Fender Custom Shop Jaguar Stratocaster Electric Guitar
In 1995 I had the good fortune to visit the Fender custom shop in California, during the trip I was shown a conceptual artists drawing of a guitar that had been commissioned by The Jaguar Motor Company in collaboration with Fender Musical Instruments.
The guitar in question was a Fender Stratocaster, although it was unlike any Stratocaster that I had seen before. The concept was to utilise some of the raw materials that went into making an executive Jaguar car on a Fender Stratocaster. Therefore the body of the guitar was painted British Racing Green, the scratch plate was the same burled walnut that was used on the dashboard of the Jaguar XJS and the position markers on the fret board were inlaid gold leaping jaguars with the actual “Jaguar” logo on the 12th fret.
Aside from this, all metal parts were gold plated (pick-up covers, bridge, machine heads, volume and tone knobs, jack insert and selector switch) plus the headstock featured a leaping jaguar emblem in gold and a growling jaguar’s head. The fret-board was also in walnut with gold plated frets and the guitar came with both a gig bag and a flight case.
The gig-bag was in the same white Connolly leather that is used on the interior of the high end expensive Jaguar cars such as the XKR convertible whilst the flight case was black with silver aluminium trim. The package was completed by a signed and embossed certificate of authenticity provided by Fender and signed by the president of the Jaguar Motor Car company in the USA.
In the year 2000 the conceptual drawings that I had seen 5 years before became a reality with just 25 examples made, most of which would be purchased by Jaguar to go on display in their prestigious showroom locations in London, Paris, Monaco and Los Angeles.
It has been rumoured that only 5 examples made it onto the reseller market although I think in reality that’s more like 7 or 8 – I personally know of the whereabouts of 4 of them including the one that Nevada has for sale.