10 years ago, I bought myself a brand new HH Jag special, the all-black CIJ one:
It was my #1. It was the jaguar I had always wanted at that point - to be rid of the "finicky" bridge/vibrato (I was young and didn't know how to set them up properly), to be rid of that "intolerable" 60 cycle hum (I was going through an unfortunate pseudo-shredder phase and my high gain soloz were getting rekt!).
A couple of years later though, and my obsession turned more to the Jazzmaster. How had I lived with that "plinky" 24" scale? (I was definitely overly influenced by the blooz lawyer forums way too hard on this factor, and hadn't discovered OSG or Shortscale yet so I didn't have anyone to tell me it was "ok" to love the 24" scale!). After playing my Jag less and less in favour of my Warmoth JM, I decided to purge myself of the short scale and go all-out with the Jazzmaster. I sold the HH Jag, still perfect and pristine from having been babied (even at gigs), even though it was the best-playing and most comfortable guitar I owned. I had become convinced that it couldn't get JM tones, and that JM tones were all I needed in my life.
In the last 5 years though, after having learned how to properly set up a jaguar and mustang, and having discovered short scale acoustics were my jam, I rediscovered the short scale offsets. These days, all but two of the JMs/Partsmasters are gone, but I'm up to 8 Jaguars and Partsguars and three Mustangs.
Last year, I traded my last true Fender JM (a Classic Player) to reacquire another black HH Jaguar Special. But this one had some bumps and scrapes pretty much everywhere you looked - nothing earth shattering, but every time I picked it up, it just reminded me that I had traded away my perfect, pristine, awesome-playing beloved HH Special and had this stand-in now instead, which hadn't been cared for the way I take care of my instruments.
So, I decided to sell it for totally nonsensical and emotional reasons. But I really did love the format - the modding possibilities of the HH rout, the matching headstock, the neck profile, the hardtail for a different feel than my usual jags. I didn't really want to give that up, other than for the completely sentimental reason of missing the one that was mine.
A recent OSG thread reminded me of the cool, Japan-only colours that model had once come in. And lo and behold, one popped up on Reverb for a good price in my favourite of the lot: GMB, gunmetal blue, a sort of metalflake navy blue:
It was in great condition, too. So now it's on its way from Hawaii, and will probably be getting a roller bridge (or Mustang bridge if I decide to dowel and drill) and either a Les Trem II or the Bigsby B5 sitting in my parts drawer, along with a set of D'Urbano Big Birds (HB-sized Firebird pickups).
Blue offsets have always been my jam, and I'm super excited to enjoy an HH Special again, hopefully this time without thinking about "the one that got away" whenever I pick it up.
It'll definitely be getting a post in the mods forum when I get it decked out in the near future.
