A 1962 Fender Jaguar with a bit of character? Look no further as this one was originally fiesta red and still has the original paint under the refin...

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. 

This guitar has seen some life. The white refinish isn’t quite Olympic White as it seems to have been a generic white done with car paints a while ago. It also seems this was done with the wiring still in the guitar, the hardware removed and the neck pickup taped over. This means that we can tantalizingly see the original colour, Fiesta Red. The headstock too has been refinished later on with an aged repro decal applied. 

The neck too has seen some life. It was refretted a while ago. The fretboard is in good shape and the back of the neck has worn comfortably. It looks like it has original finish on the back of the neck but could be a very old overspray. The neck date is November 1962  

The celluloid pickguard has shrunk a little but is still in fantastic condition and is an original, rare green guard, totally correct for the fiesta red finish under the overspray.

The hardware on a whole is in good condition with some corroison.

Electronically the wires are correct. The Rhythm/Lead switch has been replaced with a modern switch. The pickups selection switches have all been changed but this was done a while ago. Pots are all correct, pot date is week 45 of 1962. The neck pickup is a modern example. The bridge pickup is correct.

The guitar comes with a hardshell case

Even after all the changes, this 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.

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