ShortScale.org

I decided to post a little bit about the variations of the production Jaguars through the years on a general topics forum, keeping things as basic as I could while highlighting the main differences. Figured I'd post it here too and see what you guys think, and if there are any versions I have blatantly skipped (keeping in mind I intentionally left out the CIJ/MIJ and AVRI reissues of the '62 to lighten the work load, I could add them if you think they're significant enough to round out the list... I know they're important to us, but...).


1962-1965
- 1963
7.25" neck radius, floating bridge, unbound neck w/ clay dots, alder body, Jaguar lead circuit w/ high pass filter switch, rhythm circuit

1966-1975
- 1967
7.25" neck radius, floating bridge, bound neck w/ pearloid blocks, alder body, Jaguar lead circuit w/ high pass filter switch, rhythm circuit

Jaguar Special HH

7.25" neck radius, dot inlays, Dragster humbuckers, hardtail & Adjust-o-Matic bridge, Jaguar lead circuit w/ high pass filter switch, rhythm circuit

Classic Player Special

High output single coil pickups, 9.5" neck radius, moved classic vibrato tail piece & Adjust-o-Matic bridge

Classic Player Special HH

2 humbuckers, 9.5" radius, coil split blend pots and kill switch on upper bout, moved classic vibrato tail piece & Adjust-o-Matic bridge

Blacktop Jaguar HH

Hardtail, simplified switching (3-position toggle), Blacktop humbuckers, 9.5" neck radius, hardtail & Adjust-o-Matic bridge


Modern Player Jaguar

Simplified switching (3-position toggle), no pickguard, 2 MP-90 pickups, 9.5" neck radius, hardtail & Adjust-o-Matic bridge, Strat-style output jack, mahogany body


Blacktop Jaguar 90

Hardtail, simplified switching (3-position toggle), 2 P-90 pickups, 9.5" neck radius, hardtail & Adjust-o-Matic bridge


Special Edition Thinline Jaguar (Japan only)

7.25" radius, dot inlays w/ neck and body binding, vintage style pickups, vibrato/bridge and controls.


Kurt Cobain Jaguar

9.5" radius, dot inlays, Jaguar tail piece & Adjust-o-Matic bridge, DiMazrio Super Distortion (bridge) and PAF (neck) humbuckers, 3-position toggle & high pass filter, separate vol, master tone, rhythm circuit


Johnny Marr signature Jaguar

7.25" radius, dot inlays, Custom Bareknuckle Johnny Marr Jaguar pickups, 4-way Tele-style switch (bridge, bridge+neck parallel, neck, neck+bridge series), Master vol/tone, universal high pass filter, series bright switch, vintage style vibrato, bridge posts with nylon inserts, Mustang saddles, nylon bushing on vibrato arm (Marr discussing his modifications)


'66 Classic Jaguar

vintage spec, bound and blocked neck.


50th Anniversary Jaguar

Not much known yet; high output single-coil pickups, classic switching, moved floating tail-piece and bridge, blocked & bound neck


Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar

24" scale, dot inlays, 2 humbuckers, Jazzmaster/Jagmaster sytle pickguard, basswood body, concentric volume/tone pots for each pickup, simplified switching (3-position toggle), Strat-style output, 3-post hardtail bridge



Some non-standard guitar variants (Basses, baritones and VI basses)
Jaguar Baritone Custom (Jaguar Bass VI)

28.5" scale, E-e bass tuning, dot inlays, Classic Jaguar switching, hardtail & Adjust-o-Matic bridge


Jaguar Bottom Master

28.5" scale E-e bass tuning, dot inlays, hardtail & Adjust-o-Matic bridge, Rhythm circuit replaced with a Fuzz effect switch/controls.


Jaguar Baritone Special HH

27" scale, B-b baritone tuning, dot inlays, simplified switching, hardtail & Adjust-o-Matic bridge, master vol/tone


Fender Deluxe Jaguar Bass

34" scale bass, 7.25" radius, block inlays w/o binding, active/passive tone controls, vintage Jazz Bass pickups, series/parallel switch, master vol/tone

Fender Modern Player Jaguar Bass

34" scale bass. 9.5" radius, block inlays w/o binding, Modern Player Jazz and Precision pickups, separate volume, master tone

Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass

34" scale bass, 9.5" radius, block inlays w/o binding, Jazz bass bridge and P-bass neck pickups, stacked concentric vol/tone for each pickup


Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass Special

34" scale bass, 9.5" radius, dot inlays, Jazz bass bridge and P-bass neck pickups, separate volume, Active bass boost, master tone


Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass SS

30" short scale, 9.5" radius, dot inlays; Jazz bass bridge and P-bass neck pickups, separate volume, master tone


Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Bass HB

34" scale, 9.5" radius, dot inlays, single bridge humbucker, active tone control (Treble/mid/Bass), volume

Cool thing to have done, but I reckon you should add the MIJ and CIJ Jags (maybe try and solve once and for all the elusive "which ones were basswood?" conundrum), AVRIs and Thinskins.

Yeah, you're right.

I just didn't want to put too much work into something for a general audience... but for here, the extra work is justified.

