First year, Fiesta Red 1962 Fender Jag anyone…? 

Billed as ‘faster and easier to play’ due to its shorter scale length, and equipped with some of the most advanced switching options of any Fender to date, the Jaguar cut quite a swath when introduced in the spring of 1962. Its sports car looks and catchy ad campaigns meant to appeal to the growing youth market showed Fender taking huge strides into the new decade with the Jaguar as its headlining instrument. 

The first thing that strikes you about this guitar is the colour. Though a body only refin, the headstock thankfully has been left untouched. It is also a very excellent quality refin and totally looks the part. In fact the previous owner bought it as an original finish and was somewhat disappointed (to say the least!) when we pointed out that it was actually a very good, body refin. As I am sure you can imagine...

The neck is in great shape and feels very comfortable. The fretboard shows signs of wear and the frets are quite low but still playable. The neck date is September 1962. As previously mentioned, the original finish on the headstock has been left untouched. The nut is currently a brass one but this could be changed if needs be.

The original nitrate pickguard hasn't  shrunk very much and is in fantastic condition. The hardware is free of too much corrosion, the saddles being the worst off. 

Electronically the majority of the wiring is correct. When the guitar arrived here with us a few bits of the wiring had been changed for plastic covered wire. These have been replaced with proper cloth covered wire. This was also the case with the neck pickup so this has been rectified too. The pots read week 32 of 1962. Other solder joints have also been disturbed.  

The guitar comes with its correct Brown Tolex hardshell case

The guitar sounds fantastic. Unplugged there’s a vibrancy that isn’t always evident in these offset guitars. Once plugged in, the guitar has a wide palette of tones available and both pickups work well so as to make any option a good one, again a statement that can’t be made about all Jaguars unfortunately.

First year Jags have something special about them and this one is no exception. Grab it before it gets away.