Super Rare "Burgundy Mist" Jaguar!

This incredibly rare "Burgundy Mist" Jaguar weighs 8.40 lbs. with a nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck, and bound veneer rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with matching "Burgundy Mist" finish and decal with "Fender" logo in gold with black trim, "JAGUAR" in black in bold letters beside it, and four patent numbers in black below it. With "Offset Contour Body" at the ball end of the headstock. Single "butterfly" string tree. Individual Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. One of the very first "F-Series" guitars, with the serial number ("100115") stamped on the neckplate (the "F-Series" started with 100000!) and the neck dated: "1 SEP 65 B." Two white oblong Strat-like pickups with notched metal side plates and balanced outputs of 6.38k and 6.97k. 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 Jaguar knobs. The pots are dated: "304 6530" (Stackpole, July 1965). Jazzmaster-type floating tremolo and bridge with adjustable mute and original cover. This guitar is almost in "exceptionally fine" condition, with only light finish checking, a few very small marks, mainly on the edges, and some very light surface wear to the back of the neck. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with red plush lining (9.00).

"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).

In late 1965 a white binding was added to the neck, but it was not until mid 1966 that the favored "dot" inlays were replaced by the "later-style" rectangular "pearl-block" markers.

For most collectors, pre-CBS (pre-1966) Fender vintage guitars are the most desirable ones. Although CBS purchased Fender (officially) on January 3rd 1965, it took some time before the guitars changed. The "transistion" era (late summer 1964 to December 1965) is known as a "transition" because later summer 1964 to December 1965 was the time when there was a transition from the Leo Fender management to CBS management, and mass-production manufacturing techniques were starting to take a firm hold. Of all pre-CBS Fender instruments, the period from summer 1964 to December 1965 was amoung Fender's high production periods. By 1966 (a year after CBS bought Fender), CBS management had really taken hold of Fender's production facilities and incorporated many changes. The sum of of all these changes had a serious effect on Fender guitars as a whole. 1966 brought an era of "large" pegheads, less contoured bodies, and even higher production numbers. CBS looked for ways to cut production time and costs, which generally led to much lower quality. Finally, by 1968 polyurathane replaced the original nitrocellulose lacquer clearcoat that had been used since Fender's inception, and so as a result of all these factors, 1966 and later Fender instruments are considered far less collectible than vintage pre-CBS Fender guitars.