Does this Jaguar model exist?

dragnet99 · Post by **dragnet99** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 5:58 am

I'm curious if any CIJ or AVRI Jaguars were released before the last couple years with a Candy Apple Red body but without a matching headstock. According to archived versions of Fender.com, no AVRI models were available in CAR at all until very recently, and every CIJ Jag I've seen in CAR has a matching headstock.

In other words, I've only seen CAR without the matching headstock on truly vintage Jags from the 60's/70's and very recent AVRI models. Did this particular color combination exist at all between then and now, preferably in the late 90's/early 2000's?

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 6:48 am

Yep, Japanese CAR and LPB Jags and Jazzmasters without matching headstocks were released for the US market around 2004ish. I remember a music shop around here having a couple when I bought my Competition Mustang reissue in that time period.

dragnet99 · Post by **dragnet99** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 7:09 am

Thanks! Also, it's a long (and boring) story about why I need to know this, but how exactly were those guitars bought and sold in America at the time? I know getting actual Fender Japan guitars in the States can be tricky, so when you say released in the US market, was that through some separate channel, or was Fender selling them directly?

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:15 am

Not discounting that early '00s LPB and CAR run that definitely happened, I want to say they had non-matching CARs pre-2004 in the states as well because I saw one in my local shop when I was still in high school, and that was probably 2001 or earlier as I pretty much stopped going to guitar shops for my '01-'02 senior year after getting my Martin and AV Strat and having lots of other cool shit at home... I always remember it though because it's been the closest I've come to wanting to trade in my sunburst CIJ.
I suppose it could've come from anywhere as it was a used guitar they would've bought from a customer, maybe someone bought it from Icky-Zabagabe* (sp, tee-hee) and sold it on.

*there were Japanese websites people were buying Japanese domestic-market Fenders from in the late '90s/early '00s when many of us were posting on the jag-stang forum; Fender Japan stuff became largely unobtainable from major retail outlets in the US in 1998 when much of it was replaced by Fender Mexico products

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:26 am

I seem to recall CAR MIJ Jags without matching headstocks being available (officially) in the UK in the early/mid nineties. I got my sunburst one in 1992 and I think they were also available in black and CAR at the time.

Long time ago though so don't take this as gospel.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 4:37 pm

From 1999-2000 there was a Candy Apple Red without matching headstock.

joeybsyc · Post by **joeybsyc** » Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:06 pm

dragnet99 wrote:
In other words, I've only seen CAR without the matching headstock on truly vintage Jags from the 60's/70's and very recent AVRI models. Did this particular color combination exist at all between then and now, preferably in the late 90's/early 2000's?

Vintage CAR Jags had matching headstocks. Any you've seen without are most likely refins. I'm sure there may have been exceptions, but generally speaking a CAR Jag SHOULD have a matching head. It's funny, while you look for one without, I'm having paint mixed to give my Squier a matching headstock.

joeybsyc · Post by **joeybsyc** » Sun Dec 08, 2013 5:08 pm

joeybsyc wrote:
dragnet99 wrote:
In other words, I've only seen CAR without the matching headstock on truly vintage Jags from the 60's/70's and very recent AVRI models. Did this particular color combination exist at all between then and now, preferably in the late 90's/early 2000's?
Vintage 60's CAR Jags had matching headstocks. I think when the sloppy 70's came around they quit doing this finishing step to save time and effort. Any 60's you've seen without are most likely refins. I'm sure there may have been exceptions, but generally speaking a CAR Jag SHOULD have a matching head. It's funny, while you look for one without, I'm having paint mixed to give my Squier a matching headstock.

dragnet99 · Post by **dragnet99** » Mon Dec 09, 2013 5:59 am

joeybsyc wrote:
dragnet99 wrote:
In other words, I've only seen CAR without the matching headstock on truly vintage Jags from the 60's/70's and very recent AVRI models. Did this particular color combination exist at all between then and now, preferably in the late 90's/early 2000's?
Vintage CAR Jags had matching headstocks. Any you've seen without are most likely refins. I'm sure there may have been exceptions, but generally speaking a CAR Jag SHOULD have a matching head. It's funny, while you look for one without, I'm having paint mixed to give my Squier a matching headstock.

Fascinating, I swear I've seen plenty of vintage CAR's from the era that were both matching and non-matching, but now that I think about it, no clear instances of the latter come to mind.

This does raise the question, though, of why the headstock doesn't match on the current 1965 AVRI's being sold by Fender USA, which prides itself on supposedly being so precisely accurate to the original. Any idea why they wouldn't include the matching headstock on the CAR model (since they do, at least, on the Metallic Ice Blue model). It's weird that they'd be sure to include relatively un-Fender-like details like the bound fretboard, but leave off something as simple (and yet iconic) as a red headstock to go with the body.

(Interestingly, I used to consider the matching headstock the coolest part of the Jag look, so it's strange that I'm suddenly so hung up on getting exactly the opposite. Tastes can change in the strangest and most abrupt ways sometimes).