We bring you another fantastic jagstang project in this post.  Comprised of a Warmoth made jagstang body and neck AJ put together a really nice guitar here.

Some of the specs from AJ’s “Gold Top” jag-stang are:

• Warmoth jagstang body
• Warmoth 24″ neck
• compound neck radius - from 10″ to 16″ radius
• Gibson style frets
• Bridge pickup - Seymour Duncan: Duncan Custom SH-5
• Neck pickup - Seymour Duncan JB Jr. SJBJ-1
• Tuners - Schaller locking
• Bridge - Warmoth; which is much more adjustable than the stock Jagstang / Mustang bridges

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This photo includes an original (c 1974) Mustang neck that AJ intended to use, but he found the Warmoth neck much better for playability.

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AJ’s guitar is a part of the Warmoth gallery.

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Do you have a project jag-stang or modified jag-stang you’re proud of?  Send us the photos and the specs and we may post it here! [Contact us here.]

We wanted to point out our new Classifieds Section to those of you that haven’t checked it out in a while. You might also notice the new homepage look which will be rolled to the rest of the site over time.

Here are the benefits of the new Classifieds system:

• no registration required to post an ad
• can upload an image with your ad
• the most recent ads show up on the main homepage of jag-stang.com
• simplified - there are only 3 categories so browsing all the ads is much easier now.
• just click the ‘Post An Ad’ tab to post your ad

We would love to hear your feedback on the new system. Now go post your ads!

Summer NAMM 2008 has just wrapped up in Nashville, Tennessee and here are some of our favorite from the show.  There were no real scoops from the show as a lot of the news trickled out leading up to the show.

Fender announcements

• Classic Player Jaguar Special and Classic Player Jaguar Special HH
• Classic Player Jazzmaster Special
• Billy Corgan Stratocaster
• Jaguar Bass
• 65 Princeton Reverb Guitar Amp

Gibson announcements

• Robot Les Paul Studio, Robot SG

If you are a Jaguar or Jazzmaster fan this is great news for you.  Affordable Mexican models probably right down at your local guitar shops soon. You no longer have any excuses as to why you can’t find a Mustang, Jaguar, or Jazzmaster any more.  But don’t even ask about jag-stangs… lol

The Billy Corgan Fender Stratocaster that we started talking about back in January is now on Fender.com as part of their Artist Series. [url]  We’re assuming this guitar will get the grand unveiling at the upcoming Summer NAMM that is coming up June 20-22 in Nashville.

Not a whole lot of surprises up to this point.  The most interesting specs are as follows:

• colors: (805) Olympic White and (806) Flat Black (satin nitro)
• jumbo frets on Modern “C” Shape neck with large ’70s style headstock (satin poly)
• 1 Special Design Dimarzio® Billy Corgan Single-Spaced Humbucking Pickup (Neck)
• 1 Dimarzio® Chopper™ Pickup (Middle)
• 1 Special Design Dimarzio® Billy Corgan Single-Spaced Humbucking Pickup (Bridge)
• original body shape (?? not sure how it differs from standard stratocaster)

The pickup switching has some non-standard settings that benefit from the single-spaced Dimarzio humbuckers.

• Position 1. Full Humbucking Bridge Pickup
• Position 2. Inside Coil of Bridge Pickup and Full Humbucking Middle Pickup
• Position 3. Full Humbucking Middle Pickup
• Position 4. Full Humbucking Middle Pickup and Outside Coil of Neck Pickup
• Position 5. Full Humbucking Neck Pickup

Update: Interstate music is showing a list price of 1999.99 for this new strat.  Which would mean a retail price around 1449.99.  What are your opinions on this price point?

Update 2: Sam Ash is showing a list price of 1599.99 with a retail of 1199.99.

Fender has introduced new Jaguar and Jazzmaster guitars in the Classic Player line. The Classic Player Jaguar and Jazzmaster are Mexican made with some very nice updates and improvements.

Notable updates/improvements are:

• Adjusto-Matic Bridge (somewhat like a tune-o-matic)
• 9.5″ fretboard radius (compared to the 7.25″ radius previously)
• sustain/stability improvements - increased back angle, tremolo plate moved closer to bridge
• dual humbucker option on the jaguar
• “hotter” pickups

These new Classic Player models should nicely fill the gap left when the Japan made models became no longer available. Just the bridge and fretboard radius improvements alone will make this guitar look very attractive compared to the much higher priced American Vintage Jaguars and Jazzmasters.

The dual humbucker sunburst jaguar will also undoubtedly be a favorite of the Cobain fans. Who will no longer need to go through the hassles and expense of getting one of the “Kurtified” Fender Japan Jaguars.

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We plan to have a hands on review posted in the future.

It’s been well known that there were 2 original prototype jag-stangs made by Fender at the time Kurt Cobain died. There was a sonic blue prototype that was played by Kurt on a few European tour dates. (see video in previous post) It was given to Peter Buck of REM after Cobain died. You can see Buck playing the lefty jag-stang flipped righty in the REM video “what´s the frequency kenneth”. Does anyone know where the blue jag-stang is today?

The fiesta red prototype never made it to Kurt. Fender was preparing to ship the guitar to Kurt when they got news of his death. It originally ended up in the Fender Museum. Forum member ‘prospect’ posted some of his great photos and information from the Fender museum which is shared below. [forum link]

These photos are from Fender’s Museum in California from a few years back. It is my understanding that this is now currently on display either in Seattle or Cleveland.

On Kurt’s drawing the surrounding information you see is for when it was scanned for “Journals”. The “blacked out” area is contact information for Kurt and his guitar tech which was to not be printed in “Journals”.

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If you have any more info on the current locations of the fiesta red or sonic blue prototype jag-stangs let us know.

While Kurt wasn’t alive long enough for us to see him play the jag-stang very much there were some shows during the ‘94 European tour where he did.

Below is one of the better quality videos of Kurt playing the jag-stang on the song Dumb from the Slovenia 2/27/94 tour date. Thanks to Ryan for suggesting us post this on our blog!  If you see other cool jag-stang videos that we should post let us know.

Forum member iCEByTes has put together a gorgeous custom jag-stang project guitar.

For all the details on his project and all the folks who contributed to it visit this forum post.  [url] You could also post any questions to the creator there.

Some of the specs on the guitar are:

• neck: 24″ C shape (copy of jag-stang neck)
• body: ash (copy of jag-stang body ash), with straight humbucker and contours
• pickups: Seymour Duncan Lipstick SLS-n and Seymour Duncan JB

Below are a few photos of the project jagstang.

If you have a custom jag-stang, jaguar, or mustang project guitar send us your photos!  We’ll put up a post to show off your project.