1962 Fiesta Red Fender Jaguar

Similar in shape and general design to its stablemate, the Jazzmaster (which Fender introduced in 1958), the Jaguar made its debut in 1962. This particular specimen from the first year of production is finished in Fiesta Red, which would have been a custom colour option as the stock Jag was originally offered in Sunburst as standard. It also began life at the time when Fender was changing over from ‘slab’ rosewood ’boards in favour of the marginally less collectable veneer variety. Phil Carwardine from Vintage And Modern Guitars in Thame agrees: “Sadly, it’s just a veneer ’board, it’s not the slab ’board,” he says, referring to the model before us. “They didn’t make many of those. It came in just at that time.”

Of the other attributes the Jag has to offer, Phil continues: “It’s got a 24-inch [609.6mm] scale length, which I like – that’s just about the most predominant feature of the Jag, isn’t it? And the switching system, which you either love or hate. Get the right strings on it and they’re great!”

The other Marmite feature of the Jaguar was its vibrato, ostensibly a more sophisticated system than the Strat, featuring adjustable spring tension and the ability to lock the entire mechanism if you want to go au naturel.

This particular model has a painted headstock, something we see more of these days on guitars, but was considered quite unusual at the time. “It was the Jazz and the Jaguar that got the matching headstock,” says Phil. “I think they started doing it around ’62. It was a surf thing. The Coronados got it, didn’t they?”

The Jaguar enjoyed a resurgence in interest when new wave bands took it up in the late 70s – notably Tom Verlaine from Television, also a proponent of the Jazzmaster – and then again in the 1990s in the hands of players such as Kurt Cobain. Guitarist would like to thank Vintage And Modern Guitars, Thame for allowing us access to this grand old instrument www.vintageandmodernguitars.co.uk