Jag-Stang Info

The purpose of this page is to provide some more detailed info about the Jag-Stang that most sources don't mention. For more information on the development of the Jag-Stang, take a look at the Jag-Stang related sites on my links page. Those sites have plenty more links to other sites as well.

It is probably safe to assume that everyone knows the basic story behind the development of the Fender Jag-Stang. In 1993 Kurt Cobain and Fender worked together to create a guitar that was a blend of Kurt's favorite aspects of the Fender Jaguar and the Fender Mustang. What some people are probably not aware of is that the Jag-Stang was not Kurt Cobain's "ultimate" guitar. After receiving the Jag-Stang Kurt hardly played it, and still preferred his Mustangs. Kurt's guitar tech made some immediate changes to the guitar, including replacing the bridge with a tune-o-matic and changing the humbucker, if i'm not mistaken. Kurt and his tech also discussed re-styling the body, which Kurt found to be improperly balanced. It was thick and didn't have any contours. (Interestingly, the Jag-Stang is designed in such a way that doesn't allow for it to have a contour on the back; the waist is too narrow and the routing for the pickup switches is too deep.) Fender was aware of the changes Kurt wanted to make, but the guy Kurt was working with on the project unfortunately passed away, as did Kurt not too long afterward.

Still, Fender decided to release the guitar after Kurt died, but it isn't fair to say that Fender capitalized on Kurt's endorsement of the guitar without his ability to dispute that; according to the Nirvana biography Come As You Are, initially the guitar was intended to be produced for Kurt only, but later a consumer model was being considered. The guitar Fender released could be considered a consumer version of Kurt's Jag-Stang. Some of the differences are the following:

-Kurt's Jag-Stang had an alder body while the consumer version was made of basswood.
-The pickups on Kurt's Jag-Stang were a Dimarzio H-3 humbucker and a Fender Texas Special neck pickup; the consumer model has a vintage strat single coil in the neck and a generic humbucker in the bridge.
-The pickguard on Kurt's Jag-Stang is cut to match up with the edging of the guitar on the lower wing, and appears to be a simple white/black/white laminate (see this pic). The consumer model uses a reissue Mustang pickguard (cut for a humbucker), so the lower wing of the pickguard is a little slimmer than that of the guitar. The consumer model pickguard is a pearloid/white/black laminate.

Both guitars feature Japanese reissue Mustang parts (bridge, control plate, etc.), which were used at Kurt's request. Something i find odd is that at least on Kurt's guitar, Fender might have thought to position the chrome control plate so that it lined up correctly with the shape of the guitar. Doing so would have made it neccessary to cut the pickguard slightly different, but as i already mentioned, the pickguard on Kurt's Jag-Stang was already specially cut.

Some signs that fender didn't make the guitar as well as they could have:

-The list price of the Jag-Stang was $619.99. The list price of a '69 reissue Mustang, which was also produced in Japan at the same time, was $649.99. Considering the price, one would expect the quality of the Jag-Stang to be about as good as that of the Mustang. However, two common complaints about the Jag-Stang are that the finish was extremely thin and cracked too easily, and that the shell layer of the pickguard began to separate. I've experienced both problems with my Jag-Stang. 

Anyway, it's time to pretend the Jag-Stang was just another Fender guitar and give some general information about it. The Jag-Stang was put into production in late '95 and was discontinued in late '98. It featured a basswood body, a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard (same dimensions as a '69 reissue Mustang neck...likely the same thing with a different decal), a 24" scale length, 22 frets, 7.25" radius, a Mustang vibrato, master volume and tone, and the two previously mentioned pickups which were controlled by two Mustang-style on/off/phase slide switches.

The slide switches don't provide as many different pickups combinations as may be assumed. Unless my Jag-Stang was wired incorrectly, there are only four combinations which actually sound different from one another. When used by itself, the humbucker sounds the same whether it is in "on" or "phase" mode. The same is true for the neck pickup when used alone. When used in conjunction with the neck pickup, the humbucker will sound the same regardless of which position it is in. When using both pickups, you can create two distinctly different tones by having the neck pickup in "phase" or "on" position. So that leaves four different tones: humbucker alone, single coil alone, humbucker with single coil in "phase" position, and humbucker with single coil in "on" position.

Despite what many people say, i actually find the Jag-Stang to be very well balanced and comfortable to play. It has excellent playability and has the potential to be a good instrument, if you make some changes. You have to accept that Fender released the guitar in what was essentially an unfinished form. Since i've modified my Jag-Stang, i'm very happy with it, although i would have saved myself a lot of trouble (and money) by getting a '69 reissue Mustang instead.