2002 Fender Jagstang Kurt Cobain Signature Guitar

Posted on December 5, 2020December 5, 2020 by Daniel Spohn

Fender Jagstang 2002 — 2002 Fender Jagstang in Sonic Blue

So one day I was minding my own business, just browsing the OfferUps, when I came across this listing for a blue Fender Jag-Stang trade. My bandmate has been looking for this guitar in the blue and already has the Fiesta Red one. The owner was interested in Telecasters, Les Pauls, Jazzmasters, and Jaguars…which I don’t have any of which to trade so I sent the listing along to my bandmate and when off on my merry business. Next thing I know, he and our keyboard player somehow finessed a deal with the guy for a Jaguar basket case I had forgotten I put back together plus $600.

I also didn’t realize how expensive these guitars had become. My buddy had bought the red one six months earlier for $650 plus tax from a pawn shop. Keep your eyes out for these babies, because they’re trading at around $1,200-$1,500 in decent condition. Also I wouldn’t expect it to stay discontinued for much longer, especially with Fender doing these Paranormal/Parallel Universe guitars. The Fender Jagstang is the original Parallel Universe guitar, isn’t it.

Anyways, I got my hands on this thing because it had some gnarly fret sprout, which is almost guaranteed in Arizona, and could use a set up. The truss rod and intonation was actually pretty spot on. It’s amazing how much better a guitar sounds and plays after it’s set up. One thing that is still weird is the humbucker sits at an angle. It uses two screws to attach to the pickguard and it just won’t sit straight.

This specific guitars weighs in at 7 pounds, 13.3 ounces. Not too heavy, not too light.

Never willing to leave good enough along, I started day dreaming about how I would make this a better guitar if I owned it…

Fender Jagstang Electronics Upgraded

For me this guitar is all about the body shape. It didn’t even ship with the electronics Kurt would have used and he didn’t live long enough to complete the design of his signature guitar. To me, this means making some tweaks is fair game on this signature. I would start by removing the entire electrics harness. There are only two wires that need to be cut or desoldered to do this. Easy peasy!

Fender Jagstang Pickups

The production Fender Jagstang was shipped with a cheaper ALNICO neck pickup and a Fender “special design” humbucker to replicate the DiMarzio and Texas Special. They aren’t the worst pickups, but they aren’t what Kurt would have used either.

Kurt’s prototype guitar was delivered with a prototype Dimarzio H3 humbucker that was never put into production (but the DiMarzio Evolution Neck Model DP158 is recommended as a close substitute). Later Kurt’s guitar tech switched it to a Seymour Duncan JB. I would upgrade the humbucker with one of these options or one that Kurt used in his Jaguars.

Kurt’s guitar also had a Texas Special single coil in the neck position.

Fender Jagstang Pots and Output Jack

This guitar has cheap ass 250k pots. 250k is normal for single coils. 500k is normal for humbuckers. I would use 500k CTS pots, a nice cap on the tone (Bumblebee, Mojotone, or Orange drop), and a resistor inline with the single coil so that it acts like it’s on 250k pots.

I would also replace the jack with a Switchcraft 1/4″ jack.

Fender Jagstang Switches and Settings

The current functionality of the two 3-way selector switches is simple but missing one key setting, split humbucker. The current set up provides 4 unique sounds…including off. This is how a stock Jagstangs switches are wired stock:

Off/No output
Neck switch -0- -0- Bridge switch
Neck On – 2 settings will achieve this, notice that only the neck switch is used
Neck switch 0– -0- Bridge switch
Neck switch –0 -0- Bridge switch
Bridge On – 2 settings will achieve this, notice that only the bridge switch is used
Neck switch -0- –0 Bridge switch
Neck switch -0- 0– Bridge switch
Both On, In Phase – provides a fuller sound
Neck switch 0– 0– Bridge switch
Neck switch 0– –0 Bridge switch
Both On, Out of Phase – provides a thin sound
Neck switch –0 –0 Bridge switch
Neck switch 0– –0 Bridge switch

If I were to rewire this, I would add a split humbucker features so that we could make this guitar sound like a Fender Mustang and actually double the total number of unique settings to 8, including no sound.

Off/No output
Neck switch -0- -0- Bridge switch
Neck On – 2 settings will achieve this, notice that only the neck switch is used
Neck switch 0– -0- Bridge switch
Neck switch –0 -0- Bridge switch
Bridge On Humbucker
Neck switch -0- –0 Bridge switch
Bridge On Split Single Coil
Neck switch -0- 0– Bridge switch
Both On, In Phase with Humbucker
Neck switch 0– 0– Bridge switch
Both On, In Phase with Split Coil – essentially 2 single coils, like a Mustang
Neck switch 0– –0 Bridge switch
Both On, Out of Phase with Humbucker
Neck switch –0 –0 Bridge switch
Both On, Out of Phase with Split Coil
Neck switch 0– –0 Bridge switch