NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

[ItsaBass]

Have wanted a Jaguar for 25 years. Just bought it on the used market. This guitar covers lots of firsts for me. This is my first Jaguar...as well as my first ever short-scale electric guitar...as well as my first ever Fender with neck binding...as well as my first ever large-headstock Fender...as well as my first ever body-color-matching headstock.

It's an American Vintage '65 reissue in limited edition Ice Blue Metallic with matching head. Never thought I'd go for a guitar this color, but on the Jaguar, and with the matching head, it just spoke to me.

It will almost certainly be kept stock. The now discontinued AVs came out of the factory pretty darned close to perfect in my book. No yellowing on the clear coats, nice, thin finishes, and very good vintage accuracy in terms of specs.

I hunted a while for this color, and finally found it in the right condition at a price I could live with.

Here are some photos of the model, but not my exact guitar.

I'm looking forward to having some real fun with this short-scale beauty.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

That is so perfect. I have an MIJ Jaguar, and I love that guitar enough to really wish I had the US version instead. To me the Jaguar is the ultimate expression of the "Fender" type sound, yet it does things no other Fender can. AVRIs have a wonderful bridge/trem, pickups & body contouring and the matching headstock/binding pushes me into envy. Enjoy it

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

Nice! I learned to play on a darker blue metallic Jag back around 1983. Loved that thing. So ergonomic.

 

[Mincer]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

A great color choice, too!

 

[Ayrton]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

I have been sooo tempted to buy the neck and body of this model at the dismantlers.

Awesome buy!

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

I have been sooo tempted to buy the neck and body of this model at the dismantlers.

Awesome buy!

I thought about it too. But once I priced it all out, obtaining all proper hardware, electronics, hard case, accessories, etc. (if finding all the proper parts to restore it to stock was even possible), there wasn't much point. I wanted the whole deal, with original case, case candy, and what have you. That would be a good way to go for someone who didn't want to outfit the Jag like stock, though.

If you decide to go ahead with that project, be aware: There are two AVRI Ice Blue Jag body types out there. One is the '62 reissue and one is the '65. The '62 reissue has a poly sealer coat and a thicker lacquer finish (and when complete, the guitar didn't have a body-colored headstock). the '65 reissue has a lacquer sealer coat and significantly thinner finish (and, of course, when complete, the guitar had the body-colored headstock). This is kind of ass-backwards, really, because a real '65 would have had a poly sealer coat ("Fullerplast"), while a real '62 would not have. So the '65 reissue body is actually the more vintage accurate body if you want to build an early-model Jag (Fullerplast started being used on all Fender guitars at some point in '63).

That said, neither one of them has the same exact finish as the originals. The originals used acrylic lacquer for the color coats, and nitro for the clear coats. AFAIK, nobody who reproduces old Fenders bothers to get that little detail right; they just go with all nitrocellulose. By the '60's, most of their custom colors were shot that way, while the older colors from the '50's that carried over into the '60's (such as black and sunburst) remained with their original nitro base.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

P.S. Now that I've been thinking about it, I might make a small mod to the guitar. I am thinking I might rig the "rhythm" circuit so that it provides an alternate tone for the bridge pickup, instead of an alternate tone for the neck pickup. A regular 3-way pickup switch would be nice too, but I'll probably be able to deal with the individual on/off switches just fine. I don't want to go to the modern Jag wiring and plates, though (more like a Duo-Sonic than a Jag).

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

That said, neither one of them has the same exact finish as the originals. The originals used acrylic lacquer for the color coats, and nitro for the clear coats.

except Olympic White, thy didn't clear coat that with nitro because they were trying to slow down the yellowing process).

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

except Olympic White, thy didn't clear coat that with nitro because they were trying to slow down the yellowing process).

I said neither one of the two Ice Blue Metallic AVRI Jaguar bodies I had just explained use a combo of acrylic and nitro, like the originals did...meaning like the original Blue Ice Metallic did.

Olympic White was clearcoated sometimes (the later the model year, the more likely it is to be clearcoated). But it often was not (the earlier the model year, the more likely is is to not be). It's really nice when it isn't, but not common on guitars built past the mid-'60's. My Olympic White Musicmaster is a disgusting dirty pastel yellow; I wish it was a nice non-clercoated white instead.

FWIW, here is a partial list of Fender Custom colors, and whether they used nitro or acrylic color coats:

Nitro colors:

Sonic Blue
Daphne Blue
Surf Green
Foam Green ("Seafoam Green")
Shell Pink
Fiesta Red
Dakota Red
Black
Desert Tan
Blonde
...and the odd man out: Sherwood Green (metallic)

Acrylic:

Inca Silver (metallic)
Firemist Silver (metallic)
Shoreline Gold (metallic)
Firemist Gold (metallic)
Burgundy Mist (metallic)
Blue Ice (metallic)
Lake Placid Blue (metallic)
Ocean Turquoise (metallic)
Charcoal Frost (metallic)
...and the odd man out: Olympic White

If you look at this list, you will obviously generalize that a simple solid color is most likely nitro, and a metallic color is most likely acrylic. But the determining factor is actually what binder each color used when it was first introduced by the auto industry. All the Fender colors except for sunburst and blonde were originally formulated as car paints back then, so as the auto industry went, Fender went.

Acrylic lacquer started coming in the auto industry in the '50's, and it very quickly replaced nitro lacquer, being used almost exclusively by the late '50's. So the year the auto paint industry formulated the color is actually a better indicator of whether it was nitro or acrylic. Colors introduced on cars during the meat of the '50's are nitro, and colors introduced toward the end of the '50's, and in the '60's, are acrylic. The switch from nitro to acrylic just so happened to coincide with the stylistic trend toward metallic colors, which can lead one to erroneously believe that all solids are nitro and all metallics are acrylic.

 

[Wattage]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

Cool guitar

I had an Oly White '66 when I was a teen,

 

[Ben1962]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

Classy beautiful color

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

It gets pretty easy to use one hand to manipulate both pickup switches at one time, using a twisting motion.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

It is my personal belief that all proper offsets have matching headstocks.

 

[MitchMiami]

NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

It is my personal belief that all proper offsets have matching headstocks.

My 1963 Jaguar was originally sunburst (refinished in Olympic White in the early 70’s) and doesn’t have the matching headstock because the sunburst variety of the Jaguar did not come that way, even for an extra cost.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

I prefer them without the painted headstock, but I like the matching head sometimes...like on the one I just got.


I will eventually track down one of the Olympic White '65 Jazzmasters from the same series. It has the matching head.


My AVRI '64 Jazz Bass is Olympic White/tortoise, without the matching head. That is an absolutely beautiful look. It took me a while to find that bass, but I'm glad I didn't settle for another color.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: NGD: My first-ever Jaguar

Def. agree matching headstocks are necessary; in fact G&L's matching necks have a lot of appeal to me too. I was really disappointed by the earlier AVRI series without matching headstocks; part of the reason I wound up with an MIJ (even though as stated I now wish I wound up with an AVRI.)

My only offset without a matching headstock is my '66 Mustang, only because they didn't come from the factory that way. Even my Squier Jazzmaster was painted Sonic to match the body.