62 Jaguar refinish - moral quandries

[rank]

Black with Oly white headstock. Thought I'd be different...

[blackbox]

deleted image b/c huge. see later post for pic

I didn't have the exact neck date when I purchased (I trusted the seller). Turns out it's an early March "A" neck. Very thin, and I have fairly large hands, but I don't mind so much. With the small size, my son (in the background) can learn to play on it, making this the most expensive student guitar ever.

[mcjt]

uh yeah. it would be a great way to devalue the guitar too.

I'm going to do black without a matching headstock. I can't bring myself to destroy an original logo put on in the Fender plant.

[Soiouz]

Very early Jaguar you have there, with a slab board.

I'll add my voice to the crowds that say refin the body however you want, but leave that neck alone. Good decision you made there!


Plus, as another poster mentionned earlier, very early Jaguars in custom colour were produced without matching headstocks. Mid-late 1962, they started painting them to match. At least that is what Jim Shine says, and I reckon he knows these things quite a bit:

"A January 1962 pre-production. This totally stock guitar features the rare early non-matching headstock."

Here: http://www.jimshine.com/jaguar/fenderjaguarhistory.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[allthatmuch]

If you can't get a pic of the neck stamp, always ask for the width of the nut...

On the other hand, your son's lucky!

[blackbox]

Probably should have, but an "A" slab board from March? That's someone's holy grail Jaguar neck (even if it's not mine). It's cool to have a super rare Jag neck like this, at any rate.

[FrankRay]

Theoretically, march 62 necks aren't stamped. They only brought it in in april. Which makes yours a bit of an anomaly.

[blackbox]

I actually read that March is the first month they started doing it.

[mcjt]

Whose theory are you quoting?

Theoretically, march 62 necks aren't stamped. They only brought it in in april. Which makes yours a bit of an anomaly.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

That photo looks weird. Is that stamp for real? It kinda looks Photoshopped.

[blackbox]

There's a lot of conflicting information out there. The stamp on my neck is pretty obviously real, though, which seems to prove that it was done. I think all FrankRay is saying is that it's uncommon for March necks to have stamps.

[blackbox]

Maybe a slightly easier to read pic:

[blackbox]

This reference book says March '62 was the first month Fender used the stamp:

https://books.google.com/books?id=rTFER ... mp&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[FrankRay]

I just remember my mate has a march jag dated in pencil, whereas my april one was stamped; this chimes with Jim Shine's info on his site. I guess the stamps came in half way through march?

[blackbox]

Yeah, I bet it was still half-and-half in March.

I will say that this guitar sounds extremely good. Warm but punchy, and still very much a Jaguar. I never would have guessed that I'd like an "A" neck, because I've never liked them on other Fenders, but there's something comfortable about this one.