1966 Fender Jaguar Lake Placid Blue Metallic

“FENDER JAGUAR: the Jaguar presents an exciting concept in the field of solid-body guitars. The neck of the Jaguar is a short 24″ scale containing 22 frets… A new “Fender First” in the Jaguar is the Fender Mute. This movable string mute is attached at the bridge and may be activated or disengaged by a light touch of the finger…. Other features of the Jaguar are: newly designed wide range pickups, on-off pickup switches with controls making possible six different tone selections plus standard tone volume controls, rhythm circuit, Fender “Floating Tremolo”, “Offset” waist design, and adjustable neck truss rod. The Jaguar is unhesitatingly recommend to those desiring complete instrument versatility.” — Fender catalog, 1965.

Make and Model: Fender Jaguar

Year: 1966. Neck stamp: (15 = Jaguar model, MAY = May, 66 = 1966, B = 1 5/8″ nut width), Serial number 162xxx, potentiometer code: 137-6631, 137-6637 (31st week of ’66, 37th week of ’66)

Specifications: Custom color Lake Placid Blue finish, Rosewood fretboard with neck binding and large block inlays, 24″ scale length, .83″ neck depth at the first fret, .93″ neck depth at the 12th fret, 8lbs 13oz.

Originality: This clean Jaguar features an original factory applied Lake Placid Blue Metallic finish with matching headstock! All parts are original to the guitar except for the two screws holding the mute plate to the body, the mute foam, and the pickup height foam (originals included). The strap is not Fender issued but a period Bobby Lee “No Mishap” strap. I can find no evidence of other repairs except that a previous owner shimmed the original nut instead of filling the slots and recutting.

Condition: Very nice! There are a few spots of wear on the finish with spot touchup from long ago. There are two scratches between the bridge and tremolo tailpiece and one buckle rash spot on the back of the guitar. The frets show some honest wear but are still in nice playing condition. All electronics are original and have been cleaned and lubricated. They work and sound excellent. Playability: 100%! My cleaning and setup procedure included: disassembly and inspection, replace pickup height foam, clean and lubricate all electronics, lightly clean and reassemble body, disassemble and clean bridge and saddles, lubricate truss rod nut, clean fretboard, replace Fender Mute foam, restring with 12-50 Thomastik-Enfield flat wound strings, adjust neck relief to .003″.

Notes: I’m thrilled to have another clean, original custom color Lake Placid Blue Fender Jaguar available. The .012 Thomastik flat wounds feel excellent on the 24″ scale neck with a proper set up. They really level out the potentially very bright tone of the Jaguar and make the middle position sound divine. The tremolo action is smooth as glass and sounds wonderful with some thick reverb. It’s possible there’s a slab Roswood fretboard hiding underneath the short neck binding and custom color on the headstock. I’m confident you’ll love this clean custom color Lake Placid Blue Fender Jaguar from 1966!