According to this article at RollingStone.com listing the top 25 underrated guitarists Kurt Cobain is the #2 underrated guitarist. And who’s the #1 underrated? The great purple one, Prince himself.
The top 5 from their list of 25 is:
The list is sure to provoke some interesting discussions. Check out the full list of 25 at the link above.
Well… you know we had to get a Halo 3 related post in today! Will you be neglecting your guitars over the next few weeks/months to enjoy Halo 3?
Every once in a while a review gets submitted to jag-stang.com that just needs to be shared with a wider audience. This is one of those great detailed reviews by a user who goes by “the jazzman”.
If you’re interested in more user reviews check out jag-stang.com’s review section for some other good ones. Jazzman’s detailed Jaguar/Jazzmaster review follows.
After owning Jaguars and Jazzmasters for over 10 years and using them reguarly to play Jazz and after reading about all the problems with the guitars bridge, pickups/switches/short-scale neck etc, I thought I should clear up some widespread misinformation about the Jaguar/Jazzmaster.
1) The Jazzmaster and Jaguar were purposely designed to be used by Jazz and surf rock guitarists; they were never designed for rock/pop/grunge/shoegaze/alternative rock; Fender had already designed the Telecaster and Stratocaster that had captured the imagination of rock/pop guitarists. Hence, they made the Jazzmaster and Jaguar to target a different section of the guitar market.
2) With this in mind, the bridge and floating tremelo on the Jazzmaster and Jaguar were designed to be used with Flatwound strings only, as are used in Jazz/surf rock; 11 gauge minimum and the heavier the gauge the better. This fact alone eliminates bridge rattles and unwanted movement immediately. They were NEVER designed for standard nickle/steel wound strings etc as are commonly used today, which creates all the buzzing and movement on the bridge/neck.
3) Flatwound strings produce a very warm and thick tone, hence the reason why the Jaguar and Jazzmaster are equipped with 1MEG pots and produce a sharper sound, this is to purposely balance out the excessive ‘deadness’ of Flatwounds. Of course if you do not use flatwound strings, then the Jazzmaster and particuarly the Jaguar sound excessively sharpe in tone; wrong string choice is again the problem.
4) The low E,A,D strings on Flatwounds are extremely thick and bassey, hence the reason why the Jaguar is purposely built with a Bass-cut slide switch, which when in use thins out the tone for the purpose of playing lead. If you use Flatwound strings the bass-cut slide switch is a perfectly sensible and welcome switch that does not make the tone unuseable and too thin, only if you use very light or standard strings does the switch not make sense when in use.
5) The Jaguar’s so called ’short-scale’ neck was designed with the aim of making playing heavy gauge flatwound strings easier, particuarly for bending at standard/concert pitch as is commonly used in Jazz. Also, the Jaguars shorter scale’s reduction in string tension, was not considered a problem because the heavy gauge of Flatwounds was still strong/heavy enough to make the bridge rattle/movement free.
6)The rythmn section on the Jazzmaster and Jaguar is so warm in tone because it was designed for Jazz/big band style music and played in this style sounds perfect for rythmn playing.
7) The mute assembly on a Fender Jaguar is purpose built for muting over long periods, as in Surf Rock and sometimes Jazz, it is not designed for short periods of muting that require quick changes, hence it is very easy to use for the purpose for which it was designed. Also, the mute is only meant to deaden the strings by tounching them lightly, and needs to be set correctly to avoid pushing the guitar out of tune as many people complain about; if your mute pushes the guitar out of tune it is set too high on it’s upward movement, or your string gauge is too light, or you are not using Flatwound strings as are a must on Jazzmasters/Jaguars.
8 ) Vintage Jazzmasters and Jaguars had saddles that had deep and wide grooves in them that were excellent for the heavier gauge of Flatwounds. It is only modern-day Japanese reissues (and to a lesser extent USA vintage models) on which the bridge saddle grooves are to shallow and narrow, which leads to the problem with strings/saddles popping out during bends. This problem is once again further compounded by the use of light roundwound strings, that are not suitable for Jazzmasters and Jaguars because they are not heavy enough and do not sit in the saddles properly because they are roundwound. Flatwound strings do reduce to a significant degree problems with saddles, because they sit in them much deeper and are much smoother when using the tremelo. If the reissue Jazzmasters and Jaguars saddles were made as the originals then there would be no problem in this area.
