Even though the Fender Jaguar has a short, 24-inch scale, 22-fret neck and knobs and switches that can be as confusing as the control panel on a single-engine 1983 Piper Seminole, it’s an undeniably cool guitar, and it looks and sounds awesome.
Although it wasn’t a huge hit for Fender in the early Sixties (Let’s just say it never quite took off like the Strat and the Tele), the model had, and has, a massive following.
But despite the all love, some players complain that the Jaguar doesn’t have the sustain of a Strat, and—from personal experience—it often has this weird string-buzz thing going on. Which is one of the reasons I sold my Jaguar for beer money in 2007 (I did eventually crawl back into this corner of the universe when I bought a Jazzmaster in 2011).
As a member of a New York-based heavy trad instrumental surf rock band called Mister Neutron (Note: We don't really exist anymore), I know a lot of Jaguar players. Some of them—including Dave Wronski of Southern California’s Slacktone (also an occasional GuitarWorld.com blogger)—use something called a Buzz Stop to address this problem. The Buzz Stop, which is made by a company called Whizzo, is a piece of hardware that attaches to the tailpiece of a Jaguar or Jazzmaster. It has a roller, which the strings go under. The benefit is the added down-pressure of the strings against the bridge saddles, which makes for a more “solid” contact.
“The Buzz Stop helps reduce rattles and the tendency of the strings to jump off the bridge saddles when playing aggressively,” Wronski said. “Without it, a lot of string-vibration energy is lost by way of the rattles. I use them on my Jaguars, except for my ’63 sunburst model, which doesn’t seem to need it because the angle and height of the neck pocket are optimal for a good rattle-free setup. The ’63 is well-made; the saddles were better on those old guitars.”
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
