Neck differences - Mustang/Duosonic/Musicmaster vs Jaguar

MattK · Post by **MattK** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 3:56 am

Posted this on offsetguitars but no response - hope someone here has an opinion:

New member here - doing some research on Jags before buying something.

Recently I almost bought a "parts-master" Jag which had a '63 body, '65 pickups and a '66 neck. On doing my research I realised that the neck-stamp "16MAY66" referred to a Mustang / Duosonic / Musicmaster neck, and not a Jag neck (which would have been "1MAY66" or "15MAY66" - thanks to the codes in the Library here). It had a Jag decal applied to it.

Eventually I didn't go through with the purchase for a few reasons, but I wondered if there was likely to have been much of a difference between a re-badged Mustang neck and a true Jag neck. (I didn't see it in person, it was online.)

It had a veneer rosewood fretboard, which I think a lot of the Jag necks also had - did the Jag use Brazilian rosewood and the Mustang use Indian? Was there a poly vs. nitro finish difference? I know the scale lengths and the materials were the same, but if they were the same then why use one code for multiple models and a different code for the Jag?

Just puzzled - thanks for any help / advice.

Cheers, MK.

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:35 am

i believe that at the time the headstock shape of the two was slightly different and the neck feel was a bit different.
pre cbs used braz rosewood, after cbs it was any sort of darkish rosewood they could find.
honestly if you had two shortscale necks from the same year and the name nut width right next to eachother you may notice subtle differences in the feel, but thats about it.
the 64 duo necks were made just as well as the 64 jag necks.
i think they were all nitro until about 67 or maybe even 68.

dodgedartdave · Post by **dodgedartdave** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:28 pm

the stickers are the biggest difference.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:03 pm

Well, and who knows what they did in a pinch?

BobArsecake · Post by **BobArsecake** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 6:37 pm

The necks are different, but post 1965 with CBS etc Fender tended to not give a fuck sometimes about parts it used for guitars, so it could be genuine and just down to Fender's laziness in the factory from picking up a random short scale neck and throwing it onto a Jaguar.

Justin J · Post by **Justin J** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:10 pm

a '66 jaguar neck should have blocks and binding or at least dots and binding. it's unlikely that fender would've put a student model neck on their top-of-the-line guitar.

BobArsecake · Post by **BobArsecake** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:42 pm

bubbles_horwitz wrote:a '66 jaguar neck should have blocks and binding or at least dots and binding. it's unlikely that fender would've put a student model neck on their top-of-the-line guitar.

Aha, that's trew.

MattK · Post by **MattK** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:08 pm

Thanks for those helpful replies - so the "15" code neck should have binding. If a '66 neck was being used for a '63 body, then in some ways the code 16 neck might be a better choice.
Now I wish I had bought it (but there were other factors as well).

dodgedartdave · Post by **dodgedartdave** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 10:50 pm

DGNR8 wrote:Well, and who knows what they did in a pinch?

Very true. I know the Jaguar decal has much better tonzz then a Bronco Decal. After all, they cost over twice as much.

MattK · Post by **MattK** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:05 am

BobArsecake wrote:The necks are different, but post 1965 with CBS etc Fender tended to not give a fuck sometimes about parts it used for guitars, so it could be genuine and just down to Fender's laziness in the factory from picking up a random short scale neck and throwing it onto a Jaguar.

Actually the seller stated that he had applied the decal, so I think he either knew it was a Mustang neck or was sold a blank neck and did it up. That gave me a slight uneasiness, which tends to stop me from sending money to people!

BobArsecake · Post by **BobArsecake** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:59 am

MatthewK wrote:
BobArsecake wrote:The necks are different, but post 1965 with CBS etc Fender tended to not give a fuck sometimes about parts it used for guitars, so it could be genuine and just down to Fender's laziness in the factory from picking up a random short scale neck and throwing it onto a Jaguar.
Actually the seller stated that he had applied the decal, so I think he either knew it was a Mustang neck or was sold a blank neck and did it up. That gave me a slight uneasiness, which tends to stop me from sending money to people!

Ah well if he says that he applied the decal and the neck info doesn't add up then it's probably fake and you'll never properly know, so I wouldn't have gone there either, good call.