Although I understand that many modern players do not use Flatwound strings because they are looking for a brighter more resonant tone, unfortunately the Jazzmaster and Jaguar were built with such a limited guitar style in mind, that if you want to fully appreciate them and eliminate all the so called ‘problems’ with their bridges, then Flatwounds are a must.
I say these things through personal experience of using Jaguars and Jazzmaster to play Jazz on a daily basis and by simply using Flatwounds I never have any problems with bridge rattles, movement, sharpe sounding pickups, feedback, neck buzzing etc.
The people who complain about these things all the time on Jaguars and Jazzmasters simply do not understand their design and purpose; they are excellent/incredible Jazz guitars. If you use them for the purpose they were designed they are brilliant and ALWAYS use FLATWOUND strings; nobody would put crossply tires on a Ferrari and then complain that it does not handle very well would they?
The same goes for the Fender Jazzmaster and Jaguar; play Jazz and use Flatwounds and they make perfect sense. Do hope this clears up a perenial source of confusion and frustration for many Jaguar/jazzmaster owners.
- Jazzman
URL to this review in the reviews section.
Don’t forget about all the other guitar reviews in the jag-stang.com Reviews section. If you have any suggestions on making that section better just let us know.
So if you’ve looked into the Fender Jag-Stang a bit you know the name jag-stang comes from combining the names of the Fender Jaguar and Mustang. Even though the jag-stang is mostly a weirdly shaped, un-contoured, mustang with a humbucker and very little jaguar influences it still has the 1/2 and 1/2 name.
Sindre Bremnes has created a conceptual design of a Mustang and Jaguar combination that he calls “the antithesis of the jag-stang”, the Fender Mu-uar. He’s even done an amazing bit of photoshopping to create some images of his conceptual design.
Here are the technical specs of his conceptual design:
I have to admit it has a very cool look and vibe to it. It does seem to have some similarities to the recently discontinued Fender Cyclone that we talked about last week in this article. Nice work Sindre!
You can see a larger photo of his Fender Mu-uar by following this link.
If any of you have come up with any other conceptual designs for “alternative” Fender guitars contact us and we may feature your design on jag-stang.com in a future article.
Since earlier this year when it became clear the Fender Cyclones were no longer being manufactured, that is the question I asked myself. “What happened to the Fender Cyclone?” We’ll put down some cyclone facts and see what kind of conclusions we can make.
First a quick overview of the history… The original Cyclone was introduced at Summer NAMM 1998. (press release) Just for reference, the jag-stang was introduced at Winter NAMM 1996. The Cyclone II, which added jaguar like switching and jaguar pickups, was introduced at Summer NAMM 2002. (press release) Summer NAMM 2003 saw the new Cyclone HH model with dual humbuckers. (press release) Also in 2003 a Squier model of the Cyclone was introduced.
When you consider the features of the Cyclone, and then consider what was being said in many of the jag-stang reviews prior to the Cyclone’s release, it makes you think that Fender tried to appease many of the major complaints seen in the jag-stang reviews. The most notable cyclone features being:
So considering the feature set and how it addressed so many jag-stang and mustang complaints how is it that the cyclone is no more and the mustang is still available? Why didn’t it catch on?
An issue may have been visibility of the cyclone in guitar shops. Between 1999 and 2005 I rarely recall seeing a cyclone in any of the guitar shops I visited at all. This may have just been a geographical or coincidental thing, but even many of the sales folks wouldn’t know anything about the cyclone.
Possibly the most important issue with the popularity of the Cyclone was it’s lack of being identified with any popular guitarist or group. As popular as Artist Series guitars have become for Fender and Gibson that kind of artist recognition would have obviously been a huge benefit.
It really makes you wonder if it were not for Kurt Cobain, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, etc… and the alternative guitar popularity of the 90s would the Mustang, Jaguar, or Jazzmaster be available today?
If you have any thoughts on what happened to the Cyclone, please feel free to post em in the comments.