American Reissue
Fender only started reissuing an American made Jaguar in 1999, as part of their "American Vintage Series". The colours that were offered on the Jaguar in the 60's are not really faithfully replicated in the current offerings that we see today. Colour options have come and gone over the last several years (though all come without matching headstock).
Sunburst
fiesta red (discontinued 2002)
candy apple red (discontinued early on)
olympic white
black
sherwood green (discontinued)
inca silver (discontinued)
ice blue metallic
ocean turquoise
surf green
Fender actually sent a batch of matching headstock US reissue Jaguars to Japan at one stage. Colours seen include shell pink, burgundy mist and ice blue. There is currently a batch of special order thin skin matching headstock American Jaguars by dealers such as Wildwood Guitars and Dave's Guitars and made in small numbers as exclusives. The colours are Fiesta Red, Seafoam Green, Sonic Blue, and Shoreline Gold. Custom shop Jaguars can also be ordered specially, usually with great expense. Though, strictly speaking, these are not classed as "American Vintage Series".
Fender markets the American Vintage Jaguar as being manufactured through,
"careful selection of materials and strict adherence to the original methods of fabrication".
However, these differences have been identified:
Body base coat. Frank Gambino has written in to tell us:
"the USA Fender reissues have a urethane base coat. However, the color coat is nitro. I am certain because I have stripped one of these guitars(2003) with acetone, and tested two others(2004-2005) in small areas under the pick guard. The top coat and color coat remove very easily, as you would expect with nitro. The base coat, however, must be sanded off (i.e. acetone does not affect the base coat). I know this is true for ice blue metallic and ocean turquoise anyway"
The neck is nitro though.
Decal. The reissue decal is also gold. But the vintage '62 gold part of the decal had a speckled, raised, glitter-like appearance. The US reissue has the uniform non-raised gold logo. The lettering for the des. and pat. numbers is also smaller on the reissue.
Machine heads. Official Kluson machine heads are different in appearance now to what they were in the 60's. Fender use the most faithful replicas of the old style tuners, which happen to be the Gotoh ones. Consequently, they do not bear the brand name "Kluson Deluxe" on the back of the gear housing.
Neck plate/other plates. The neck plate is too thin. The vintage 60's metal plates have a rough appearance round the edge, as if they have been cut without the edge actually being polished as the US reissue plates have been.
Switches. The main switch on the upper horn control plate on vintage Jaguars was different to the switches on the diamond shaped control plate. This is not the case on the reissue, on which all the switches are the same.
Pickups. The reissue pickup pole pieces are beveled. Vintage pole pieces were completely flat. The reissue bridge pickup also has raised pole pieces. The shielding claws seem to have the short fingers at the treble side on every AV jaguar that I've seen.
Pots. Reissue has CTS pots (which are fairish replicas of the ones on '64 or '65 Jaguars and onwards). 1962 Jaguar had Stackpole pots, which are different in appearance.
Knobs. The set screw which holds the knob in place has a flathead fitting on the Vintage Jaguars. But it is an allen key fitting on the Reissue.
Mute. As with the other plates, the metal has a rough edge on the vintage mute. It also looks less well shaped than the reissue.
Bridge/saddles. Vintage bridge has longer posts, which means the height adjustment screws do not need to be extended out of the bottom of the posts very far. The bridge height adjustment screws are either nickel plated or stainless steel. On the the reissue those same screws are just plain steel painted black. On all the US reissue bridges, the saddles are nearly the same size thread (only a slight difference between the 11 thread treble saddles and 9 thread bass saddles). On the '62 Jaguars the barrel threads often varied in 3 sizes sometimes. The posts of the vintage bridge have welds over the rivets where they are affixed to the rest of the assey, the Reissue doesn't.
Tremolo arm. The reissue tremolo arm is a slightly different shape/length. Also, The way the reissue trem arm goes in the collet is a bit of a redesign from the vintage trem arms, which were wedged into the collet and stayed in the same place. The reissue arm has a small lip round the bottom with which it suddenly clips in and doesn't come out, unless some force is used. Secondly, when clipped in it swings freely, effectively like a stratocaster trem arm. This is probably what it is supposed to do. But if you wanted to make the reissue more like the vintage trem arm setup, you could visit:
http://home.comcast.net/~rmessick2/Home.htm12th fret dot position. Dots on the Reissue are closer together than the '62 Jaguar.
Above, a picture taken from the internet guitar store "Musician's Friend", depicting the colour options available today on US reissue Jaguars. Notice tortoiseshell pickguard on the ocean turquoise and surf green ones. Only ice blue metallic comes with aged white/mint pickguard nowadays.
Japanese Reissue
Fender of Japan have been producing Jaguar reissues since the mid 80's, and are still making them to this day. Currently, the only Japanese Jaguar that is officially available for sale in North America is the Jaguar Special (JGS-75) and Jaguar Baritone Special (both available in black only). Likewise, these models are also available in Europe. Though one can also find the '62 Japanese reissue in sunburst, candy apple red and vintage white also. Many other colours were also available up until recently. Possibly due to the activities of the company called "Fendershop". But the options are now limited to those already mentioned.
In actual fact, Japanese Jaguars (and Japanese Fenders in general) are manufactured in many other colours and hardware configurations. See them for yourselves over at Japanese guitar sites such as Ikebe-Gakki, Ishibashi or Rockinn. Ishibashi have recently made their website viewable in English. And it is now fairly straight forward to buy from them. Though buying from Ikeba or Rockinn still seems to remain impossible unless you speak Japanese. The sites are practically impossible to navigate, and I'm not even sure if they ship outside of Japan.
