Fender 50th Anniversary Jaguar Spotted

NAMM 2012  There were so many great guitars introduced in the 1950s and 60s that now we can enjoy the 50th anniversary celebrations for the best of them.  2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the Fender Jaguar, the dare-to-be-different solidbody that today has a near-fanatical following.  We caught our first look at the 50th Anniversary model at NAMM 2012 in Anaheim, and it looks fantastic.  This version has the expected 24″ scale length, but modern improvements such as higher output pickups, a revised neck pitch, and the tremolo plate has been slightly moved for a sharper break angle over the bridge.  Expect to see these at The Music Zoo in 2012.

From Fender.com:

Our 50th Anniversary Jaguar guitar takes you back to 1962, when Fender introduced an unusual new guitar that paired the sleek Jazzmaster® body style and elaborate control layout with a shorter scale and smaller, brighter pickups with more output. The resulting Jaguar was the fourth and last of Fender’s original lineup of standard electric guitars.

The Jaguar gradually acquired a fascinating pedigree quite unlike that of any other Fender guitar. A chromed-out, surf-rock staple of the 1960s, it found new life from the mid-1970s-on as a subversively offbeat alternative axe wielded by punk, post-punk, grunge and alt-indie guitar heroes and anti-heroes alike. The same guitar that originally crested waves of reverb-drenched singles by groups such as the Chantays and the Surfaris later fueled, for example, the dynamic grunge maelstrom of Nirvana, the translucent shoe-gazing dream pop of My Bloody Valentine and the literately artful alt-rock of the Pixies, the Flaming Lips and many others.

• Classic 24″ Jaguar scale length.
• Specially designed high-output single-coil pickups.
• Slight neck-angle pocket cut for improved pitch.
• Repositioned tremolo plate for increased bridge break angle and better sustain.