The 'Rarest of the Rare' - An Original 1964 Inca Silver Metallic Fender Jaguar

1964 Fender Jaguar

This super rare 'Inca Silver Metallic' custom color, 13 3/4-inch-wide Jaguar weighs 8.30 lbs., and has a contoured solid alder body. One-piece maple neck with a comfortable "B" nut width of just under 1 5/8 inches, a scale length of 24 inches, and a wonderful medium profile. Curved veneer rosewood fretboard with 22 original? medium frets and inlaid clay dot position markers. Matching 'Inca Silver' headstock face with Fender 'transition' logo in gold with black trim and "Des. 186,826  Pat. 2,960,900  2,972,923  & Pat. Pend.". "Offset Contour Body" decal in black at the ball end of the headstock. Single "butterfly" string tree with large metal spacer. The neck is stamped "1 DEC 63B".  Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "L30973" between the top two screws. Individual single-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons and "D-169400 / Patent No." stamped on the underside. Two white oblong Strat-like pickups with notched metal side plates with outputs of 6.17k and 6.65k. Three-layer 'minty' over black plastic pickguard with beveled edge, ten screws, and aluminum ground shield on the underside. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack socket on lower metal plate adjoining pickguard on the treble side, circuit selector (rhythm/lead) slide switch and two roller controls (one volume, one tone) on upper metal plate adjoining pickguard on the bass side, and three pickup selector slide switches on metal plate inset into the pickguard on the treble side. The potentiometers are stamped "304 6421" & "304 6422" (Stackpole, May & June 1964). Black plastic Jaguar knobs with white markings. Jaguar/Jazzmaster-type floating tremolo and bridge with adjustable mute (rubber renewed). There is some finish checking - especially on the back of the body. There are also some marks/indentations/dings on the body and a few small areas of finish loss on the body sides. There is some finish loss (playing wear) on the back of the neck mainly behind the first eight frets and a couple of very small divots on the fretboard by the first and second frets. Because of this, we believe that the guitar has been re-fretted - we say 'believe', because if so - it is a really expert job using the correct gauge fretwire. Under ultra-violet light only there is a small and unexplainable very slightly dark area on the face of the headstock. We do not believe that any refinish or overspray has been used on this area - we are just being (as always) super cautious. This is the only Inca Silver Metallic Jaguar that we have ever seen and (apart from the possible re-fret and the mute rubber) is 100% factory original and in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Complete with the original tremolo arm and bridge cover. Housed in the original Fender three-latch rectangular brown hardshell case with dark orange plush lining and tan leather ends (9.00).

Inca Silver Metallic was used on Chevy Corvette cars from 1957 to 1959. This super rare color was used on Fender guitars between 1960 and 1965.

"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).