It’s been quite a process beforehand, but finally managed to buy this from a guy in Belgium yesterday – fortunately I was able to pick it up in person as I only live a good hour’s drive away. On a side note, it always amazes me that there’s a small part of Belgium where people speak German (although I do speak a little French)!
Anyway, what we have here is a 1973/1974 maple cap Jaguar. Serial no. dates it to early 1974, but pot codes are ’73 and I can just barely make out the last digit of the neck stamp to be a ‘3’ as well, although it’s very hard to read.
The guitar is in pretty great condition, no major issues at all, even the original frets are still in great shape. It probably needs a new nut, though, and the tuners need to be lubricated but that’s about it!
It’s fully original and I’m pretty sure I was the first person to lift the pickguard after 50 years. There are the typical era-correct QC stamps in the neck pocket, along with the factory shim, so I’m 100% sure the body is legit.
The neck has that super nice early 70’s profile with smoothly rounded edges. It happens to be a ‘Torres’ neck, who also made the neck of my ’72 Strat, so this one immediately felt right. The neck finish is pretty thick and glossy, but I don’t mind that.
I’ve only had an hour or so play time, but it plays very nice as it is, will certainly benefit from a new nut, though. Sounds totally different from my ’65 Jag, much snappier and more focused, though I suppose a lot of that is on account of the pickups, given that 70s Fender pickups are generally quite different from the 60’s ones. It’s certainly a great addition to the ‘65, as it looks, feels and sounds completely different!
I was really anxious that this would turn out to be the stereotypical 70’s ash boat anchor, as every 70s Jag I’ve encountered so far was close to 5kg…but this one’s not, fortunately. It’s just above 3.9 kilograms, which is totally in my range of comfort.
Well, that just about sums it up…Seeing as 70’s Jaguars are pretty rare as it is, and BB&B ones even more so, this may be one of just a handful in this configuration in existence. I’ve only ever seen photographic evidence of one single other Natural BB&B Jag.
Here's some pics after cleaning and with a Mastery:
DSC00055 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
DSC00050 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
DSC00049~2 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
DSC00053 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
DSC00057 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
DSC00043~2 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
20240429_151755 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
20240429_151736 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
20240429_152034 by Lars Fred, auf Flickr
