Hmmm.......should I or should'nt I? Oh well, if I look silly, I could just edit it later....
My guitar was actually a series of coincidences...
When the Jag-Stang came out in 1996, I was looking at a 94' Fender Prodigy with EMG pickups to be my first electric guitar (fighting for the spot with the Red Kramer that did become my first electric), both of which were in consideration because the Jazzmaster I wanted sold, and I was sick of waiting for the "right" guitar and was willing to go with "right now" instead.
Anyway, I got the Guitar Player issue with the review, I liked the review, but I saw the guitar as needing some changes. I preferred Kurt's mockup with the black pickups with the plain covers, and thought a plain humbucker at the bridge would look cool. So I figured, if I ever get a Jag-Stang, due to my liking of the Prodigy with EMG pickups, I'd put EMG's in one, I drew a picture on a notebook I had that was eventually thrown out. IN the time between losing that notebook and getting the guitar, I almost forgot about my idea for the most part.
Skip ahead to late 98'/early 99', I used to go to the Guitar Shoppe every other Saturday, usually eyeing what guitars I could afford and checking out stuff I might be able to afford someday. I got there early, I look in the window, there's a familiar Fender headstock that was not Strat-ish sticking up from behind the Telecaster in the window, it had 2 stickers, the gold 50th anniversary, and another clear one with the "Des" and "Ku" visible. I had to spend an hour killing time in Hastings because I was curious to see what that was, I was thinking it was likely another Jazzmaster, it just could not be a Jaguar (that would have been too good to be true back then, as Jaguars were mega-scarce in 99'), and I thought at the most rare it could have been one of those elusive Jag-Stangs.
Not expecting much, I came in right when the store opened at 10:00, turned to look at the guitar, and what was sitting there but the SAME guitar I drew on a notebook a few years before. I picked it up, headed to the Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 nearby, and played a bunch of things out of my huge repertoire of music, and fell instantly in love with that guitar. But alas, I had no job, could not afford it, and mom did not like the color so me getting it would be hard, almost impossible.
The year dragged on, I kept visiting the store, playing that guitar just about every other weekend, dreaming about taking it home, knowing some day that imminently, just like the 94' Foto Flame Jazzmaster years before, it would likely get away and go to someone else - who'd take out the EMG's, lock down the trem, and bitch and moan about how ugly it is on the then pretty new Jag-Stang forum. Just like the Kramer before, people were telling me that guitar had my name all over it, I was about the only guy playing it in the store.
So I waited till around November/Decemberish, and by then, I was told that there was some interest in the guitar and that if I did not hurry up and buy it it'd be going away to San Francisco most likely. So I put all the money I had down on it, $100 of allowance saved if I recall, and continued to make as much in payments as I could. I recall being short money on the week of my 17th B-day, and luckily, mom bailed me out at the last minute, it was probably one of the VERY few times as a teenager I pulled the ol nag the parents to death routine, but I was sick of having a bunch of partscasters around that were not as good as that Jag-Stang was, and was living on borrowed time with an Aria SG I restored for a classmate I was having trouble getting in touch with. And sure enough, on my b-day, the guitar came home, and instantly took over as my main axe ever since, the same week, the owner came back for the SG and was happy with the results, just in time to swap.
Now it's 10 years later, and that guitar is still my main. In my little circles, it's one of the guitars I'm most well known for, and most seen with.
