I recently purchased a new Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar. I have wanted a Jaguar since I was a teen. Mine is the one closest to the original model of the current Squier Vintage Modified offerings. I got the Olympic White with tortoise pickguard...classic!!
The fit & finish were incredibly good. Fender ships these guitars with 9 gauge strings, totally inappropriate for this guitar. I changed to 11 gauge flatwounds. Jags are notorious for rattling at the bridge, and 9s just make it so much worse. BTW...This is the only guitar I currently have setup with flats.
I had the cheesy plastic nut replaced with a Tusq nut, and replaced the saddles with the Graph Tech Mustang/Jaguar/Jazzmaster saddles ($26.95 @ Musicians Friend), virtually eliminating any saddle buzz. This was considerably more cost effective than the Warmoth Modified Mustang bridge ($47.50) or the Mastery bridge ($160). The saddles are slightly narrower than the stock saddles, but not a problem with me since I am not a particularly aggressive player.
I will be adding a shim to raise the neck slightly, in order to lower the action a little more and increase the break angle of the strings over the bridge.
Now for the good stuff...The sounds!!
I love the sound of this guitar even with flatwound strings. It is very versatile and provides numerous switching options. It will nail vintage surf tones and loves tons of drippy reverb with tremolo. It has wonderful clean tones from the Duncan Designed pickups, and easily goes from bright and bell-like to warm and mellow thanks to the versatile switching options, which allow a different volume/tone for lead & rhythm.
At $299 it is a steal, and I seriously doubt that I will ever justify paying 6-10 times more for a Fender American Vintage Re-issue model.
