Crayon Sky Music

How do Fender “Surf” guitars compare to strat?

What is the tonal difference between a Fender Jaguar, Mustang, and Jazzmaster and how do they sound different than a strat. Thanks

Fender jaguar: Listen to any surf album to hear the tones of the jaguar. Two single coil pickups, or two humbuckers. Two pickup selecters, one volume, one tone knob, and a boost switch. On the top side is another set of volume and tone knobs that you can use via the bypass switch near the bottom end of the guitar. The bridge has issues and almost everyone who owns one replaces it with a mustang bridge when they buy it. Usually has a short scale neck.
Tone shaping is easier, you get the twang and it can also be very flat sounding.

Jazzmaster: Has its own tone, apart from the jag or the strat. Very meaty. Same body and switch layout as the jaguar, except for the jazzmaster they use P-90 pickups which give it a tone that was intended for jazz players since these pickups have been used in hollowbodies. Also has the same bridge issues, but has a full scale neck in contrast with the jaguar.

Mustang: Has some strat sounds too it. Smaller body, short scale, two individual switches for the single coil bridge and neck pickups that you can put in and out of phase. One volume knob, and one tone knob. The bridge is solid, with a decent tremolo system, although i’ve heard the pickups can be noisy with low input. Probably the most simple fender guitar ever made. You can make this axe sound like a telly.

One thing that all these guitars have in common is that the tone knobs they have are master ones, meaning that they control both the pickups. With the strat however, there are two tone knobs, one for the middle and neck pickups respectfully.

Also, none of these guitars have a middle pickup. With the addition of the middle pickup with the strat, this gives more of an opportunity of either a very fat tone, or a tone that “quacks.”

The stratocaster’s body is not offset like the jaguar, jazzmaster and mustang.

They however are all really cool guitars and you can’t really go wrong with any of them.

Geoff – Surf Jam on Green Fender Jazzmaster