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MGR/Derek Mok « Fender Classic Player Jaguar Special »
Published on 12/24/08 at 15:00This was a Fender Jaguar with single-coil pickups, finished in Candy Apple Red.
Primarily a singer, I've been playing guitar for about 10 years, been in a band (drummer!), and have continued to record and play with other musicians on a non-professional basis. My styles range from folk to hard rock, with heavy power-pop leanings -- Big Star, not Green Day.
I played this guitar for 10 minutes at Guitar Center in Hollywood, CA. It was selling for $800 or so.
The short scale length of this guitar means it's not difficult to play (though it has severe limitations -- see below). It looks nice, with a well applied finish and hardware that inspires confidence. It has a certain thin, wiry sound that is signature to a certain kind of music -- the Television/Elvis Costello sound.
There are guitars that you pick up by chance and they instantly feel like old friends. Then there are guitars you fall in love with and can't put down because their sounds draw you in. This Jaguar is neither.
I've been fascinated by Jazzmasters and Jaguars for years, and unfortunately they've always rubbed me the wrong way once I picked them up. The Jaguar has so many switch combinations, none of them intuitive, that I felt like I was playing a computer console rather than a guitar. There are at least four or five switch combinations that would turn off your guitar completely. Not sure if that's a design thing or if some of the wiring on this particular guitar is broken, but not good either way -- I don't need five kill switches on my guitar. The Jaguar shares some features that are on two Brian May models I own (one Eastwood copy, one official Brian May Guitars model), and the Brian Mays are far easier to figure out, with much more useful on/off and phase switches that make sense.
The Jaguar has a short scale (24") is like the Brian May guitars. But while the shorter length of the Brian May models make the guitars slinkier, more responsive, more comfortable on the left hand and marvelous for bending, those advantages aren't on the Jaguar at all. The frets feel very unfriendly for vibrato and bending; maybe they're too skinny, but it's probably also because this guitar has a long string path, which increases string tension. And this body shape doesn't feel comfortable -- there's so much space after the bridge that you feel like you're lugging a lot more weight outside of the playing areas.
Despite its other shortcomings, construction quality is good. The Candy Apple Red finish looks splendid -- one of Fender's masterstrokes -- and all the hardware appears to be well fit. Visually, it's beautiful.
The Jazzmaster and Jaguar designs continue to leave me cold. While the Jaguar does have a certain signature sound, I feel I can get the same sound with my Brian May guitars or my Gretsch, and the Jaguar's legion of faults just make it very unappealing to me. I applaud the construction quality and aesthetics on this guitar while being completely unimpressed by its player-comfort and design dimensions. To me, this is just a guitar that's designed wrong, getting wrong all the details that the Fender Telecaster (for sound, utility and layout economy) and Stratocaster (for ergonomics and comfort) had gotten so right. I think the Jaguar is perhaps Fender's greatest failure.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
Primarily a singer, I've been playing guitar for about 10 years, been in a band (drummer!), and have continued to record and play with other musicians on a non-professional basis. My styles range from folk to hard rock, with heavy power-pop leanings -- Big Star, not Green Day.
I played this guitar for 10 minutes at Guitar Center in Hollywood, CA. It was selling for $800 or so.
The short scale length of this guitar means it's not difficult to play (though it has severe limitations -- see below). It looks nice, with a well applied finish and hardware that inspires confidence. It has a certain thin, wiry sound that is signature to a certain kind of music -- the Television/Elvis Costello sound.
There are guitars that you pick up by chance and they instantly feel like old friends. Then there are guitars you fall in love with and can't put down because their sounds draw you in. This Jaguar is neither.
I've been fascinated by Jazzmasters and Jaguars for years, and unfortunately they've always rubbed me the wrong way once I picked them up. The Jaguar has so many switch combinations, none of them intuitive, that I felt like I was playing a computer console rather than a guitar. There are at least four or five switch combinations that would turn off your guitar completely. Not sure if that's a design thing or if some of the wiring on this particular guitar is broken, but not good either way -- I don't need five kill switches on my guitar. The Jaguar shares some features that are on two Brian May models I own (one Eastwood copy, one official Brian May Guitars model), and the Brian Mays are far easier to figure out, with much more useful on/off and phase switches that make sense.
The Jaguar has a short scale (24") is like the Brian May guitars. But while the shorter length of the Brian May models make the guitars slinkier, more responsive, more comfortable on the left hand and marvelous for bending, those advantages aren't on the Jaguar at all. The frets feel very unfriendly for vibrato and bending; maybe they're too skinny, but it's probably also because this guitar has a long string path, which increases string tension. And this body shape doesn't feel comfortable -- there's so much space after the bridge that you feel like you're lugging a lot more weight outside of the playing areas.
Despite its other shortcomings, construction quality is good. The Candy Apple Red finish looks splendid -- one of Fender's masterstrokes -- and all the hardware appears to be well fit. Visually, it's beautiful.
The Jazzmaster and Jaguar designs continue to leave me cold. While the Jaguar does have a certain signature sound, I feel I can get the same sound with my Brian May guitars or my Gretsch, and the Jaguar's legion of faults just make it very unappealing to me. I applaud the construction quality and aesthetics on this guitar while being completely unimpressed by its player-comfort and design dimensions. To me, this is just a guitar that's designed wrong, getting wrong all the details that the Fender Telecaster (for sound, utility and layout economy) and Stratocaster (for ergonomics and comfort) had gotten so right. I think the Jaguar is perhaps Fender's greatest failure.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com