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Fender Jaguar HH Special Edition

 

Review of the Fender Jag Double Humbucker Special by The Man in the Jar  

The startlingly original design of the Jazzmaster introduced in 1957 is one of the iconic moments of Fender guitar history. In 1961 Fender introduced the shorter scale Jaguar. That's an awfully long pedigree to mess with..... by adding humbuckers? Let's take a look...   

Features of the Fender Jaguar HH Special

Tuners - Small vintage-style covered (not sealed) tuners with slot-head capstans. These are smooth to use but might cause problems if you have very chubby fingers!

Headstock - This is the original style of the Fender Stratocaster headstock, modern versions have a somewhat reduced flamboyance. I don't suppose the extra wood in this vintage version does anything for extra tone, but it certainly looks nicer. Enhanced on this model by the handsome black face. 

Nut - White plastic set-in-slot type which is finely finished.

Neck - This is a beautiful maple neck that has been stained to simulate the aged colour that normally only comes to maple after many years of exposure to light. The neck is slim and beautifully playable, bolting on with the usual Fender heel. The side dot-markers are black and sit on the maple of the neck rather than being white and living on the edge of the fretboard's rosewood. The skunk stripe on the back of the neck is a light, chocolate rosewood.  

Fretboard - Dark rosewood with flat white abalone dot markers. The rosewood has a nice straight grain and suits the black finish of the guitar perfectly.

Frets - The 22 frets are labelled in the Fender blurb as "vintage-style". This means that they are thin and have a low profile.

Action - Superbly low from the box with no buzz issues anywhere along the fretboard. I suspect the set-up is one advantage of the guitar being Made in Japan. 

Body - The classic distorted Strat shape stays true to the original Jazzmaster and the later Jaguar. It is comfortably contoured on the top edge and the bottom of the body in the same way as a Strat. The guitar is therefore extremely comfortable to wear and play and, of course, the alder used in the construction will help to inform the guitars essential sound.

Bridge - The first of the major departures from the vintage design is the bridge. Gone is the rather dodgy-looking, flimsy vibrato arm to be replaced by a tune-o-matic style bridge and tailpiece that could've been nicked from the shelf down at the Gibson factory. Looks very sexy in polished chrome against the black finish of the body.  

Pickups - Two trade-marked Fender Dragster humbucking pickups sit in black surrounds under chrome covers. Each sports a single line of slot-head pole pieces

Controls - OK, go back to the picture at the top of the page and have another close look at the layout of the controls, things are about to get a bit complicated.
There are three chrome control panels spread around the body which combine in operation to give the player two distinct circuits which Fender have chosen to call "Rhythm" and "Lead". We need to start with the panel on the upper horn above the bridge pickup. Here we find a single switch and two recessed rollers. When the switch is in the up position this panel is in circuit and all other controls are disabled. This is the Rhythm circuit and engages the neck pickup only. The two recessed rollers control the volume and tone of this pickup. 
Flicking the switch down relinquishes control to the other two control panels below the strings. We are now in Lead channel mode. The panel below the neck pickup has three switches; an on/off for the neck pickup, an on/off for the bridge pickup and a tone switch (in practise this is essentially a treble cut switch). The third panel houses the volume and tone for the Lead channel (capped with some very handsome chrome-skirted knobs) and the output jack.  

Pickguard - Single ply black pickguard extends between all three control panels.

Strap-buttons - Medium size, vintage style.

Finish - Extremely good finish throughout - another "Made in Japan" advantage.

 

Sound of the Fender Jaguar HH Special 

I had feared that the addition of humbuckers would spoil what is essentially the vintage Fender vibe of this guitar. Thankfully the Dragsters are of a medium output and sound really sweet when run clean. They lack the harsher edges of Fender single coils but retain a lovely clarity with no hint of muddiness.
The Rhythm setting seems to apply an additional treble cut somewhere in the wiring. It's nothing too drastic when compared to the neck humbucker played alone on the Lead setting, but it is there. Consequently the Rhythm sound is mellowed to a very bluesy, almost 335 tone. Very nice.

Switching to the Lead channel the inherent Fender + maple + alder brightness in tone is immediately apparent despite that fact the guitar is loaded with humbuckers. When engaged, the tone switch introduces a similarly slight treble cut which, although fixed in range, is a useful feature. The bridge pickup played alone has a distinctive Rickenbacker undertone to its voice. Switching in the neck pickup adds a lush layer of complexity.

Played clean this guitar has a distinct semi-acoustic flavour to its sound. If overdriven the Jaguar tends to grunge very nicely at the extreme with a variety of post-punk voices appearing in between. I found running the Jaguar with an undercurrent of overdrive produced my favourite noises, an authoritative edge to a swaggering Fender sound.     

 

Overall Impressions of the Fender Jaguar HH Special Edition 

This is a very brash-looking guitar that still has all the trademarks that make it a pedigree Fender. I can imagine that some people won't like the look of the Jaguar but I can't imagine any guitarist worth his or her salt who won't like to play or listen to it. If you're a Strat player who wants a different, harder tone then the Jaguar will deliver the sonic goods while the neck will have the familiarity of a homecoming. Factory loaded with 09's the short scale neck is ridiculously easy to play.  Loading with 10's or even 11's will make the lovely tones of the Dragsters even better without compromising playability. 

Punk, Rock 'n' Roll, Grunge, Rockabilly, Country, Blues... all fall into the tone palette of this little monster. And it looks the 'nad's, possibly the coolest guitar I have played this year. 

Buy the Fender Jaguar HH Special 

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