1965 Fender Jaguar, Sunburst

Introduced in 1962 as Fender’s top-of-the-line offset, the Jaguar combined the company’s now-iconic offset body shape with a short 24" scale, elaborate switching system, floating tremolo and chrome-heavy styling, giving it a feel and voice all of its own. By August 1965, examples like this sat in that attractive transitional window: pearloid dot markers had replaced the earlier clay dots, but the neck remained unbound, retaining a slightly plainer and, to many eyes, more elegant pre-block-and-binding look. 

This one is an all-original guitar and presents exactly as you’d hope. The 3-tone sunburst is particularly vibrant, with plenty of red left in the finish. The rosewood fingerboard is fitted with pearl dot inlays, the neck bears an AUG65 stamp, and the original nut and frets are still in place. Under the hood, it retains the correct multi-colour wiring and original orange drop capacitor, and the pots both date to 1965.

Overall it plays very well. The neck has that desirable worn in finish, the nut width measures 40.8mm, with a neck depth of 20.4mm at the 1st fret and 24.8mm at the 12th, making for a slim-feeling neck down low that still has a bit of substance further up. Jaguars have a character all their own tonally as well, with that percussive, woody attack and unmistakable chime, helped along by the short scale and the model’s unique pickup and switching layout. Fender originally marketed the Jaguar as a feature-laden premium model, and that combination of bright, cutting tone and sophisticated control layout is still a big part of the appeal today. 

It also retains the original mute and foam, with the foam now slightly perished as is so often the case. The guitar comes complete with a period Fender case, along with the trem arm and bridge cover, rounding out a very honest and highly desirable mid-’60s offset. For anyone after a clean, original dot-neck Jaguar from this transitional L-series period, this is a very appealing example indeed.