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This is a 2007 Fender J-Craft JGS Jaguar Special, which has clearly spent quite some time hanging around with Gibson fans.

Already a unique model from the J-Craft series, this Japanese Jaguar Special came out of the factory being considerably more rock than surf. The Piano Black finish and black pickguard were already pointing in the right direction, but then the previous owner replaced the original Fender Dragster humbuckers with a pair of sublime Gibson ’57 PAF Classic Plus humbuckers and rewired the whole thing with USA-spec parts. Add the original tune-o-matic bridge and stoptail - and you've got an ultra-cool Fender for people who love Les Pauls.

The 24" scale flame maple neck is particularly nice, with a comfortable C shape, satin finish, black headstock and a rosewood fingerboard with a 9.5" radius. The 22 vintage frets are virtually untouched, the nut is 42.2mm wide and the neck measures a very sensible 21.7mm at the first fret, opening out to 23.9mm at the twelfth. Original Japanese Gotoh slotted tuners work perfectly well and the absence of a vibrato make this a reliable stage companion with rock-solid tuning.

The Gibson ’57 PAF Classic Plus humbuckers are wired through CTS A500K pots, an Orange Drop cap and a Switchcraft three-way selector, with an upper switch for coil splitting. The Jaguar roller controls have been pressed into service to control the amount of coil split, so you can go from full humbucker to increasingly ferocious single-coil territory rather than simply having an enormous switch labelled ON/OFF. It's a surprisingly clever setup, and gives the guitar a lot more range than you might expect.

Tipping the scales at 3.8kg, this Jag has the sustain and general “turn the amp up” attitude you’d expect from the humbucker-equipped guitar, without having to worry about back pains.

There are some small dings, scuffs and surface scratches across the body and headstock, along with minimal wear on the neck. Nothing structural, nothing dramatic. It has simply acquired the sort of marks you get when a guitar is being used for its intended purpose rather than kept in a climate-controlled cupboard.

And that's what makes this one fun. It's still very obviously a Jaguar, that acquired a rather more aggressive attitude somewhere along the way. A Fender for Gibson lovers. A Jaguar that discovered hard rock. A Japanese Fender that has quietly gone over to the other side.

Plug it in. Turn it up. Figure out the rest later.

This instrument received a full professional setup with deep body clean, neck deep clean and full electronics check. Restringed with D'addario 11-49 nickel-plated steel strings.

Please note that although we put our heart and soul and also all our knowledge into every single guitar we sell, a setup is a personal preference. However, we try to get the best playability out of every guitar and set them up so you can play both rhythm and lead. We also pull them all apart to clean and check every single component and replace all unreliable parts with new ones, from dodgy pots to the whole wiring, tuners, string trees, nuts and etc. All the work done is described in detail in the listing.

We make sure that every guitar we sell is problem free and take full responsibility for the accuracy of our listing descriptions. All photographs are done by a professional photographer and processed on a calibrated monitor. Some colours might look slightly different on your monitor, but we will always put the official Fender colour name in the listing description, so please study pictures of other guitars with the same colour if you are unsure. We focus on finding great quality guitars and making them reliable and inspiring to play.

This guitar will be shipped around UK with UPS couriers, safely packed into a sturdy guitar cardboard box. 24h courier service provided to UK customers. We also ship to USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and many other places, but at the moment we don't ship to EU or Northern Ireland - but please drop us a message to discuss this.

MODEL: Fender J-Craft JGS Jaguar Special

YEAR: 2007

COLOUR: Piano Black gloss finish

PICKGUARD: 1-ply gloss black

NECK: C-shape flame maple neck with satin finish and black headstock; 24'' scale length

NUT: synthetic bone

NUT WIDTH: 42.2 mm

NECK THICKNESS: 1st fret - 21.7 mm; 12th fret - 23.9 mm

FRETBOARD: rosewood, 9.5-inch radius

FRETS: 22 vintage frets with no wear

TUNERS: original Kluson vintage-style slotted tuners, nickel finish

BODY: alder body, original HH body routing

WEIGHT: 3.8 kg

BRIDGE: Gotoh Japan Tune-o-matic

TAILPIECE: Gotoh Japan stopbar

WEAR: small dings and scuffs on the body and headstock; surface scratches on the body; minimal back of the neck wear; no structural damage

PICKUPS: upgraded Gibson '57 PAF Classic Plus humbucker pickups

WIRING: upgraded USA-spec wiring with CTS A500K pots in the lead circuit, Orange Drop tone capacitor, 3-way Switchcraft pickup selector switch. 2-way upper switch engages the coil split mode; roller pots control the amount of coil split.

KNOBS: classic Jaguar knobs