Authenticating early features on 1962 Fender Jaguar.

The Fender Jaguar was ready for mass production at the start of 1962 and was heavily advertised, and built purposely for the new, hip and youthful surf guitar era of the time.  This was a time of colourful VW Camper Vans and the choice of guitar needed to match.  The Fender Jaguar was the first model, in my opinion, to truly push the new and very flashy Fender Custom colour options that were available.  The Fender Jazzmaster, although a flop for its intended jazz musician market, was adopted by the surf bands of the era and the Jaguar was an attempt to improve the Jazzmaster design, following carefully considered input from professional players of the time.  The result was a shorter scale guitar (24” rather than 25.5”) which was billed as an easier playing instrument, with an improved gadgetry switch system for more tone (and certainly more treble) range, but most importantly were the newly designed pickups.  The Jaguar has Stratocaster-like pickups which sit within an enclosed shield (the claw) which focus the pickups magnetic field directly to the string region, offering a more metallic and clear tone rather than a fuller and warmer tone you get from a Jazzmaster.  The Jaguar pickups, in my opinion, work much better when a lot of reverb and tremolo/vibrato is activated, making the Jaguar is ideal surf guitar instrument. 

The Jaguar was, let’s face it, an oddball Fender guitar which was essentially forgotten about once the blues took hold in the mid 1960’s.  It wasn’t until punk music of late 1970’s (even Mick Jagger played one) somewhat gave them a dust down and eventually Kurt Cobain officially put them back in front of a mainstream audience, although with significant modifications.  If you’re like me, someone that was a teenager in the 1990’s and a fan of alternative rock, I’m willing to bet you have a soft spot for the Jaguar and the Jazzmaster, most likely due to one of your musical hero’s having played one.  Now that we are all achieving our financial potential (I’m not going to say grown up because we never grow up until we are 6 feet under), it is natural to see why both the Fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster have become desirable and command a significant premium.  If you get a good one, keep tight hold of it and enjoy every note.  That’s the skinny, now onto the purpose of this article.  Below you will find a list of the oddities that you find on the earliest (January to early March 1962) Fender Jaguar.

1.      9 hole pickguards:  The earliest Fender Jaguar sport one less screw on the bass side, near to the bridge.  From March 62 onwards an additional screw was added, most likely to prevent pickguard warping, something vintage Jazzmaster’s suffer greatly from. 

Early production Fender Jaguar. Note the 9 hole guard pickguard.

2.      Neck dates:  Expect a pencil neck date from January 1/62, February 2/62, March 3/62 or a stamped 1 Mar 62 A or B.  I have only ever seen one 9 hole guard with an ink stamped 1 April 62 B.

3.      Flat head screws for the pickup height adjustments.  These quickly changed and it is unclear why Fender initially opted for, or ultimately against these 1950’s Telecaster style screws.  These screws change to your typical star head screws in March 1962.

Early 50's tele style screwed were used on the earliest produced Fender Jaguar pickups.

4.      Pickguards:  If you are going to find a custom colour Fender Jaguar with a tortoise pickguard, it will most likely be a 9 hole guard Fender Jaguar.  Any custom colour with a neck date later than March 1962 combined with a tortoise pickguard, in my opinion, is most like a personal preference replacement, rather than being factory original from purchase.

5.      Non-matching headstocks.  Matching headstocks became standard in what appears to be the second half of March 1962, around the time the neck stamp changed from pencil to ink stamps.  Do not automatically assume the guitar (Jaguar or Jazzmaster) is a refinish if the neck-date is March 62 or earlier, or if it even has the combination of a tortoise pickguard and a non-matching headstock.  It could well be a very rare piece.

Early 1962 Fender Jaguar. Note the 9 hole tortoise guard and the non-matching headstock. Photo taken from FrettedAmericana.com

6.      Neck profiles.  It is very common to find A width nuts during this period, but you do find a B width nut easily.  I feel that A width nuts came as standard on early Jaguars, perhaps to show off the new options Fender had to offer.  Working under the assumption that customers were made to wait for ordered neck profiles during the early build process of the Fender Jaguar, this likely explains why most B neck profiles on early Jaguars come with a March 62 pencil or ink stamp.

7.      Lack of a body date.  I am yet to see a body date on any early Fender Jaguar.  You will see pencil references, for example I’ve seen the common “C” that you frequently see on a Fender body or a “2” inside the tremolo cavity.  This “2” could mean February 1962, but I’m yet to see a “1” or “3” to represent January or March 1962.

8.      Pot dates.  Early, 9 hole guard Jaguar’s have pots dating from mid to late 1961.  I’m yet to see an early Jaguar without 1961 dated pots which are original.

1961 pots are on all early 1962 Fender Jaguar models.

9.      Early grounding style.  This is the biggest issue with 1962 Fender Jaguar’s and in my opinion, this prevents them from being the most desirable model year. 

All 1962 Fender Jaguar’s have a very poor grounding design (note the lack of grounding on the tremolo unit).  They have a primitive g string, running from the treble-side bridge post and under the control plate.  This single g string often loses contact by sinking into the body, snapping or a build-up of corrosion results in interference and unwanted noise.  The same applies to the tremolo unit, if there is any slight loss of grounding contact, when in use and the bridge rocks (rocking onto corrosion) you will get crackles, hisses and generally noises that you could do without.  If you do get unwanted noises, a good way to know you have grounding issues is by locking the tremolo unit, if the noise goes away then you know you have corrosion inside the bridge thimbles or where your tremolo arm meets the collet (so professional clean both areas).  If the noise persists, then you know you have a poor contact somewhere along the g string between the bridge and control plate, so have a professional completely clean and improve the grounding contact.  Fender updated the grounding design in the latter part of 1963, most likely due to customer complaints.  It is important that you make sure any 1962 Fender Jaguar is quiet when in use before you purchase it, otherwise you guitar tech will be have a busy day removing corrosion and improving grounding contact points during its set-up.  This is why, I personally avoid 1962 Fender Jaguar’s (online purchases) that have significant signs of corrosion on the bridge and thimbles.

Note the lack of grounding wire in contact with the tremolo unit, running wire a drilled hole to the control cavity. This results in possible noise and hum until the design was improve in late 1963.