This is a guitar that I gave to a friend of mine so he could play in a band that made me feel like listening to music again. I met these guys back around 2006 and instantly loved what I heard. They had that ......... excitement that I felt when I heard Nirvana as that cycle spun round again.
This was made up from parts lying around my workshop at the time. Back in the nineties you could buy bits of Fenders for nothing, especially if they were a little ..... used and especially if they were offsets or Mustangs.
I used to buy bodies and necks, pickups and parts. Copy bodies with real necks. Cheap guitars with geniune pickups. You get the idea. Most of these parts became great guitars and most of those guitars I gave away to players who I thought deserved them. This is one such guitar.
Since they reminded me of Nirvana so much as I was so into Jags at the time I decided to put together a "Kurt" style Jag to give them. I still think this is one of the best R'n'R machines around. The sound of an Gibson without the vanishing headstocks (almost). The looks, the pedigree, the chrome, albeit very rusty all make it a very cool piece of gear.
This was built to emulate Kurts guitar in one of it's famous periods. Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, Di Marzio Superdistortion in the neck. Separate volume for each pickup and master tone. Three way toggle for pickup selection, and of course, no rhythm circuit.
Kurts famous Jag was also a transition model with neck binding and dot inlays that were made for a few months in late '65 as Fender went to binding and blocks but didn't want to throw out the dots. This, combined with two humbuckers is a GREAT look for a Jaguar.
Despite it's current condition it's actually been looked after "fairly" well since joining the band. There have been ............ mishaps of course, like a broken headstock but the majority of "damage" was already there when I gave it to him.
This guitar has toured the world (literally) , recorded with Gil Norton, opened for Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth and has never really had a proper hardcase (yes James, I'm looking at you) and every few years it comes home to get a once over and it always amazes me how little work it needs.
We've changed the tuners, given it a couple of fret dresses, replaced a bit of binding on the neck, fixed headstock (as mentioned before) replaced the output jack many, many, many times and generally just cleaned and set it up, and still it sounds and plays like the truly great guitar it is.