1966 Fender Jaguar

[stewart]

ok, after much pissing about over the past week i've finally got my mucky paws on a vintage jag. basically, it's all mike's fault; i strummed his jag at progfest, he plucked my mustang (insert photo of kenneth williams here). to cut a long story short i decided i wanted to get some cash together for a 60s jag, and mike offered to buy the compstang. so, i got lucky and found a candy apple red number with matching headstock for a decent price. and now to business!

► Show Spoiler

check the tan lines-



ES stamp!



the downside:




ugly tooners. i have a spare set of vintage F tuners, but i reckon i'll see how i get on with these ones. to be honest, while aesthetically they're a bit humpty, if they function ok i might just leave them on for a while. looking at the bushings, i suspect the headstock may have been drilled out, and fixing that will involve fannying around with conversion bushings, etc.

other un-perfect things include a missing mute (don't really care), non-original hard case (annoying) and a repro trem arm with missing tip (not a big deal to sort). the nut needs a wee bit of work as the G string slot is worn right down, and it could do with a general setup to get it the way i like 'em, but i can tinker with that over the coming week.

here it is with the rest of the (now quite small) family:

so, my intitial verdict? it looks amazing in the flesh, i almost peed myself when i took it out of the case (i was actually bursting for a slash at the time), the paint chips are really smooth, like they've been there for ages, and the paint itself is really thin and would dent if you so much as coughed on it. obviously it was CAR, but the headstock and front of the body have faded to a copper colour, but the back is still pretty close to what it would have been originally. i'll hopefully get some pictures in better light soon, it's been cloudy here for days and the light is crap.

all in all i'm over the moon with it, when i plugged it in i was giving it the big double rainbow. it doesn't necessarily sound better than the coronado or duo-sonic, it's just different. it sounds like a jag! surftastic.

[othomas2]

Jesus... where do you find 'em. What a great line up, or sofa orgy should I say.

Congrats on the Jag, it's stunning.

[Gavin]

I can't wait to play it.

What's the ES stamp?

[Gabriel]

That is such a beautiful guitar! Lovely aged colour and I bet she sounds gorgeous. Hope all is well with it and that she's a keeper


The jackson tuners just look wrong though

[stewart]

I can't wait to play it.

What's the ES stamp?

i think it means it was a special made for a NAMM show or something.

[Fran]

Beautiful, truly beautiful. Welcome to the club Stewart!
I trust you shall be changing them machine heads? Unlike me... leaving the grovers on

[crofty]

wow. just beautiful

[Bacchus]

That is beautiful. Pretty much my ideal Jag. It's the best colour, with matching headstock, B&B, and it's vintage.

I love that patch of forearm wear. Really nice.

[taylornutt]

Stewart, did you end up selling the Musicmaster neck to fund the purchase?

[stewart]

I trust you shall be changing them machine heads? Unlike me... leaving the grovers on

well, like i said above, i'm not 100% sure, i'll see how they function. i don't really put much faith in vintage F tuners, i prefer klusons. however, if the headstock's been drilled for those jacksons, perhaps reissue F tuners would fit...? if that's the case i'll definitely replace them at some point.

Stewart, did you end up selling the Musicmaster neck to fund the purchase?

yeah, i sold the neck, guard and pickup but kept the tuners for now (to use on the jag, possibly).

[Doug]

I can't wait to play it...What's the ES stamp?

i think it means it was a special made for a NAMM show or something.

Just out of curiosity, anyone know for sure?

[stewart]

1966 and the "ES" Stamp.
In 1966, Fender used the "ES" code a lot on their custom color instruments. At least for 1966, the ES code was used as some sort of default for custom colored instruments (be it Teles, or Strats or Jazz Basses). This two letters ("ES" for "Enter Special") seems to denote a special order, at least for 1966. Again this is has been seen lots of times on 1966 documented original custom color instruments. I have also seen the "ES" stamp on some 1966 sunburst instruments! (Perhaps these guitars were special show models, so extra care was taken in their finish.) The 1/2" tall 2-letter code were a factory color code, and are completely different than the 1/2" tall three-digit codes. The two-letter code appears to be CBS/Fender's way of specifying bodies to be painted a custom color for a special order once the body was in the spray booth. If a guitar has a two letter code on the body *only* (and not the neck), again this confirms the 2-letter code was an original factory color code (and does not indicate a factory refinish order). But then there is this question: why do only some 1965-1968 custom color Fenders have this two letter code and others do not? It may have to do with how many custom colored guitars were being painted at any point in time, and the 2-letter code was applied to avoid confusion. Or it was applied just for particular special orders (like a Fender NAMM show guitar or a special dealer/artist order).

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fenderc.html

[Empires]

Loev guitars...

Fuck DHL (still)

[peecheeclean]

wow man...nice collection there.

[Hurb]

Looks absolutely gorgeous mate. Bring it down next time your in the land that live music forgot!

[Justyn]

I love it

[hotrodperlmutter]

i absolutely hate CAR, but i'd be a lyin' sunnavabitch if i said i didn't love the way it ages.

great snag, stew. was CAR what you were after? or you were indifferent about the color?

[Haze]

love it when you can see the firemist gold through the red

[Sven]

Nice Jag!! Are you working on getting a mute yet? I may be able to supply some mute parts (free) if you haven't ordered parts yet.

[sp3k]

WOW! i don't really like car, but that one aged to a great color!

a vintage jag and a coronado are 2 of my "dream" guitars btw