Has anyone tried the Fender Jag-Stang (Kurt Cobain's guitar)?
armanHammer
Posts: 471
I just saw it in a guitar magazine today and it looks badass, and not expensive at all for something Mr. Cobain played. Has anyone played it, and could you tell me if you liked it?
Riverside.. LA.. California. EV?
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edit: kurt never played the jag-stang. it was an idea he had and fender made it. i think he died before they made any i could be wrong on that but kurt never played one. all he did was mashed his two favorite guitars into one. but its still pretty neat in my book
he played the blue one a few times but the last tour he used primarily modified mustangs. the design of the jag-stang was never really finished.
it's japanese made i believe. quality isn't an issue.
the issues with the bridge are the same ones that the regular mustang suffers and there are ways of fixing it.
i don't know how the pickups are but they can be easily replaced anyway.
i want one but i don't like the short scale.
http://lucilia.ebc.ee/~kaur/nirvana/cobain14.jpg
"The "Jag-stang" was seen starting in mid-to-late 1993 (18) although Kurt rarely played it. A reviewer for Guitar Shop saw a "cross between the Jaguar and Mustang, the Jag-stang features a sonic blue Jag body with white pickguard and Mustang bridge" (24). As most of you know, the Jag-stang has hit the stores a long time ago, but currently are no longer made. Like Chris points out on his FAQ, and others have told me via e-mail, the mass-produced Jag-stang isn't exactly as Kurt intended it to be (41). Kurt didn't even like the Jagstang that much when he received it (57). He forgot to have Fender do the contours for the arm and the stomach (41). It was as thick as a Telecaster and rather misbalanced. He wouldn't even play it for the (first?) month he had it. It was also tough to set up. Earnie immediately changed the pickups, putting a Duncan JB in the bridge (57)(59). As previously stated, he installed a Tune-O-Matic bridge on it (41). Kurt had trouble with the Mustang's slider switches, which oddly appeared on the Jag-stang, but not on the Ferrington. Earnie's also puzzled as to how the Jag-stang wound up with a Mustang tremolo and bridge (59). "Kurt was funny, with both the Jag-stang and the Ferrington, he was very excited when he received them, but soon he found things about both that he overlooked or wanted to change." He had also talked with Kurt about re-shaping the body for a more traditional Fender look. Earnie told Mark Wittenberg about these changes (also, the fitted bridge). Mark was interested in the changes, but he passed away, too. So Fender released that Jag-Stang in the way Kurt had received it (41)(59). Kurt eventually became comfortable enough to use his Jag-Stang on rare occaions for a whole show (57). Courtney gave the Jag-Stang to Peter Buck after Kurt passed away (41). He played it in the "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" music video (seen 27), and Mike Mills plays it live on "Let Me In" (41)."
http://www.goalweb.com/nirvana2/kurts_equipment.htm#Guitars
The neck on mine is great, as is the action, and it is a real pleasure to play. I play mostly grunge (Pearl Jam style, not Nirvana, surprisingly enough) and this guitar is actually very good for heavier "Evenflow" type Pearl Jam songs.
I have found it to be an incredible guitar, and in my opinion, very undepriced. Now I could have just gotten lucky and ended up with a really great Jag-Stang, but I highly doubt that. I think you should definitely get one. Just don't expect a strat sound, this is not it, however, this will complement other guitars, and I'm sure it will become a favorite.
Note: The body is made of Basswood, so it's VERY light. The only drawback here is that it is a little more susceptible to dings. But as long as you keep it in a case when you're not playing it, it will be fine. I've had mine for over a year now and it's in absolute mint condition, so don't worry about it being poor quality, because it's not by any stretch of the imaginaiton. I'm sure you will be very pleased if you buy a Jag-Stang. Get the blue, by the way, the red is a wierd shade.
cinredzfan47 did you buy one of the recent made ones or one from a few years back?
--The Fender Jag-Stang (18).
Another custom collaboration was with Fender, and was again based on the Mustang. It was planned in February 1993, right before recording "In Utero" (57). Before presenting two articles on it, take note of this. Earnie is skeptical of Fender's A&R people's quotes. He feels Kurt would never endorse the Jag-Stang as he seems to in various quotes Fender claims. Earnie says he doubts Kurt had any intentions of the Jag-stang ever being mass-produced. "I believe he wanted a custom made guitar from Fender and that was it. After Kurt's death, Fender was given the go ahead to mass produce these and they sold a lot of them" (59). Read the section after these articles for more of Earnie's thoughts on this guitar.
"Cobain worked with the Fender Custom Shop to develop the "Jag-stang," a very functional combination of Jaguar and Mustang design. "'Kurt always enjoyed playing both guitars,' says Fender's Larry Brooks. 'He took photographs of each, cut them in half, and put them together to see what they'd look like. It was his concept, and we detailed and contoured it to give him balance and feel.
