menga.net
🏠 📚 🔍 📧

***Secret FSR Fender guitars? Yes, they exist, and they're right here

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (What does this mean?)

Recent Posts
The modern American large mall experienceLate '90s weird (but cheap!) guitar, Yamaha AES-500
Schecter Demon S-II, the "longhorn SG"Garmin 2025.10 North America map update

Fender Classic Player Jaguar Special makes an appearance with the pau ferro fretboard

Fender Classic Player Jaguar Special Pau Ferro

This Classic Player is a weird Jag, and now it comes with the pau ferro fretboard.

As I mentioned a little while back, Mexico-made Fender guitars are now featuring fingerboards in pau ferro wood material. On the 3-color sunburst Jag seen above, the look works. On other body colors (like black) it doesn't, but the 3TSB carries it nicely.

As for why the Classic Player series Jag is an oddball, it's for 3 reasons.

First is the Adjust-O-Matic bridge. In this Jag setup, it's basically a floating Les Paul style bridge with edge saddles instead of the traditional grooved Jaguar/Jazzmaster saddles.

Second, the vibrato system is physically positioned closer to the bridge, making the length of the string from bridge-to-plate significantly shorter. I presume is to decrease "unwanted" string ring. I personally think the ring is part of Jag tonal character, but on this one it's gone. Whether you think that's better or not is up to you.

Third - and this is what truly makes this guitar an oddball - is the fact the truss rod adjustment is done at the heel and not the pegboard, yet the neck is a modern shape with 9.5" radius with medium jumbo fret wire. This means you've got vintage-style and extremely inconvenient rod adjustment location combined with a modernized neck shape. This makes no sense at all. If the neck was a vintage-spec 7.25" fingerboard radius with small fret wire, sure, I could understand a heel positioned adjustment location. But on a modernized neck? Again, it makes no sense at all. It's just a weird mish-mash of vintage + modern.

Is this is decent "player's Jag"? If you're okay with the Adjust-O-Matic bridge and can deal with the stupidity of the truss rod adjustment location, yes this is a decent Jag.

This particular Jag has what Fender calls "hot" single-coil Jaguar pickups in it. No further description is given by Fender than that other than it sounds "fatter." I assume that means a pair of midrange-heavy Jag pickups with strong alnico 5 magnets in them. And that's totally fine.

Another perk to this Jag is that the neck pocket is specifically cut to have "better pitch" which should cut down on buzzy notes after the 12th fret, and the vibrato arm (Fender calls it a tremolo arm) is screw-in so it won't fall out.

Overall, good guitar. But still an oddball Jag.

Published 2017 Aug 5

image
Best ZOOM R8 tutorial book
highly rated, get recording quick!

Popular Posts

The modern American large mall experience

List of 24.75" scale length guitars and other shorter models

Casio F-91W cheat sheet

How to set the time and date on a Casio CA-53 (with video and review)

Late '90s weird (but cheap!) guitar, Yamaha AES-500

Fender Japan ST57 from the '90s (and newer)

Schecter Demon S-II, the "longhorn SG"

Why I like simple little synthesizers

The Black Hole

The brownest Fender brown