American Reissue
Fender only started reissuing an American made Jaguar in 1999, as part of their "American Vintage Series". The colours that were offered on the Jaguar in the 60's are not really faithfully replicated in the current offerings that we see today. Colour options have come and gone over the last several years (though all come without matching headstock).
Fender actually sent a batch of matching headstock US reissue Jaguars to Japan at one stage. Colours seen include shell pink, burgundy mist and ice blue. There is currently a batch of special order thin skin matching headstock American Jaguars by dealers such as Wildwood Guitars and Dave's Guitars and made in small numbers as exclusives. The colours are Fiesta Red, Seafoam Green, Sonic Blue, and Shoreline Gold. Custom shop Jaguars can also be ordered specially, usually with great expense. Though, strictly speaking, these are not classed as "American Vintage Series".
Fender markets the American Vintage Jaguar as being manufactured through,
"careful selection of materials and strict adherence to the original methods of fabrication".
However, these differences have been identified:
"the USA Fender reissues have a urethane base coat. However, the color coat is nitro. I am certain because I have stripped one of these guitars(2003) with acetone, and tested two others(2004-2005) in small areas under the pick guard. The top coat and color coat remove very easily, as you would expect with nitro. The base coat, however, must be sanded off (i.e. acetone does not affect the base coat). I know this is true for ice blue metallic and ocean turquoise anyway"
The neck is nitro though.
http://home.comcast.net/~rmessick2/Home.htm
Above, a picture taken from the internet guitar store "Musician's Friend", depicting the colour options available today on US reissue Jaguars. Notice tortoiseshell pickguard on the ocean turquoise and surf green ones. Only ice blue metallic comes with aged white/mint pickguard nowadays.
Japanese Reissue
Fender of Japan have been producing Jaguar reissues since the mid 80's, and are still making them to this day. Currently, the only Japanese Jaguar that is officially available for sale in North America is the Jaguar Special (JGS-75) and Jaguar Baritone Special (both available in black only). Likewise, these models are also available in Europe. Though one can also find the '62 Japanese reissue in sunburst, candy apple red and vintage white also. Many other colours were also available up until recently. Possibly due to the activities of the company called "Fendershop". But the options are now limited to those already mentioned.
In actual fact, Japanese Jaguars (and Japanese Fenders in general) are manufactured in many other colours and hardware configurations. See them for yourselves over at Japanese guitar sites such as Ikebe-Gakki, Ishibashi or Rockinn. Ishibashi have recently made their website viewable in English. And it is now fairly straight forward to buy from them. Though buying from Ikeba or Rockinn still seems to remain impossible unless you speak Japanese. The sites are practically impossible to navigate, and I'm not even sure if they ship outside of Japan.
In the U.S.A, various runs of more affordable Japanese Jaguars are made available, from time to time. And the recent officially imported Japanese Jaguar (which was available in only 2 colours, candy apple red and lake placid blue without matching headstock) is no longer available, discontinued some time in 2003. In the UK and Europe, Japanese Jaguars have seemingly been more common over the years.
Claims like this have been going around, mainly on eBay:
"Japanese Jaguars manufactured for the Japanese domestic market are made to far better standards than those made for export to the United States/elsewhere "
This is almost certainly untrue, as is the claim that CIJ models are superior to MIJ. In the mid 90's, Fender of Japan changed the decal next to the serial number to read "Crafted In Japan" , where the decal had previously read "Made In Japan". This change is simply cosmetic. No other changes took place at this point. Changes have occurred on the Japanese Jaguars in the past though. I know that the earlier ones had basswood bodies and shielding plates in the routes. Nowadays, body seems to be alder and there are no shielding plates. Construction/materials quality may have varied over the years. Fretboard is veneer on all that I've seen. Japanese body and neck are finished in polyurethane gloss, have pearl dots, black Fender logo surrounded by gold, similar to the ones from the late '60's and onwards. In fact, I think it would even be more accurate to claim the MIJ/CIJ decals are '68 reissues. Also note how it says "with synchronized floating tremolo" instead of having Des. and Pat. numbers. It has no serial number stamped into the neck plate, just a blank chrome plate. And instead, the decal on the back of the neck has the serial number on it. Pots are of a much lower quality, as is the wiring. Only the older reissues seem to have shielding plates in the routes. There is no mute or bridge cover. Basically everything about the guitar is distinguishable from the old or new American version.
Japanese coding system explained:
The first 2 letters (JG) mean Jaguar. The 2 numbers that follow are supposed be the reissue year. But they all say '66. Then there is a dash, followed by some numbers (ie, 85). Which is the suggested retail price in Japanese Yen (ie, 85,000 Yen).. Followed by the colour in brackets.
A "JG66B" code followed by a "110" suggested retail price means the guitar is a genuine '66 reissue with block inlays, binding and Schaller F keys.
Jaguar special (or "Jaguar HH" as it is generally now referred to in the west) was a "75" for retail price. This may have been changed to "83", and for some colours be "86". Meaning it is 83,000-86,000 Yen for a Jaguar special. Although there has been some sort of announcement by Fender Japan on their website recently about a general increase in their prices. So this list may need updating somewhat...
Jaguar Fakes
These Filipino made Jaguar fakes are often referred to as "Vietnam serviceman guitars". They were made sometime in the 60's and may have ended up in the hands of US soldiers fighting in Vietnam. Funnily enough, there is a picture of Mick Jagger playing a black one on the cover of the Rolling Stones compilation album entitled "Rarities 1971-2003".
By some accounts, the quality of some of these guitars can be absolutely shocking. However, many people have started collecting them for the novelty and low price compared to a real Jaguar. There are also wild differences in spec, quality and build all round. Perhaps the reasons for this may involve some sort of "cottage industry".
I have seen them in sunburst and olympic white. And also, candy apple red, ocean turquoise and black, with matching headstock. On some models, the neck is affixed in a rather strange way. Instead of the screws being countersunk into the neck plate, they just go through the body. And the 'neck plate' then acts as a cover for the screws which are behind it. The Fender logo is stamped on the tremolo and there is a Fender decal on the headstock. Both of which seem to look very amateurish. The tuners have exposed gears. The dots are larger than a normal Jaguar. The heel of the neck looks more rounded and the neck appears not to be as wide at the heel. The slide switch on the tremolo is non functional. Some of the bridges have a single saddle. The pickguard screw to the upper left of the neck pickup is absent, which is perhaps the best way to tell if a Jaguar is a serviceman at first glance (see pictures to the right. Filipino on the left, real Fender Jaguar on the right). They came with a plywood type of case, sometimes with a red lining, as shown in the pictures below:
A Filipino Jaguar in a type of red finish.
Mike Ball also writes in to tell us this:
"I work at Guitarville in Seattle, WA and I recently had the good fortune of getting to examine one of the fake Filipino Jag's up close. The one I saw was Lake Placid Blue with an unbound neck and matching headstock, and was practically mint with the original case, mute, trem bar etc. Other than the color, this one differed from the ones described on your site by having a hand painted Fender logo instead of a decal! Also, the one pictured on your site has the hole for the mute slug underneath the bridge like on a real Jaguar. However, the fake one that I saw did not have a hole underneath the bridge, but on the treble side of the bridge between the bridge and pickup. Another significant difference is that all of the chrome control plates were very thin and placed on top of a pickguard that covered roughly the same area as a Jazzmaster guard. Lastly, the neck plate on the fake Jag was mounted like a regular Fender, not in the bizarre fashion that your site describes. Whew! Well, I hope that this made some sense and was relatively interesting. I guess it just goes to show that there were a few different places churning these fake Jag's out back in the 60's."