"'He was really easy to work with. I had a chance to sit and talk with him, then we built him a prototype. He played it a while and then wrote some suggestions on the guitar and sent it back to us. The second time around, we got it right.'
"The guitar features a Mustang-style short-scale neck on a body that borrows from both designs. There's a DiMarzio humbucking pickup at the bridge, and a Texas Special single coil at the neck, tilted at the same angle as on a Mustang. Cobain was quite satisfied with the guitar. "'Ever since I started playing, I've always liked certain things about certain guitars but could never find the perfect mix of everything I was looking for. The Jag-stang is the closest thing I know. And I like the idea of having a quality instrument on the market with no preconceived notions attached. In a way, it's perfect for me to attach my name to the Jag-stang, in that I'm the anti-guitar hero - I can barely play the things myself'" (18).
Second article:
"'I was able to track down what they needed,' says Fender Director of Artist Relations Mark Wittenberg, 'so they could keep his guitars up and running. Then we were contacted and told that Kurt had an idea for a guitar -- something that he had in his mind's eye but wasn't really seeing out there in the real world. His favorite guitar was a Mustang, but there were things about the lines of the Jaguar that he really liked too.'"
"Wittenberg and Fender master builder Larry L. Brooks journeyed to Cobain and Love's Hollywood apartment to discuss the guitar. The couple were just in the process of moving out. Like Ferrington, the Fender guys were impressed with Cobain's courteous manner. 'He was very soft-spoken and very gentle.' Brooks recalls. 'As it turned out, we'd gotten him out of bed. He'd been out or played the night before, so he was still a little tired. But as we started talking about the guitar, the adrenaline started flowing. He was very easy to work with. He knew what he wanted, but at the same time he was able to say, "You're the builder, so you know the best way to accomplish what I'm after." He was very open-minded that way'" (32).
Fender cut a body and sent it to Kurt who sent it back with some slight suggestions. He then sent out one of his favorite necks for them to copy (41).
"The resulting instrument has an alder body, plus a 24-inch scale maple neck with a rosewood fretboard and vintage-style fretwire. At Cobain's request, Brooks used stock Mustang hardware from Japan, where the guitars are still produced (32) (according to Nirvana guitar tech Earnie Bailey, the bridge was later changed to a Tune-O-Matic (41)). The neck pickup is a single-coil Texas Special, which was originally designed as a bridge pickup for Fender's Stevie Ray Vaughan model. The bridge pickup is a Dimarzio H-3 Humbucker."
"'The Texas Special is a little hotter than most single coils,' Brooks explains. 'With a humbucker at the bridge, the Texas Special in the neck position really helped to balance things out so that there wasn't such a drastic drop in volume and output going from one pickup to the other.'"
"'Kurt requested two guitars' says Mark Wittenberg, 'one in Solid Blue and one in Fiesta Red.' The blue instrument was delivered to Cobain, who used it on Nirvana's 1993 tour. 'We were just finishing the Fiesta Red one,' Wittenberg continues. 'In fact, we were literally ready to deliver it when we received word of his death.' The red guitar has been earmarked for the Fender museum which is being planned" (32).
*info courtesy of http://www.kurtsequipment.com/
Has anyone read the Journals? There are a number of pages that show Kurt's drawings and concept for the Jag-Stang... very cool to see... in fact, there's a lot of techie porn hidden in those pages.
"...We're all different behind the eyes..."
he only played his red one live in Europe once, and his green one didn't arrive until after he died. Peter Buck of REM has that one now. Courtney gave it to him. He plays it all the time. Sorry should of read the other thread right above it. This ones already been done. My apologies.
"...We're all different behind the eyes..."
http://users.pandora.be/lowlight/Dolly%20Dagger/jagbosco2.jpg
I absolutely love the guitar!
00: 7/2 (cancelled...)
05: 9/11,9/12,9/13,9/15,9/16,9/19
06: 8/23,8/30, 9/9, 9/11
07: 6/26, 6/29
*****
It's a POS...unless they are making them differently than they were when they first came out. Also, Kurt didn't spend a lot of money for his jaguar's and mustangs. He got 'em before the hype and bs of the so-called vintage craze. Jag's and Mustangs were the red headed stepchildren of the Fender line back then. I remember back in 91...you could get a vintage 60's stang for like 400 bucks!!!
old music: http://www.myspace.com/slowloader
sonic blue and red.
the sonic blue one i got second hand, the red one was the reissue which i got new.
theres no problems with this guitar at all, the small scale doesnt bother me.
Gives a great sound, no not a strat sound, not a tele sound, a sound of its own, which i love. A really grungy feel.
its a hard guita too, the 2nd hand one got bashed around by me a lot, and its still electronically perfect, and only a few blemishes to the body.