NAMM 2012 PRESS RELEASE: Fender is proud to celebrate five colourful decades of the Jaguar guitar by introducing the 50th Anniversary Jaguar model.
The instrument takes players back to 1962, when Fender introduced an unusual new guitar that paired a sleekly modified Jazzmaster body style and elaborate control layout with a shorter scale and smaller, brighter pickups with more output. The resulting Jaguar was the fourth and last of Fender's original line-up of standard electric guitars.
Perfectly matched to the early-'60s renaissance in design modernism (as exemplified by everything of the era from autos to aircraft to sunglasses to furniture), the Jaguar gradually acquired a fascinating pedigree quite unlike that of any other Fender guitar.
A chromed-out, surf-rock staple of the 1960s, it found new life from the mid-1970s-on as a subversively 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 Chantays and the Surfaris later fuelled, for example, the dynamic grunge maelstrom of Nirvana, the translucent shoe-gazing dream pop of My Bloody Valentine and the literately artful alt-rock of the Pixies, the Flaming Lips and many others.
Highly distinctive features
The US-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-inch scale length, a new one-degree neck-angle-pocket cut that improves pitch, a re-positioned tremolo plate that increases bridge break angle and sustain, and specially designed hot Jaguar single-coil neck and bridge pickups that deliver fatter tone and more output (once again framed by the model's classic notched metal 'claws'; a hum-reducing innovation only found on the Jaguar).
Other premium features include a sleekly offset alder body with lacquer finish, C-shaped maple neck with lacquer finish and vintage-style truss rod, 9.5-inch radius bound rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid block inlays, separate 'lead' and rhythm tone circuits with their own dedicated 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, strap, cable 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.
UK RRPs inc VAT:
- 50th Anniversary Jaguar, Rosewood Fingerboard, Lake Placid Blue - £1942.80
- 50th Anniversary Jaguar, Rosewood Fingerboard, Candy Apple Red - £1942.80
- 50th Anniversary Jaguar, Rosewood Fingerboard, Burgundy Mist Metallic - £1942.80
Stay tuned to MusicRadar.com's dedicated NAMM 2012 hub for more info and other highlights from the show.
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For more information, visit Fender
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