1962 Fender Jaguar
Dan Orkin of Reverb.com takes a close-up look at the offset legend and why it’s still going strong today
Over the past decade, offset guitars – a classification broadly defined as any instrument with a body shape similar to that of a Fender Jaguar or Jazzmaster – have exploded in popularity. While today’s guitar market overflows with modern offsets of every sort, the original Jaguar and Jazzmaster, introduced in 1962 and 1958 respectively, remain the essential templates of the format. Though similar, these Fender models differ in two main ways: their scale length and pickup set. The Jaguar was built with 24-inch scale length compared with the 25.5 inches of the Jazzmaster, and incorporated two shielded single-coil pickups, as opposed to the Jazzmaster’s feedback-prone soapbars. On today’s vintage market, Jazzmasters remain the more in demand of the two as a result of a general preference for the longer scale length. That said, there is certainly an active crop of Jaguar enthusiasts, many of whom would cite Kurt Cobain as a key influence.
As the first year of production, 1962 is the key vintage model year for the Jag. Jaguar specs, however, remained more or less consistent up until the CBS Fender takeover in 1965, and specimens from any year from ’62 to ’65 tend to achieve similar prices.
The CurrenT MarkeT
Over the past several years, prices on vintage Jaguars have remained mostly steady. Guitars with an original Sunburst finish and no major mods and conditional issues usually sell from £2,300 to £3,000, with some in pristine condition selling for more. Sunburst Jags with replaced parts, major repairs or non-original finishes can dip down closer to £1,500, or even lower for seriously ‘player grade’ examples.
At the top end of the market, recent sales for rare-finish ’62 Jags, such as Fiesta Red, have topped the £6,000 mark. NonSunburst Jaguars will sell for anywhere from £3,000 to £5,000. Olympic White appears to be the most common custom finish, and these guitars typically sell in a similar range to the Sunburst examples.
Today’s boutique market abounds with 60s Fender-style offset guitars of every imaginable configuration. Fano Guitars, Vuorensaku Guitars and BilT are just three examples of the countless builders who specialise in the offset genre. What’s less common is finding a modern guitar with the shorter 24-inch scale length, though many builders will be able to offer this specification by custom order.
If you’re trying to stick in the Fender family, the contemporary offset revival has brought a number of reissues and limitededition Jaguars to the catalogue including a Kurt Cobain tribute model and the highly regarded Johnny Marr Signature Jaguar. For ’62 Jaguar specs specifically, Fender did offer an American Vintage Reissue series ‘62 Jag for a few years. It has since been discontinued, but used examples are not difficult to find on Reverb.com. The Madein-Japan JG66 offers another worthwhile reissue for anyone in the market. In fact, the Fender factory in Japan was the first to bring the design back after its original retirement in 1975.
Dan Orkin is content director at Reverb.com, where he reviews the thousands of listings and manages the Reverb Price Guide