i bought my 96 jag-stang back in late 98 for 360 bucks, it has been my road warrior ever since, sometimes i won;t play it for about 3 months or better but it always comes back to being my number 1,

recently i picked up an 04 re-issue just to have a backup(since i sold my avri jaguar)

i wanted to point out some differences in them

first off is the color, my 96 has soaked in tons of cig smoke and changed to more of a green, than blue.

next is the guard,

once again my 96 has soaked up so much tar, and blood(thats what the lil red speckles are) that it looks straight yellow compared to the 04.

now onto the fretboards.

when i got the 04 it was in desperate need of a truss road ajustment and the fingerboard was nasty and caked with finger cheese, after i cleaned it up i used some good ol fretboard finishing oil on and this is how it turned out(probly some of the best rosewood i have seen on a jap guitar)

my 96 however i just refinished the fretboard about a month ago and really darkened it with all the coats i did on it, but it looks almost black compared to the 04.

everyone pretty much knows about the designed by kurt sticker and decal thing. i found that the necks are not dated like the first issue was. and instead has a code that leads me to blieve that jaguar and jag-stang necks are one in the same until they are finished,

something like jag-70 on the bottom and

jag-03 by the top

besides that its pretty much the same, altho i did notice that the parts did not fit as well, and im sure that this guitar has never been taked apart.