First year, Sunburst 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. 

Classic, early 60’s sunburst is in fine condition showing the battle scars of a life well lived. The back only has been refinished by a previous owner but that looks to be the only modification. It is not the greatest job, it has to be said and looks as if it is fairly crudely done so anyone who wants to strip it off may find it comes off fairly easily.

The front of the body and the neck retain all original finish.

The neck is in great shape and feels very comfortable. The fretboard shows signs of wear and its had a refret. The neck date is August 1962 and would have been amongst some of the first to have the curved as opposed to slab fingerboard. These early curved fingerboards were thicker than the later ones in '63.

The original tortoiseshell 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. The pots read week 45 of 1962. Other solder joints have also been disturbed.  

The guitar comes with its correct Selmer hardshell case which is what it would have been sold in when it was new, in the UK.

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. Reasonably priced too...