1997 Fender JGS-65 Jag-Stang Guitar Review

Aloha!

Today we are looking at a well-loved 1997 Fender Jag-Stang, that came to me straight out of Japan. I think that Kurt Cobain from Nirvana was a genius, and think that these instruments are a nice reminder of his contributions to the guitar world of today.

The Fender Jag-Stang was designed by Fender to meet Kurt Cobain’s needs. It is a 24-inch scale hybrid of the famous Fender Mustang and Jaguar guitars, with the Mustang’s Dynamic Vibrato bridge. Legend has it that the necks on these are an exact replica of the one from Kurt’s favorite Mustang. Believe it or don’t…

The original run of these guitars was made between 1995 and 2001 with basswood bodies, and the second run was made from 2003 to 2005 with ash bodies. The only two colors available were Fiesta Red and Sonic Blue. All of the guitars were built at Fender’s Japanese Custom Shop.

The electronics consist of a “vintage-style” single coil at the neck, and a “Special design” (or Dragster as they are know in Japan) humbucker at the bridge. My resistance checks showed these at 5.67k ohm for the neck and 7.60k ohm for the bridge. Each pickup has its own 3-position slide on/off phase switch, in addition to the master volume and tone knobs. Some people are pretty critical of the quality of these parts, but they sound fine to me. This is grunge, remember?

The instrument pictured here was built in 1997 (I think), and you can tell by the photos that it has a nice thick coat of Fiesta Red poly on it. It is a nice-playing guitar, with good craftsmanship. It sounds good, and the controls are useful for getting a lot of different tones from it. This guitar has been played a lot, and there is a bit of finish wear plus aging to the hardware, but this is honest playwear and not abuse. The frets are still in great shape and it is one of the easiest playing guitars I have ever owned.

The only gripe I have about the Jag-Stang is that it is so small that it feels like a toy when it is being played with my beefy hands. But on the plus side, its small size translates into a weight of only 7.5 pounds. Maybe I will keep this one around for a while…

Mahalo!

2012 Fender Kurt Cobain Mustang Guitar Review

Como estas?

I have owned a few of the Kurt Cobain Jag-Stangs over the years and thought they were neat guitars, so I got an involuntary twitch when I heard that Fender was going to issue a Kurt Cobain Mustang guitar this year. Last year’s Kurt Cobain Jaguar must have sold well if they are coming out with another Cobain model again so soon.

The Cobain Jaguar was a pretty close reproduction of Cobain’s guitar, and Fender makes a big deal about this guitar being like the 1969 Mustang that Kurt used in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video, but it has a few differences. Differences such as: not having a matching headstock, having a humbucker instead of a single coil pickup at the bridge, and having the wrong bridge. Other than this stuff, it is pretty close.

But don’t get me wrong here, this is a really cool guitar and the ones I have played were very well made. Plus it appears that they are available in right or left-handed versions.

The Cobain Mustang is built in Japan, and my friends know that I am gaga over Japanese Fenders because they are super nice. They are available in three different poly color schemes over an alder body: Lake Placid Blue with a competition stripe, Fiesta Red and Sonic Blue. The Fiesta Red and Lake Placid Blue guitars get aged white pearloid pickguards, while the Sonic Blue one comes with faux tortoiseshell. Lake Placid Blue is the way to go, in my opinion.

As with other Mustangs, this artist model has a 24-inch scale neck and 22 vintage-sized frets sunk into the 7.25-inch radius rosewood fretboard (the ivory-colored dot markers are a nice touch). The neck has a C- profile and is compact enough for the smallest hands. The headstock and the back is shot with urethane, and the whole thing is capped off with a set of vintage-style tuners that seem pretty nice.

The electronics are hot-rodded a bit, with a solid-mounted Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB humbucker in place of a single coil at the bridge position. The controls are the same as the Mustangs, with master volume and tone knobs, as well as switches for each pickup that allow them to be used in series or parallel, and to put them out of phase. I always thought this set-up was pretty cool…

Finishing out the spec sheet is an Adjusto-Matic bridge. This is not the standard Dynamic Vibrato bridge that is usually found on Mustangs, and it is totally different than how Kurt set-up his guitars (he had the tremolo blocked with washers, so there was no tremolo available. I am not sure why Fender picked this bridge, particularly when you consider that it is a terrible piece of hardware, and it will make the guitar instantly go out of tune if you try to use it once.

Aside from the bridge, this is a wonderful instrument! The craftsmanship is very good, and the one I got played terrific right out of the box, with no set-up needed. It has a lot more than garage band sound to it, too. It has terrific clean tones and the humbucker allows things to get very dirty if you let it.

The Fender Kurt Cobain Mustang is a fun guitar, and is a natural choice for anyone that would like a smaller stature guitar (for whatever reason). These guitars have a list price of $1399 and a street price of $999, and I saw that Fender has a current coupon so you can get these for $899 at Musician’s Friend right now. Maybe you can use the extra hundred bucks to buy a case, because this guitar does not come with one.

Mahalo!

Fender Japan Competition Mustang Bass Review

Greetings!

I have only had a few short scale basses over the past 25 years, but each one has been a hoot. This week I picked up a secondhand one from Ishibashi in Nagoya, Japan: a Fender Japan Mustang Bass.

This is model MB98-70 SD CO/OCR, which is a fairly faithful Japanese copy of the 1970 Fender Mustang Bass. These have been available in the US as a limited edition, but not with the competition stripes.

This one has an alder body, sprayed with a lightly metallic candy apple red with cream-colored stripes under the clear coat. It is visually stunning and the finish has no imperfections that I can find.

The 30-inch scale maple neck has a rosewood fretboard and 19 medium-sized nickel frets. The frets are level and are well-finished, and there is no wear, despite this being a used bass. The neck feels tiny with a shallow C- shape profile and a 1 ½-inch nut.

The tuners are a not period correct for a 1970s Fender bass, as they are the smaller ones that come on many of the newer Japanese Fenders. It does use the traditional 4-saddle bridge and through-the-body stringing that the original Mustangs had.

The electronics are a slight upgrade from the original, as this one came from the factory with a Seymour Duncan split single-coil pickup. Remember the “SD” from the model designation? The controls are simple, with a volume and a tone pot.

This Japanese Mustang is a giggle factory to play. The neck is a little small for me, but I got used to it in no time. The tone is (not surprisingly) a little short on low and low-mid tones, but it performs as well as I expected with the minuscule pickups and short scale.

The craftsmanship is first-rate, and this would be a tremendous bass for smaller players or for young folks just getting into the bass guitar. Check one out if you get a chance.

Mahalo!