Fender 1963 Jaguar Lake Placid Blue

Fender introduced the Jaguar in 1962 as their new flagship model. It was intended as the next step forward and was meant to outperform both the Stratocaster as the Jazzmaster. The Jaguar's basic platform and body shape was the Jazzmaster but Leo changed the scale length to 24” to provide easier chording. Metal control plates were added for visual appeal.

The pickups were designed narrow and with a metal “saw tooth” like claw that was made with the intention of concentrating the magnetic field, providing a punchier sound than the Jazzmaster. The switching was updated as well: the pickup selector toggle switch was replaced with slider switches and a high-pass filter was added. The vibrato and bridge of the Jazzmaster were maintained but a string mute was added to provide easy muting with the bridge cover in place.

Here’s an example of an early, second year of production Jaguar in the beautiful custom colour Lake Placid Blue. It has typical early features like single-line Kluson tuners, nitrate celluloid pickguard and thin nitrocellulose lacquer. Because the top clearcoat has yellowed from age the colour changed to a slightly greenish hue that looks absolutely gorgeous with the original mint-coloured pickguard. There are traces of both black and red visible underneath the blue where the lacquer has chipped away, suggesting that Fender attempted to finish this guitar in sunburst and maybe Dakota Red before it was painted Lake Placid Blue. Although this guitar has been played a lot and shows some dings, wear and lacquer crazing, it still looks very classy.

The neck has a quite full for a Jaguar B-shape neck shape with a very dark rosewood fretboard. The original frets are a bit worn but the guitar doesn’t fret out in any position. The black fiber bobbin pickups in this guitar sound very punchy and warm, they appear somewhat meatier than later production grey fiber bobbin pickups.

This guitar is almost completely original, apart from the original nut that was shimmed and the neck shim that was added by us when we performed our setup. The original case was unfortunately lost, this Jaguar is sold with a very roadworn ’60s hardboard square case.

Additional specifications:

• Serial Number: L04120
• Neck stamp: 1MARCH63B
• Potentiometer codes: Lead circuit wk20/’63, Rhythm circuit wk36/’62
• Modifications: original nut was shimmed, new neck pocket shims added
• Setup: D’Addario EXL116 .011-.052 strings
• Case: non original cardboard square ‘60s case