Here’s a rare bird for you! It’s a 1963 Fender Jaguar custom ordered with a left-handed configuration.
1960s left-handed Fenders are quite rare. You will see them a little more often in the second half of the decade when production ramped up after the CBS takeover. Pre-CBS left-handed Fenders are very hard to find.
This one still has the original finish and many of the most important original components (body, neck, finish, pickups, tremolo, neck plate, etc). But there is a story to this guitar, so please read on. The original owner special ordered it due to his need for a left-handed instrument. Over the years his tastes changed, but left handed guitars were still very hard to find. So he decided to use this neck and the pickups on another home made guitar with additional pickups. When I purchased the guitar it was kind of “in pieces” with a few components in the home made guitar and others safely stored away.
Thus, what you have here is a restoration of that original instrument. Unfortunately, the original owner used the original Jaguar guard on the home made guitar. When he did so he reshaped it to fit the body shape of the new instrument. What is on here is therefore a custom made reproduction. He had also put different tuners on there, so it currently has aged repro single line Klusons. There is some chipping by the tuner bushings. He saved the pickups for the home made instrument, but unfortunately the wiring harness was lost to time. So while the pickups are original, the wiring is not. I do have a set of 1963 Jaguar pots I will include with the guitar if you want to work on restoring that. You could use a standard right handed harness and reverse the direction of the wires, but it will take some work. The switch control plate is original, but the control plates for the volume and tone controls (both upper and lower) are Fender reproductions. The bridge that is currently on here is also repro, but those are fairly easy to come by.
Joe Riggio of Tacoma, WA did the work to reassembly and restore the guitar to its current form.
It shouldn’t be too hard to find an era correct harness. Left handed Klusons come up from time to time as well. The guard and control plates will be harder to find. My initial plan was to wait until I could find all the parts to offer it up fully restored, but I’m sure someone out there will be able to enjoy this for what it is while they hunt for more parts. Some of the screws aren’t original.
Unfortunately I don’t have a left-handed offset case for this. I will include a generic aftermarket case that will work to protect it in shipping.
We all wish that this could have remained “all-original,” but alas, it is what it is! Even with the changes it retains the original finish pickups and other key components and remains a very rare pre-CBS Fender that has much to offer the player and collector.