Fender Limited Edition Johnny Marr Special Jaguar

Thirteen years after Johnny Marr's upgraded signature Jaguar launched, this new Special version piles on the sonic options with its trio of Lipstick single-coil pickups and some natty switching

- BY DAVE BURRLUCK

JOHNNY MARR'S FIRST signature took the vintage vision of the Jaguar and upgraded it, very much from a player's perspective. This new addition sticks close to that original, aside from the major difference — its trio of Lipstick single-coils, a pickup design that was, of course, introduced in the Fifties by Danelectro.

Marr's recipe also does away with the original's rhythm and lead circuits, and here the new single coils are selected by a four-way lever switch (which adds both pickups in series) along with a specific switch to bypass, add or solo the additional middle pickup. And, like the original JM Jaguar, the two “strangle” or “bright” switches — one universal and one specific to that series pickup link are retained.

Those changes aside, the new guitar follows the previous one pretty much spec-for-spec. The body is alder (only offered in this gloss-black nitro finish) with quite deep vintage-style body contours. The vintage-tinted maple neck is also vintage-informed with its profile cloned from one of Marr's favorite Jaguars, a model from 1965. Also, here the fingerboard radius swaps from the original JM's small 7.25" vintage radius to Fender's more modern 9.5".