ShortScale.org

Hi All

new to the forum, mainly play a fender strat but have had a recent urge towards the short scale guitars.

After a bit of advice, I love the look of the Fender Jag and have been keeping my eye on ebay for that bargain, but am not a fan of using a trem, are they easy enough to block?

Also seen a nice looking Vista Jagmaster on ebay which gets me out of the Trem problems but seems a bit pricey to me or do they really justify this sort of price tag?

Cheers

crazygoat wrote:Hi All

new to the forum, mainly play a fender strat but have had a recent urge towards the short scale guitars.

After a bit of advice, I love the look of the Fender Jag and have been keeping my eye on ebay for that bargain, but am not a fan of using a trem, are they easy enough to block?

Also seen a nice looking Vista Jagmaster on ebay which gets me out of the Trem problems but seems a bit pricey to me or do they really justify this sort of price tag?

Cheers

The Vista Jagmaster is consistently praised by everyone who plays it. The neck is very similiar (if not identicle) to the that of the Japanese Jaguar.

The Jaguar tremolo is worlds different from the strat, much much smoother (imho much much better). There really is no reason to block it, as it's tuning stability is fine..

The Jaguar's tremolo has a locking position, simply lock the trem and tune as usual and forget about it.

NOW! The trem on my '64 Jaguar is superb. When i'm done rocking the shit out of it I lock push down on the trem arm, lock it, and store it in its case. I pulled it out of its case after a month or so it it hibernating, unlocked the trem and the strings all returned to a perfect pitch after a MONTH of slacked tension and storage. 'Tis a great bridge design, Leo Fender designed it to replace the Strat IIRC.

The Vista strat trems tend to rust to bits [or am i confusing this with the Super Sonic?] but strat trems are strat trems, they're good if they're set up right and rubbish if you don't take the time to get it right. The Vista Jagmasters came out of the same factory as M/CIJ jags at the time so the necks are going to be the same. I personally like the neck on my CIJ jag more than my '64s. Its a little chunkier but still easy to get around.

if you plan on locking the trem you could always just grab a Jaguar HH SE


if the humbuckers are the same as the regular HH could be alright (i like them) but you can easily pick up some single coils and a new pickguard, and still be well under what you would spend on an AVRI jag.

Cheers for the replies, think you've made made up my mind to go for the Jaguar. Think i prefer the looks of the jag with the trem system rather than the TOM, just need to be patient now (not one of my virtues) and wait for that bargain .

When it comes to sound, you should listen with your own ears ; I will likely never own a Jaguar because to me, they don't sound like a good guitar should - I'd make a difference here and say, Mike's 66 Jag sounds good to me. But nearly all I heard and played from 90s or later (Japan or USA) does not. It's a unique tone that beast has. Love it or leave it. I left it.

But I liked the Classic Player Jaguar with humbuckers. It has a real unique wiring design, and has tonal options that are very convincing I think. Didn't like the neck on it, though - it did not feel like a Fender should feel to me.

Jaguars are incredibly idiosyncratic instruments. I can completely understand (and am completely unoffended and feel no need to defend them) when people hate them.

They work for me but I have always really liked a bright spanky guitar sound, and if you're not into that, you're pretty much going to hate the Jaguar.

kypdurron wrote:When it comes to sound, you should listen with your own ears.

Yes listen with your own ears; don’t use anyone else’s especially mine I need them to hear things and stuff!

sorry if that sounded funny, it's a common expression in german for judging on your own. Maybe it was translated wrong by me. It's often the case thatsomeone writes stuff into a forum, that cries for a "try before you buy" popup.

And that is typical with offset Fenders. People think "hey that is the cool unusual grunge / rock look" and have no idea that these guitars are mostly thin and trebly sounding. Then they buy one and spend tons of money on tweaking it without ever being as happy as they would have been with a Gibson ... Not saying this is the case here ... it just happens often in threads like this.

No worries. Have had a few Gibsons in the past but never really got on with them., always liked that sparkly twang of a Fender. I agree with the try before you buy sentiment though.

looks like i'm a little late, but while that jagmaster is awfully pricey, vista jagmasters are where it's at.

jaguars are cool, but i find myself going back to the jagmaster time and time again. i just got done strumming a D E progression (with and without tubescreamer) for the better part of two hours.

So much for patience , just got myself a cij sunburst fender jag. Should receive it in the next few days!

Well the Jaguar turned up yesterday, really nice low action. I was suprised how easy the short scale was to play on, I always found the Gibson scale a bit difficult to get used to, so thought this might have been the same, but it was an easy transition from my strat.

It is a 97 CIJ in sunburst, and has been modded with a seymour duncan pup at the bridge (SJAG2, i think). It is going to take a while to get used to the control system but it's all good fun

There are a few dings in the sunburst finish, thinking that once i get a bit of use out of it I may refinish it, possibly shell pink!

Do it.

Post some pics when you get a chance!

crazygoat wrote:There are a few dings in the sunburst finish, thinking that once i get a bit of use out of it I may refinish it, possibly shell pink!

for now, as it's stock, twinsies?

Twins it is!