Fender Jag-Stang

Hi there!

Kurt Cobain and Nirvana made a huge impact on the music scene and pretty much killed heavy metal with the introduction of grunge. I have a lot of respect for Cobain’s genius, and am pleased to be showing one of his contributions to the guitar world today.

The Fender Jag-Stang was designed by Fender to meet Kurt Cobain’s needs. It is a 24-inch scale hybrid of the famous Fender Mustang and Jaguar guitars, with the Mustang’s Dynamic Vibrato bridge.

Legend has it that the necks on these are an exact replica of the one from Kurt’s favorite Mustang. Believe it or don’t…

The electronics consist of a “vintage-style” single coil at the neck, and a “Special design” humbucker at the bridge. Each pickup has its own 3-position slide on/off phase switch, in addition to the master volume and tone knobs. Some are critical of the quality of these parts, but they sound fine to me. This is grunge, remember?

The original run of these guitars was made between 1995 and 2001 with basswood bodies, and the second run was made from 2003 to 2005 with ash bodies. The only two colors available were Fiesta Red and Sonic Blue.

All of the guitars were built at Fender’s Japanese Custom Shop. I still see new ones over there, so perhaps they are still in production, but are just not exported to the U.S.

The one pictured here was built in 1996. It is a nice-playing guitar, with good craftsmanship. It sounds good, and the controls are useful for getting a lot of different tones from it.

The only gripe I have about the Jag-Stang is that it is so small that it feels like a toy when it is being played. It would be a great rhythm guitar, but not so hot for lead work.

Mahalo!

p.s. Please take a moment to remember the events of September 11, 2001. Do not let sorrow or hatred dwell in your heart, and hope and pray that we can all learn from this tragedy. Thank you.