Thinking of buying an old Jaguar - Need your help

[kerryboy]

I have always been a Les Paul person and I own 5 of them. But I was travelling around last week and came upon a little backstreet guitar shop that had a Fender Jaguar for sale.
It is a 1996 and had pretty much been round the block a few times. Even though it looked ‘well worn’ it had a certain feel and look to it. The frets were quite low so I would imagine it would need a re-fret, but that wouldn’t be a problem.
Unfortunately I was in a hurry and didn’t get time to plug it into an amp to try it. I have spoken with the guy on the phone since and he will do me a good deal on it and he says there are no issues with it other than the low frets.
Has anyone got one and what do they sound like, are they nice sounding guitars and do you guys know of a any issues with these guitars from this era?

[Trem-O-Loaded]

My Jaguar is a little bit older than the one you are looking at.
I've had it since 1986.I'm not sure how old it is because it was a gift from someone and it had been collecting dust in their house for several years before I got it.
I like mine alot.To me it has a distinct sound that truthfully,I don't utilize much,but since I have quite a few guitars sometimes the Jag gets left out.However,there have been times when the sound I was thinking about in my head,took me straight to the Jag.
It's a well made instrument,very light(it ain't your Paul) and it has the crisp single coil sound.If you can score it for a price you can deal with,in my opinion it's worth it.The only 'down' side that I've found is just a matter of personal preference and that is loss of mid range if you're using a wah pedal and a slight loss of sustain if there is any compression on the signal.Nothing major.

[rio45]

I've got a '65 which I use for instrumental rock, and through a Fender Twin Reverb, it can chime, or it can growl, depending on the song, the attack and volume and compression levels.

But they're sort of quirky instruments and need some care in the set-up, especially the bridge and neck, string guage and tension. I find it plays way better with .11s (Addario Chromes, 11 to 50, I think).

If you're used to Les Pauls, Jags are a wet, wild and wicked ride.