Martin Jenner's left handed Jaguar

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Martin Jenner's left handed Jaguar

Postby drakula63 » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:22 pm

THIS is of some interest and I don't believe it has been mentioned here before.


https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars ... uar-603509


https://www.reddit.com/r/Nirvana/commen ... op_jaguar/


I honestly think that it's extremely likely, almost to the point of being 100% sure this is Kurt Cobain's guitar. The Jaguar's history matches, the features are almost exact (save for the neck, original bridge, and the strangle switch).

Actually, the features are EXTREMELY important as Martin Jenner indeed had some "metalwork" done to the guitar. Left Handed Fender Jaguars in their original runs (1962-1975) had RIGHT HANDED vibrato units from the factory. As one can see in the Cliff Richard London and Chinchester 1980 videos - the vibrato on Jenner's Jaguar is LEFT HANDED, and has the second hole where the vibrato bar was originally. Cobain's Jaguar has 2 holes in it exactly the same. There's also the strap button on the bottom horn (Martin Jenner preferred the strap on the lower horn).

I'm leanding towards 97% sure Martin Jenner was the one who did the modificatios too as I researched him a little. He was a session player, mostly in classic rock n' roll and country recordings. Early pictures of him from the late 1960's show him playing a left handed SG modified almost as extensively as the Jaguar is. Very likely, I think this is the scenario how the Jaguar might have come to be the way it was.

Martin gets a spot with Cliff Richard's band for their London 1980 tour. Martin needs a versatile guitar that is well made, relatively stable, yet expendable should it get broken/destroyed/lost. Back in 1980, Fender Jaguars were $80 at a hock shop - just ask The Cars, or Sonic Youth even. Well, he has/can get this Left-Handed 1965/1966 Fender Jaguar for bananas - and then can go bananas on it making modifications as it has plenty of space for wiring.

So he takes this guitar, or buys it, and does a fewl of the usual mods of the day - he needs a LOT of versatility playing with a Rock Musician from the Shadows who now does Country/Gosphel/New Wave mixed into his set - so throws in a set of DiMarzio Humbuckers - which are a VERY popular late 70's/early 80's modification for most guitars. Then has the vibrato modified for left-handed use to get more bar travel and make it more comfortable. Puts a strap button on the treble side horn for better balance, adds another knob for volume for versatility, and adds a 3-way switch to make pickup selection smoother and viola - you have Kurt's guitar minus the neck. Throw in an Anvil Case (which Kurt Cobain got with the guitar in 91') so he can tour with it and know it'll be save from those wretched baggage handlers, and you have a road ready guitar close to Kurt's in description.

The question here is the neck. I suspect, despite Martin's best efforts, at some point either the original neck had something wrong with it (broken truss rod perhaps?), or was broken somehow (something fell on it or it got dropped by someone beind stupid), and the neck was replaced sometime in the late 1980's. The reason I figure this is because the bad reproduction decal I have seen on Vintage Jaguars refinished in the late 1980's, and as for the neck - Martin probably knew a Luthier who probably just took a Stratocaster template (hence the headstock), slapped a 24" scale fingerboard on it, bound it, chose to use Dot markers because it's easier to build that way (and cheaper), and slapped a bad reproduction logo onto the headstock. Also, I think this would be around the time the bridge would be replaced as well as no Tune-O-Matic bridge was available in black until the late 1980's when people started wanting neon colored guitars with black hardware....I'm guessing it's a small possibility that Ernie or Kurt swapped the tuners out and bought the black TOM as the original bridge - if still there, was both a pain, and shrouded in half-truths/myths about setup at that time.
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drakula63
 
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