A Fender guitar that doesn’t get the same kind of reverence as a Stratocaster or a Telecaster is the Jaguar.
The company introduced the model in 1962 as Leo Fender’s response to the West Coast surf craze that was happening at the time, with the emergence of “surf music,” as exemplified by Dick Dale’s Miserlou and the Chantays’ Pipeline.
Initially, surf music was largely instrumental with the guitar as the point of focus, always dripping with reverb and featuring an abundant use of the tremolo, or vibrato, bar.
Leo Fender developed a very distinct tremolo unit for the Jaguar, fitted with a very long arm to facilitate slow, wide vibratos and a deep drop, more akin to a Bigsby tremolo than that of a standard Stratocaster. You can also lock the tremolo in place if you prefer. You’ll also find the same tremolo unit on the Jazzmaster.
Leo also added an automatic mute (string dampening) system on the bridge along with completely redesigned electronics that allow for a wide variety of tones from the instrument’s two single-coil pickups.
In Figure 1, I’m improvising in the key of E, sticking with primarily small chord voicings to reference a progression that basically moves between E, B, C#m7, A, F#m7add4 and A/B. Utilizing fingerpicking throughout, I begin with a two-note E chord, with my index finger at the 9th fret, and hammer-on with the middle and ring fingers up to an A/E voicing. This is followed by references to B, C#m7, A and Am, resolving back to E in bar 3.
Every time I allow a chord to sustain, I apply either subtle bar vibrato or add an expressive dip with the bar. Combined with the heavy reverb, a beautiful ethereal quality can be achieved in this way.
The Jaguar I’m using for these examples is from 1967, which I can prove because, when I bought the guitar, it came with the original purchase receipt, from August 17, 1967, for $265 plus tax. The instrument still had the “hang tags” as well as a Fender custom color chart. Gotta love these vintage accoutrements from a bygone era!
The Jaguar was the second most expensive guitar in the Fender catalog: the Jazzmaster was the most expensive, followed by the Jaguar, Stratocaster, Telecaster, Esquire, Mustang, Duo-Sonic and the Music Master. There was also the rarely seen Swinger from the late-’60s.
Jaguars are great to use in the studio, and you can really rock out on them; check out Johnny Marr’s and Sonic Youth’s use of the Jaguar. They are very cool-looking guitars and also have a very distinct sound.
In Figure 2, I start with an F#m chord treated with a bar dip, followed by B/D# and then some single-note passages based on the E major hexatonic scale (E, F#, G#, A, B, C#), culminating with B7/E to E.
In Figure 3, I begin with a low F#m chord and another bar dip, followed by some fast tremolo picking on ascending single notes on the A string, similar to what Dick Dale played on his low and high E strings in Miserlou.
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