In the U.S.A, various runs of more affordable Japanese Jaguars are made available, from time to time. And the recent officially imported Japanese Jaguar (which was available in only 2 colours, candy apple red and lake placid blue without matching headstock) is no longer available, discontinued some time in 2003. In the UK and Europe, Japanese Jaguars have seemingly been more common over the years.
Claims like this have been going around, mainly on eBay:
"Japanese Jaguars manufactured for the Japanese domestic market are made to far better standards than those made for export to the United States/elsewhere "
This is almost certainly untrue, as is the claim that CIJ models are superior to MIJ. In the mid 90's, Fender of Japan changed the decal next to the serial number to read "Crafted In Japan" , where the decal had previously read "Made In Japan". This change is simply cosmetic. No other changes took place at this point. Changes have occurred on the Japanese Jaguars in the past though. I know that the earlier ones had basswood bodies and shielding plates in the routes. Nowadays, body seems to be alder and there are no shielding plates. Construction/materials quality may have varied over the years. Fretboard is veneer on all that I've seen. Japanese body and neck are finished in polyurethane gloss, have pearl dots, black Fender logo surrounded by gold, similar to the ones from the late '60's and onwards. In fact, I think it would even be more accurate to claim the MIJ/CIJ decals are '68 reissues. Also note how it says "with synchronized floating tremolo" instead of having Des. and Pat. numbers. It has no serial number stamped into the neck plate, just a blank chrome plate. And instead, the decal on the back of the neck has the serial number on it. Pots are of a much lower quality, as is the wiring. Only the older reissues seem to have shielding plates in the routes. There is no mute or bridge cover. Basically everything about the guitar is distinguishable from the old or new American version.
Japanese coding system explained:
The first 2 letters (JG) mean Jaguar. The 2 numbers that follow are supposed be the reissue year. But they all say '66. Then there is a dash, followed by some numbers (ie, 85). Which is the suggested retail price in Japanese Yen (ie, 85,000 Yen).. Followed by the colour in brackets.
A "JG66B" code followed by a "110" suggested retail price means the guitar is a genuine '66 reissue with block inlays, binding and Schaller F keys.
Jaguar special (or "Jaguar HH" as it is generally now referred to in the west) was a "75" for retail price. This may have been changed to "83", and for some colours be "86". Meaning it is 83,000-86,000 Yen for a Jaguar special. Although there has been some sort of announcement by Fender Japan on their website recently about a general increase in their prices. So this list may need updating somewhat...
JG66B-110 (3TS) - Sunburst. With block inlays and binding. Schaller F-keys.
JG66B(3TS) - Sunburst. With block inlays and binding.
JG66B-110(OLP) - Old lake placid blue. Matching headstock. Block inlays and binding. Schaller F-keys.
JG66B-110(OCR) - Old candy apple red. Matching headstock. Block inlays and binding. Schaller F-keys.
JG66B-110(CAR) - Candy apple red. Matching headstock. Block inlays and binding. Schaller F-keys
JG-85 ATG - Antigua.
JG66B(CAR) - Candy apple red. Matching headstock. Block inlays and binding.
JG66-85(3TS) - Sunburst.
JG66-85(BLK) - Black.
JG66-85(FRD) - Fiesta red.
JG66-85(SBL) - Sonic blue.
JG66-85(SLP) - Shell pink.
JG66-85(ULP) - ? (light lake placid blue?). Matching headstock.
JG66-85(OCR) - Old candy apple red. Matching headstock.
JG66-85(LPB) - Lake placid blue. Matching headstock.
JG66-85(BMT) - Burgundy mist. Matching headstock.
JG66-85(OTM) - Ocean turquoise. Matching headstock.
JG66-EX - Limited edition Jaguar, made in 1994. Blonde with gold hardware.
JGS-75(3TS) - Jaguar special. Sunburst.
JGS-75(OCR) - Jaguar special. Old candy apple red. Matching headstock.
JGS-75(LPB) - Jaguar special. Lake placid blue. Matching headstock.
JSG-75(SBL) - Jaguar special. Sonic blue. Matching headstock.
JSG-75(OTM) - Jaguar special. Ocean turquoise. Matching headstock.
JGS-75(OLB) - Jaguar special. Old lake placid blue. Matching headstock.
JGS-75(BLK) - Jaguar special. Black. Matching headstock.
JGS-75(GMB) - Jaguar special. Gun metallic blue. Matching headstock.
JGS-75(GRB) - Jaguar special. Redburst. Matching headstock.
JG66-100L - Sunburst. Left handed.
HJG-66KC VI - Kurt Cobain Jaguar. P.U:DIMARZIO PAF(front)， SUPER DISTORTION(rear) CONTROL: 2VOL 1TONE PRESET VOL&TONE 3POINT TOGGLE SW
HJG-66KC V - Kurt Cobain. P.U:DIMARZIO PAF(front) SUPER DISTORTION(rear) CONTROL: 2VOL 1TONE PRESET VOL&TONE PU SW
HJG-66KC IV - Kurt Cobain. P.U:DIMARZIO PAF(front) SUPER DISTORTION(rear) CONTROL: 1VOL 1TONE PRESET VOL&TONE PU SW
