings are too light a gauge, i use 11s on mine .i cant understand why fender designed them this way unless they were designed for the use with very heavy strings ,you can buy a buzz stop it fits behind the bridge and holds the strings down and stops them popping off , you dont have to drill any extra holes which is good, cost about £30. the bridge also sways backwards or forwards ,to fix this wrap electricians tape round the legs of the bridge untill they are snug in the sockets. i find the bridge pickup too thin sounding it is 6k output ,i had mine rewound up to 8k output . plus the 2 fiddly pick up selectors i replaced with a les paul selector. also these guitars dont sustain like a strat or les paul they have a very dunky dead sounding tone which you either love or hate ,i love it it is very retro sounding .
if you want to use it in a live situation i took the metal shields off of the pickups because they cause squealing if you crank the volume with distortion.
lastly i fit a dummy pickup under the scratch plate to eliminate hum .
i used it on this track i posted, it is also in the pic, it is shoreline gold Japanese re-issue.

OK, I can post again! Had to have my mom send in a permission slip. That was odd. She’s in another state, and over 80.

Anyway, I’ve never played a Jaguar. I own a Strat, and have pined for a telecaster. The comments have not made me want to even try one. Jazzmaster, maybe.

i thought the Jazzmaster would be very different from a jaguar ,a friend of mine bought a jazzmaster and brought it round for me to try and after a couple of minutes i forgot i was on the jazzmaster and thought i was on the jag ,in other words they are very similar and they still have the same dunky tone and don`t sustain very well .

I had a '63 Jaguar back in the day and kept it a year or so. I remember it as having a fairly fat neck that was comfortable and it was easy to play. There were a lot of possible tonal variations, but overall it was too fiddly for me and I continued to play a Strat and Rics for the most part. I don’t remember it as being a particularly standout guitar and have been somewhat surprised by it’s renewed popularity. But, that is why there are so many flavors, some people love them. I’d like to try one again to see if it changes my mind.

Yeah, the next guitar that I will get (because I can’t afford the PRS that I really want) will be a Fender Tele or an Epiphone Les Paul.

Too many to list… Kim Gordon, the chick from Best Coast… Annie Clark of St. Vincent, who is hot, can rock, and doesn’t “strum” (whatever that means)

The Jaguar bass deluxe rocks!!! I speak of my own experience as a proud owner!!!

I agree. To me it feels more like an old Fender Bass 6.
Saw Wes Montgomery using one.
{‘-’}

just been messing with a tele ,wow ,this one has a 4 way switch .the two center positions are cool, one is a bog standard center position and the other center position is the pickups out of phase not the Mark Knopfler thing but the qwacky kind of out of phase , through a Marshall jcm 900 with a little bit of drive , very nice i`ll have to record it.