ShortScale.org

Hey everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Question?

I just picked up a jaguar and something bothers me about it... has fender gone back to using "MADE" in japan on the heel of the neck? According to Fender.com, they stopped back in 1997/1998. Just seems my guitar is contradicting itself, whereas i took the neck off, checked the butt end and it clearly says JG 66 with 3 letters following (REISSUE). My serial number is T068958..... have these guitars been out since the early 90's? or as of 2009? whats the deal..... My make and model are the same but the serial says 1994?? (why no production numbers)

(oh, and whats so limited about them?)

thanks for reading

r.

The serial number daters have been useless for dating MIJ/ CIJ for a while now. Japanese Fender seem to switch between using MIJ and CIJ every few years.

The Limited refers to a limited number of them being shipped to Europe and the US and sold, they've been made in Japan for yonks.

There's a huge lack of consistency in regards to Japanese serial numbers and what you can expect to see on your guitar from year to year. I think alot of this has to do with the factory move from FujiGen to ... forget the other one's name, that happened in the mid 90's.

There's no steadfast rule about the MIJ/CIJ thing. On some models (the Vista line) the change certainly seems to have occurred sometime between 97 and 98 but on Jaguars I've seen CIJ appear on guitars built as far back as 94. So it's either their serial number system that is at fault or that they installed CIJ stamped necks somewhat arbitrarily up until 96/97, when they ran out of MIJ necks completely. (It's likely to be both)

Another thing you'll want to note is that model number JG66 applies to most of the Japanese Jaguar line. Not that this really matters, considering even the actual 66 reissues are all kinds of fucked up, in terms of period correctedness.

According to all the documentation I've found, My CIJ Jaguar could be from the future considering that particular configuration apparently was never made.

haha. Brilliant.

Yeah, the '66 designation is a little strange, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't quite match up with the real thing, even when you consider that 1966 was a transition year for a bunch of stuff (Binding, Tuners, Pickguard type etc)

one more thing.

why hasn't fender put this jaguar (66 limited edition) on their products page @ fender.com with all the other varying renditions of jaguars? ie. MIM, Special, HH?

ps. yonks??

ooooooh.... a long time.
cool, i dig your lingo

robt8500 wrote:one more thing.

why hasn't fender put this jaguar (66 limited edition) on their products page @ fender.com with all the other varying renditions of jaguars? ie. MIM, Special, HH?

Probably because they've only been around, by which I mean "released to Euro/American market" for a few weeks.
Seeing as the HH Special is there, I really don't see why these shouldn't... But again, Fender Japan anything is anyone's guess.

thanks for all the input, people. i should really stop worrying and get to playing.

Haha. Everybody that's ever bought a +90's Japanese Fender product has hit this hurdle. There really isn't much else to do...
Let the lawyers and doctors of the future try figure all this crap out.

...

The Fender.com web site is notorious for either never updating their information, or for actually posting incorrect info concerning the products that they've released.

The Jap Fenders switched back to "Made In" sometime in 2008. I know this because in the summer of 2008 I was actively looking at a bunch of Jap Fenders in local music stores, and they all had "Crafted In". When I finally decided what I wanted to buy (December 2008) they all had "Made In", except for the guitars that had clearly hung around the store and hadn't been bought from months earlier.

Japanese Fenders are now made by Tokai as well as Dyna Gakki since the mid/late 90's. Internet lore says that the Fujigen Gakki factory was the only one with the contractual right to put "Made In Japan" on the Japanese Fenders that they built, but I don't know if that's true because as far as I know the recent change back to "Made In" did not coincide with a return to Fujigen as a manufacturer.

Very little Fender Japan stuff makes it on to the main Fender site, it's a real shame you can't just get it all across the world without having to order direct from Japan.

They like to do things in 10-12 year incriments (sp?)
The CIJ decal ran approx. 12 years if not mistaken, then switched back to MIJ
They also started re-using the letters in the serial numbers. for example, my original '95 Jag-stang has the serial number MIJ 'T'
And now, you can buy brand new Japanese Fenders with MIJ 'T' serial numbers.

purplehaze19x wrote:They like to do things in 10-12 year incriments (sp?)
The CIJ decal ran approx. 12 years if not mistaken, then switched back to MIJ
They also started re-using the letters in the serial numbers. for example, my original '95 Jag-stang has the serial number MIJ 'T'
And now, you can buy brand new Japanese Fenders with MIJ 'T' serial numbers.

i get what your saying but werent jagstangs not released til 1996? the gold sticker year (50th)

Any good sites for dating American Vintage Reissue Jaguars?

guitar project dater? i don't know how accurate dating is online... try taking the neck off and having a peak

robt8500 wrote:

purplehaze19x wrote:They like to do things in 10-12 year incriments (sp?)
The CIJ decal ran approx. 12 years if not mistaken, then switched back to MIJ
They also started re-using the letters in the serial numbers. for example, my original '95 Jag-stang has the serial number MIJ 'T'
And now, you can buy brand new Japanese Fenders with MIJ 'T' serial numbers.

i get what your saying but werent jagstangs not released til 1996? the gold sticker year (50th)

They were first produced in late '95.

k, now i'm confused. there was an article i read about the jagstang being unveiled at the winter namm show of 96. dating guitars is retarded. did the jagstangs of 95 only have 95 necks maybe? can you steer me to a page where we've hashed through this already. (me being new)

Someone here had one. I think it was Matt Hodges.