"Teal Green Metallic" Jaguar
The Rarest of all Fender Custom Colors

This incredibly rare "Teal Green Metallic" Jaguar weighs 8.70 lbs. with a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 24 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with a medium profile, and bound veneer rosewood fretboard with 22 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with matching "Teal Green Metallic" finish and decal with "Fender" logo in gold with black trim, "JAGUAR" in black in bold letters beside it, and four patent numbers in black below it. With "Offset Contour Body" at the ball end of the headstock. Single "butterfly" string tree with nylon spacer. Individual Fender "F" Tuners with octagonal metal buttons. "F-Series" neckplate with the serial number ("158626") stamped between the top two screws. There is no date stamped on the end of the neck - but because of the binding and the "dot" inlays, it can only be somewhere between late '65 and mid '66. Two white oblong Strat-like pickups with notched metal side plates and balanced outputs of 5.41k and 5.25k. Three-layer (white/black/white) plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) and jack socket on lower metal plate adjoining pickguard on treble side, selector switch and two roller controls (one volume, one tone) on upper metal plate adjoining pickguard on bass side, and three slide switches on metal plate inset into the pickguard on the treble side. Black plastic Jaguar knobs. The pots are dated: "304 6547" and "304 6617" (Stackpole, November 1965 and April 1966). Jazzmaster-type floating tremolo and bridge with adjustable mute. Complete with the original tremolo arm and bridge cover. A truly spectacular example in amazing condition, totally original and with just a few small surface chips - one on the edge of the treble-horn; one on the lower treble-edge; one on the upper bass-edge; two on the face of the guitar, and two tiny surface chips on the lower edge. There is absolutely no belt-buckle wear whatsoever and the color is really the best example we have ever seen. Some light playing wear to the varnish on the back of the neck and some light wear to the original frets are the only other things that need to be mentioned. Housed in its original Fender black hardshell case with dark orange plush lining (9.00). This is the color that will be missing from most collections…

In late 1965 a white binding was added to the neck, but it was not until mid 1966 that the favored "dot" inlays were replaced by the "later-style" rectangular "pearl-block" markers.

Automobiles in the United States had more social influence than just about anything in the fifties and sixties and the vast array of colors that Fender used on their guitars during that period originated directly from the cars of the time. Teal Green metallic is a Lucite (acrylic) paint that was introduced in 1965 by the Lincoln Motor Company and used on their cars until 1968. Fender followed suit and used it very sparingly on Jaguars, Jazzmasters, Stratocasters and Telecasters between 1965 and 1969. Teal Green metallic is now one of the rarest and most sought after of all the Fender "custom colors".

"Not content with the relatively expensive Jazzmaster, Fender introduced a new top-of-the-line model in 1962: the Jaguar. [The pricelist offered a basic Sunburst Jaguar at $379.50; a similar Jazzmaster was $349.50]. Another offset-waist multi-control instrument, the Jag seemed an attractive proposition, but still failed to dent the supremacy of Fender's dynamic duo, the Tele and the Strat...The Jag used a similar offset-waist body shape to the earlier Jazzmaster, and also shared that guitar's separate bridge and vibrato unit, although the Jaguar had the addition of a spring-loaded string mute at the bridge. Fender rather optimistically believed that players would prefer a mechanical string mute to the natural edge-of-the-hand method. They did not. There were some notable differences between the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. Visually, the Jag had distinctive chromed control panels, and was the first Fender with 22 frets. Its 24" (610mm) scale-length ('faster, more comfortable') was shorter than the Fender standard of 25" (635mm) and closer to that of Gibson. It gave the Jag a different playing feel compared to other Fenders. The Jaguar had better pickups than the Jazzmaster. They looked much like Strat units but had metal shielding added at the base and sides, no doubt as a response to the criticisms of the Jazzmaster's tendency to noisiness. The Jag's electrics were yet more complex than the Jazzmaster's, using the same rhythm circuit but adding a trio of lead-circuit switches...The Jaguar was offered from the start in four different neck widths, one a size narrower and two wider than normal (coded A, B, C or D, from narrowest to widest, with 'normal' B the most common)" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 36).