Marc Bolan's "Jeepster"

This 14-inch-wide Jaguar weighs just 8.30 lbs. and has a "B" nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck, and rosewood veneer fretboard with 22 frets and clay dot position markers. Headstock with matching "Sea Foam Green" finish and decal with "Fender" logo in gold with black trim, "Jaguar" in black in bold letters, and five patent numbers in black below. With "Offset Contour Body" at the ball end of the headstock. Single "butterfly" string tree. Individual Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. Four-bolt neck plate with the serial number ("L46649") at the top. The neck is dated "1 MAR 64 B" and the pots are dated "304-6421" (the 21st week of 1964). Two white oblong Strat-like pickups with notched metal side plates and outputs of 7.13k and 6.81k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack socket on lower metal plate adjoining pickguard on treble side, selector switch and two roller controls (one volume, one tone) on upper metal plate adjoining pickguard on bass side, and three slide switches on metal plate inset into the pickguard on the treble side. Black plastic knobs with eight sides and white markings. Jazzmaster-type floating tremolo and bridge with adjustable mute (the tremolo arm has a black plastic tip). All hardware gold-plated. This guitar has been refretted. On the back of the guitar there are two areas (measuring approximately 2 x 1 1/2 inches and a smaller area measuring 1 1/2 x 3/4 inches) of considerable belt buckle wear where the paint finish is off. There is also some additional belt buckle wear on the back, a small gouge on the side of the upper horn (measuring approximately 3/8 x 1/8 inch), a few small marks on the edges, and some nice finish checking. Otherwise this guitar is in remarkably fine condition. Only four Foam (or Sea Foam) Green Jaguars from this year are known, and this is the only one known with gold hardware. It was owned by Marc Bolan of T Rex and later by Henri Padovani of The Police. Housed in the original Fender light brown Tolex case with brown leather ends and burnt orange plush lining (9.00). Together with a letter of authenticity from Chris Trigg of Vintage & Rare, who purchased the guitar from Henri Padovani over twenty years ago, and also a letter from Henri Padovani explaining the circumstances in which Bolan gave him the guitar in the mid 1970s.

This 1964 Fender Jaguar was owned by Marc Bolan during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It "was actually used by Bolan as in a kind of barter deal with session guitarist Henri Padovani -- Henri had done some studio work for Marc and received this guitar as payment. If you don't know who Henri is, he was in the original line-up of The Police...and was also the guitarist and front-man of his own band, The Flying Padovanis. No one is really sure whether Bolan used this guitar on any of his recordings, but there are rumoured to be photographs in existence of him playing it live [we now have a photograph of him playing this guitar]...This particular guitar was made in 1964 and is a custom model finished in Sea Foam green and boasts gold hardware. The serial number is L46640 which is stamped on the neck plate as you'd expect on a Fender of this vintage. The overall condition of the instrument is excellent, with just a few buckle marks on the back. The gold plating has worn off in places, but no more than you'd expect for a guitar that's 33 [now 40] years old...This particular Jaguar is now owned by Vintage & Rare of Earls Court, who've had it in their possession for the last ten years or so [and from whom it was recently purchased]" (Robbie Gladwell, in Guitarist (May 1997), pp. 158-159).

"Initally a British folk-rock combo called Tyrannosaurus Rex, T. Rex was the primary force in glam rock, thanks to the creative direction of guitarist/vocalist Marc Bolan (b. Marc Feld). Bolan created a deliberately trashy form of rock & roll that was proud of its own disposability. T. Rex's music borrowed the underlying sexuality of early rock & roll, adding dirty, simple grooves and fat distorted guitars, as well as an overarching folkie/hippie spirtuality that always came through the clearest on ballads. While most of his peers concentrated on making cohesive albums, Bolan kept the idea of a three-minute pop single alive in the early '70s. In Britain, he became a superstar, sparking a period of 'T. Rextacy' among the pop audience with a series of Top Ten hits, including four number one singles. Over in America, the group only had one major hit -- the Top Ten 'Bang a Gong (Get It On)' -- before disappearing from the charts in 1973. T. Rex's popularity in the U.K. didn't begin to waver until 1975, yet they retained a devoted following until Marc Bolan's death in 1977. Over the next two decades, Bolan emerged as a cult figure and the music of T. Rex has proven quite influential on hard rock, punk, new wave, and alternative rock" (Stephen Thomas Erlewince, in the All Music Guide, p. 402).

"Not content with the relatively expensive Jazzmaster, Fender introduced a new top-of-the-line model in 1962: the Jaguar. [The pricelist offered a basic sunburst Jaguar at $379.50; a similar Jazzmaster was $349.50]. Another offset-waist multi-control instrument, the Jag seemed an attractive proposition, but still failed to dent the supremacy of Fender's dynamic duo, the Tele and the Strat...The Jag used a similar offset-waist body shape to the earlier Jazzmaster, and also shared that guitar's separate bridge and vibrato unit, although the Jaguar had the addition of a spring-loaded string mute at the bridge. Fender rather optimistically believed that players would prefer a mechanical string mute to the natural edge-of-the-hand method. They did not. There were some notable differences between the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. Visually, the Jag had distinctive chromed control panels, and was the first Fender with 22 frets. Its 24" (610mm) scale-length ('faster, more comfortable') was shorter than the Fender standard of 25" (635mm) and closer to that of Gibson. It gave the Jag a different playing feel compared to other Fenders. The Jaguar had better pickups than the Jazzmaster. They looked much like Strat units but had metal shielding added at the base and sides, no doubt as a response to the criticisms of the Jazzmaster's tendency to noisiness. The Jag's electrics were yet more complex than the Jazzmaster's, using the same rhythm circuit but adding a trio of lead-circuit switches...The Jaguar was offered from the start in four different neck widths, one a size narrower and two wider than normal (coded A, B, C or D, from narrowest to widest, with 'normal' B the most common)" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 36).