By: Staff
Fender is proud to celebrate five colorful decades of the Jaguar guitar by introducing the 50th Anniversary Jaguar model at NAMM 2012 (exclusive photos below). The special edition instrument takes players back to 1962, when Fender introduced an unique new guitar that paired a modified Jazzmaster® body style and elaborate control layout with a shorter neck scale and brighter pickups with more output. The resulting Jaguar was the fourth and final of Fender’s legendary original lineup of standard electric guitars.
Perfectly matched to the early-’60s renaissance in design modernism, the Jaguar eventually acquired a fascinating lineage quite unlike that of any other Fender guitar. A chromed-out, surf-rock staple of the 1960s, the Jaguar found a robust new life from the mid ’70s on as an offbeat alternative axe wielded by punk, post-punk, grunge and alt-indie guitar heroes and anti-heroes alike. The same guitar that originally crested waves of reverb-drenched singles by groups such as the Surfaris and the Chantays later became the guitar of choice for Kurt Cobain’s grunge legends, Nirvana, the shoe-gazing pop of My Bloody Valentine and the weirdness of the Pixies, the Flaming Lips and many others.
The U.S.-built 50th Anniversary Jaguar celebrates that vivid history and combines old and new into the finest of all Jaguar guitars. Highly distinctive features include the classic 24” scale length, a new one-degree neck-angle-pocket cut that improves tuning, a re-positioned tremolo plate that increases sustain, and specially-designed hot Jaguar single-coil bridge and neck pickups that deliver a fatter tone and more output.
The anniversary Jaguar also features a sleekly offset alder body with lacquer finish, C-shaped maple neck with lacquer finish and vintage-style truss rod, 9.5”-radius bound rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid block inlays, separate lead and rhythm tone circuits with their own separate volume and tone controls, two-position tone switch and on/off slide switch for each pickup, three-ply pickguard (Mint Green-Black-Mint Green), and vintage-style floating tremolo bridge with lock button and chrome cover. Accessories include a deluxe brown case, cable, strap, and a set of flatwound strings. Available in classic vintage Fender finishes Lake Placid Blue, Candy Apple Red and striking Burgundy Mist Metallic, which authentically evokes the original Jaguar’s Burgundy Mist finish option. For more information, go to www.fender.com.
Fender Jaguar 50th Anniversary
Two 50th Anniversary Fender Jaguars
50th Anniversary Jaguars closer up