Before they went to blocks and binding they did have dots and binding on some models.

jcyphe wrote:Before they went to blocks and binding they did have dots and binding on some models.

^^^^this^^^^^

1965 1/2

dots binding

holy sweet jesus, i'm in love with this.

They're only like $499 used from GC online. I grabbed one myself yesterday.

Considering Vista Jagmasters get listed at $500+ on eBay...

benecol wrote:Cool thing to have done, but I reckon you should add the MIJ and CIJ Jags (maybe try and solve once and for all the elusive "which ones were basswood?" conundrum), AVRIs and Thinskins.

I read somewhere that only the sunburst MIJ models were alder, when they became CIJ they were all alder.

Great thread. Worth adding to the Wiki, the range of Jaguar models has expanded a lot in a short space of time.

robroe wrote:

jcyphe wrote:Before they went to blocks and binding they did have dots and binding on some models.

^^^^this^^^^^

1965 1/2

dots binding

Or my '66 is also an example. You can get both 1965 and 1966 Jaguars with Dots & Binding.

Alright. I'm gonna build a spreadsheet with the specs for this and expand on what I have here and properly get the details (as much as possible) for each model, including body woods, circuit/switching info, bridge & tail type/placement, neck appearance, and, perhaps shapes, etc. A proper go at model information... this could take some time

Also, while not wishing to rain on your parade, this has always been a great resource.

Fran wrote:

benecol wrote:Cool thing to have done, but I reckon you should add the MIJ and CIJ Jags (maybe try and solve once and for all the elusive "which ones were basswood?" conundrum), AVRIs and Thinskins.

I read somewhere that only the sunburst MIJ models were alder, when they became CIJ they were all alder.

Great thread. Worth adding to the Wiki, the range of Jaguar models has expanded a lot in a short space of time.

AFAIK the Japanese Sunburst were the only alder ones (cos of the trans finish) and all the rest were/are basswood, it was a purely cosmetic reason cos of the woodgrain... Did they change in the 2000s?

I know the blonde/gold hardware ones were basswood, but thought the others were mainly alder, not just the bursts. But this has always made me feel uneasy about MIJ Jags.

Yeah the 90s-2000 ones were def all Basswood apart from the ones with trans finishes.

benecol wrote:Also, while not wishing to rain on your parade, this has always been a great resource.

No rain, that'll help my efforts greatly

Thomas wrote:

Fran wrote:

benecol wrote:Cool thing to have done, but I reckon you should add the MIJ and CIJ Jags (maybe try and solve once and for all the elusive "which ones were basswood?" conundrum), AVRIs and Thinskins.

I read somewhere that only the sunburst MIJ models were alder, when they became CIJ they were all alder.

Great thread. Worth adding to the Wiki, the range of Jaguar models has expanded a lot in a short space of time.

AFAIK the Japanese Sunburst were the only alder ones (cos of the trans finish) and all the rest were/are basswood, it was a purely cosmetic reason cos of the woodgrain... Did they change in the 2000s?

I believe so.
It was a hot topic some years ago when all people could afford/find was CIJ/MIJ models. Since the introduction of all the other models and people taking the plunge on Vintage or AVRI it seems to be less of an issue.

I think the basswood in 90s MIJ/CIJ offsets got unfairly blamed for some of their shittiness when the real problem was the cheap, inferior, inaccurate hardware. Basswood in current model MIJ/CIJ offsets is absolutely no reason to avoid them. It's certainly a good tonewood, good enough for Suhr and Jeff Beck, good enough for me.

honeyiscool wrote:It's certainly a good tonewood, good enough for Suhr and Jeff Beck, good enough for me.

*In before benecol*

Basswood is'nt too popular in the Fender communities, personally it does'nt bother me. Seems to be favoured more by the heavy metal community in terms of a tonewood. Coz you can really tell the difference with them EMGz

honeyiscool wrote:I think the basswood in 90s MIJ/CIJ offsets got unfairly blamed for some of their shittiness when the real problem was the cheap, inferior, inaccurate hardware. Basswood in current model MIJ/CIJ offsets is absolutely no reason to avoid them. It's certainly a good tonewood, good enough for Suhr and Jeff Beck, good enough for me.

I've owned quite a few 90s MIJ/CIJ offsets and they were great. I had a later B+B Jaguar and thought it was shit in comparison, mainly due to the neck and the weight of the guitar. The only hardware that was different to the older model was the fat neck. The old hardware was great, Gotoh machine heads etc so I don't know what you're talking about? Some folks didn't like the trem, I never had any issue with it and as far as I know it's still the one they use now.

All of the Jaguars I've bought secondhand played like crap cos at the time the guitars weren't as popular and most folk that had them couldn't set them up properly (esp the trem). I reckon that's a reason a lot of people used to think they weren't great guitars. That meant they were cheap and could be brought up to speed in about half an hour.

The japanese offsets from the 90s were great.

It's the trems and bridges that suck on 90s Japanese offsets IMO. Lightweight aftermarket quality tailpieces and gappy Mustang saddles and Jag/Jazz saddles that suck even more than the vintage ones, etc.