Making a more refined Jag-Stang shape
this is a great thread and a great idea. its something that has been long overdue and i can remember tracing out mustangs and jagstangs on paper, but never quite getting it right. I think seeing that green example earlier in the thread has crystalizing it and really has me excited.
So we all know around 1992 Kurt would have been wearing his pyjamas, hiding in his walk-in closet with his polaroid camera and totally out of his mind on smack. I think the concept and couple of iterations he went through showed he definately was on to the right idea. In the first instance, what kurt really wanted was a jaguar body with the mustang pickguard and mustang lower cutaway:
And here is an approximate representation, a straightfoward jaguar body with a mustang pickguard and cutaway (i think this is the guitar shape better illustrated in the original post), ps ive knocked all these up in paintbrush without a mouse so they are more a guide, we can always do a proper photoshop job later.
After giving it some more thought, in his second iteration kurt has realised that the lines of the upper arm area are too excessive (this issue is present on the green example) (see kurts comment about "reshape right side", as it needs to be more in line with the upper horn (or more effectively use the arm area from the mustang shape) as illustrated below:
So at this point we have a representation of what kurt wanted in his design on paper (*edit*, note that at this point, kurt has reshaped the upper horn to be more "aggressive jagstang like" in place of the standar Jaguar horn) . Now unfortuantly not being able to get feedback or insight from the Fender Master builder at the time, we can only speculate how well balanced a guitar of that shape might be. Balanced or not, it looks as cool as fuck and I want to make one.
So during this period based on conversations and creative input from the Fender Master builder, the middle of the guitar shape contracts or is "pinched" so that the top middle is now closer to the top of the pickguard, as evidenced by the cardboard mockups:
So kurts 1993 US made jagstang is shipped to him, approximately by? he only received his mustang in july for roseland, and presumably he didn't have his jagstang in september for SNL. possibility of receiving it around or after october during the start of the In Utero tour. Certaintly it is first seen in documented photos in use early december 1993 (12/03/93).
Whilst there are several photos of kurt playing the jagstang live, there are only a few really, really good up close detailed photos of the guitar itself. Kurts 93 Jagstang is a true "one-off" at this point the lower cutaway and pickguard are shaped correctly in a more mustang type fashion, the lower butt area is more drooped like an ant (or appearing so due to the different angle and placing of the control plate) and it *appears* that the top horn is still very much a point up like a jaguar shape, or this might just be the angles the guitar is held at.
the pickguard is plain white, maybe two or three ply, but definately W/W/W like a single ply 50's strat guard. On sonic blue this looks surftastic and i totally love it.
Undeniably though, this 93 jagstang is a different overall shape to the 94 jagstang:
The 1994 Jag-Stang.
So the story goes, Fender was due to ship this example out during early April 1994 (on they day they heard on the radio kurt had died). presumably this fiesta red example was manuafactured during February/March 1994 which puts approximately 5 to 7 months between it and the manufacturing of the sonic blue example. This example shown below is now present at the Fender Muesuem and was effectively very well duplicated and served as the basis for the MIJ Jagstang production run.
For whatever reason, the lines along the cutaway changed, and the upper horn takes a different "more aggressive" angle (so there is a little less space between it an the upper register frets.) see below (real deal vs MIJ)
So how do we make it better?
There are a lot of cool things I like about the Jag-stang. Whilst it is only a reshaped mustang really, for its time its great and when you think about what Fender was doing guitar wise during 1993, its pretty out there. Even now it still is quite a unique shape. There is a lot they got right with it.
But they also got a couple of things wrong:
1. They fucked up the shape of the guard. It should have been a standard issue mustang shape, not "slightly different"
2. The thickness of the body should be closer to a mustang instead of closer to a telecaster.
3. I like the slab body, but some people like contours
I have been playing with a few different shapes, and what has surprised me, the more i tinker with it, the more i feel they got it fairly close the first time. Really its only the lower cutaway that needs tweaking.
Note, that the darker Candy Apple Red shapes are from a Jaguar, the light Dakota/Fiesta Red is from a Mustang/Jag-Stang where applicable.
