I don't think I can vote, since I can't decide between, and do own all three now (sold the HH Jag for a 66' Mustang, which I'll be picking up tomorrow morning). To me they all serve different purposes and have different sounds. It' really all depends upon the situation....
In their stock form I'd have to say Jaguar or Mustang, depending on my mood and what song. If there's a lot of swapping between neck and bridge pickup, I'd probably pick the Jaguar (I use the rhythm circuit to swap pickups), but then the Mustang has a little more merit in the heavier side having a warmer sounding Mahogany or Poplar body, but it has weaker pickups than the Jaguar does, so it almost evens out.
Out of my personal three, they all tend to excel and fall back on certain things.
- 98' Jaguar - I tend to use this guitar more for drop tuned songs because it has a tighter bass response due to the lower-output pickups than my EMG'd Jag-Stang. I also use it for reggae, jazz/fusion style stuff, and sometimes because the switches/knobs yield effects unobtainable on any other model. It's fallback is that at very very very very loud volumes (we're talking my 120 Watt head here, on the high gain channel, cranked full blast on master and channel), you get quite a few squeals and squwaks from the guitar due to metal parts on the pickups that vibrate, but I can just get around that by using the pickup selectors as a "mute" switch, however, when that's overshadowed by note(s), the Jaguar makes some of the most amazing sustained harmonic feedback I've ever heard.
- 96' Jag-Stang - This is my primary "shred" axe, and the go-to guitar if I pretty much can't figure out what guitar to use because it has such a wide output band compared to the Jaguar or Mustang due to the active pickups and my extremely over-done treble bleed cap on the volume pot. It also has a very very broken in trem system, I know what that thing will do and how and when, as I've been "abusing" the hell out of that Dynamic Trem since 1999, and it just keeps on working like a champ. Also, this guitar is excellent for feedback assisted sustain. I have cranked my halfstack up all the way at rehearsal, and this guitar stays quiet unless you don't want it to, and it's VERY alive when harmonic feedback takes over. The Jag-Stang's fallback is that it can't sound very clean in the bridge position due to that EMG 81 that chunks out 1.34 volts of current when playing wild over the top stuff, however, the neck sound on the EMG SA-1 is to DIE FOR clean, almost like an acoustic guitar.
- 66' Mustang - This is my newest addition. This is my "phase reversal" guitar, as I used to use an Explorer copy I built for phase reversal, but I like the Mustang's sound with that kind of switching better. Also, it's the "twangy" extreme trem main guitar, basically, if I need to do a Deep Purple cover or the like, I'll probably use the Mustang. I have not tried it out cranked, but I will be this Wednesday, as this guitar will show up at the next gig on Thursday. From my experience at the store thus far, this one should be just as alive, crazy, and sustained as the other two I have.
