Fender Modern Player Jaguar FENDERModern Player Jaguar SHOULD I BUY ONE? Words: Tim Slater
Does this new take on the legendary Fender Jaguar have real steel in its claws or is it a mild mannered pussy cat?
The Fender Jaguar is now considered iconic enough to warrant several variants among the US Giant’s range of guitars. The Modern Player Jaguar reflects Fender’s current fad for upgrading many of its guitars to give them a more appealing contemporary edge. To this effect most of the Fender Jaguar’s quirky original features are set aside in favour of a stripped down approach more focused on pushing the Jag’s rocking potential to the fore. Does this work in the Jaguar’s favour or not? Let’s take this kitty for a spin…
Body & Neck
The Chinese-made Modern Player Jaguar bears little resemblance to the legendary indie/alternative rock icon. The Modern Player is more of a Fender/Gibson hybrid that combines the original Jaguar short 24-inch scale length and familiar elongated body with two P-90 style single coil pickups and a Tun-O-Matic style
fixed bridge and tailpiece. The mahogany body departs from
the more traditional alder but like the original, the Modern Player Jag still looks awkward whilst actually feeling supremely comfortable. The whole guitar weighs-in at a very
manageable 2.5 kilos (5.5lbs) and the Jag’s subtle yet very effective rear body contouring helps the guitar to virtually mold itself against the player’s ribcage. With bags of mahogany-driven natural sustain the Modern Player Jaguar feels like a bright and lively guitar. The Strat- style neck pocket surely plays a role by improving the Jaguar’s neck angle, thus helping to boost the guitars natural resonance compared to the shallower standard Jaguar design. The bolt on maple neck features a
rosewood fingerboard fitted with 22 medium jumbo frets and Fender’s now standard 9.5-inch radius, offering a more than decent degree of playability. The large headstock
The Modern Player Fender Jaguar dispenses with virtually all of the features that make the Jaguar Fender’s most idiosyncratic offspring but in this particular context it actually feels like a major improvement!
From punky strumming to roughhouse rhythm and blues riffs, the Fender Modern Player Jaguar bristles with a raw streetwise vibe that should appeal to guitarists who love the general Fender feel but maybe desire something slightly darker sounding and more powerful than a standard Strat or Tele (or indeed a normal Fender Jaguar). The Modern Player Jaguar is a bit of an ugly duckling, perhaps, but like it’s legendary forefather it nevertheless manages to preserve its own inimitable sense of cool.
THE GOOD BITS: SRP: £442.80 Contact: Fender UK -
www.fender.co.uk
might be to everyone’s taste but in this context it does look appropriately funky and a pair of string trees anchor down the top four strings before they meet the vintage Kluson style tuners.
Hardware & Sounds Instead of the lackluster vibrato system fitted to the original Jaguar, the Modern Player’s traditional Tune-o-Matic style fixed bridge and tailpiece feels solid and dependable. Two Jazz Bass knobs operate the rotary single volume and tone controls and the hybrid theme is topped off by a Gibson-style three-way pickup selector linked to a
30 3
www.playmusicpickup.co.uk
pair of ‘MP-90’ single coil pickups. The combo of P-90 pickups and mahogany body is always a marriage made in heaven and the Modern Player duly delivers thick, beefy tones that still cut through but with a little extra low end and mid range ‘oomph’ compared to conventional single coil pickups. Whilst, tonally speaking at least, the Modern Player Jaguar has more weight the only downside is that P-90s stronger magnetic field generates more hum than standard single coils – at least at higher gain settings - but its just something that the player will have to learn to live with. Either that or invest in a decent noise gate! PM
THE NOT SO GOOD BITS: Not the prettiest guitar in Fender’s line-up.
Interesting departure from the traditional Jaguar.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60