What are the main differences between a Fender Jaguar and a Fender Stratocaster?

I now play a stratocaster, but I'm considering to buy a Jaguar.





What are the big differences between them, apart from the looks?|||The main differences are the neck, pickups, and tremolo system. The neck on the Jaguar is a 24-inch short-scale with a 7-1/4-inch fretboard radius, whereas the Stratocaster is the more typical 25-1/2-inch scale with the 9-1/2-inch radius. The pickups on both guitars are single-coils, but those on the Jaguar are much brighter and do not respond as well to overdrive as the more versatile Stratocaster versions. The tremolo system on the Jaguar is (in my opinion) very poorly designed; there is not enough tension on the bridge to maintain tuning (slips with slight palm pressure), and the compression-coil fulcrum arrangement is highly unstable. In comparison, the Stratocaster has (again, in my opinion) a much better balanced system using extension springs, and aftermarket enhancements are readily available. Bottom line: try the Jaguar out for finger-fit before buying, as it is not a good choice for big hands. If you do decide to go with the Jaguar, take a look at the fixed-bridge model with the humbuckers, which may offer you a more appropriate tone for your style of music. Best regards, Dana|||Hello there,





Dana hit it right on.





The main differences, neck, body, pickups and tremolo bridge.





The neck scale is 24 inches on the Jaguar and 25 1/2 inches on the Stratocaster. That means the frets are slightly closer together on the Jaguar neck. Also the radius of the fretboard is different. 7 1/2 for the jaguar, 9 1/2 on most (by not all) Strats. The radius is the curvature of the fretboard. The larger the number the flatter the curvature across the fretboard from side to side. The radius is the distance from the center of a circle to the edge of the circle. If you took a string and pinned it down at one end. Then stretched the string out to 7 1/2 inches and drew an arc with the string, you would see the curvature of a cross section of the fretboard on a Jaguar. If the did the same thing, but had the string out 9 1/2 inches to draw the arc you would see the curvature of a cross section of a Strat neck. From that you will see the Strat neck is flatter across than the Jaguar neck.





The body style is different. The Strat has two horns one on each side of the neck. The Jaguar only has the upper horn.





The pickups in both are usually (but not always) single coil pickups. The Jaguar has brighter sounding pickups. The Strat has more versatile pickups in my opinion. There is a newer, less expensive Jaguar that comes with 2 humbucking pickups. It is called the Blacktop Jaguar.





Both generally have a tremolo bridge. The Jaguar has a fulcrum tremolo. I do not care for it as much as I do the Strat style tremolo. The Strat style tremolo you can adjust the tension on the tremolo by tightening the springs on the backside of the body to keep the bridge floating. That keeps the tremolo in tune when you play it. The Jaguar style bridge does not have that spring adjustment and tends to go out of tune. Also you need larger gauge strings with the Jaguar style bridge. 9s do not put enough tension on the bridge. As Dana mentioned there are aftermarket kits to improve the function of the Jaguar tremolo bridge. But why should you have to buy a kit to fix a new guitar? I think the newer Jaguar blacktop only comes with a fixed bridge.





Later,|||The lower fibreboard plate of most Stratocaster pickups has an extension where the output cables meet the soldering eyelets. On Jaguar pickups, these are at either end of the fibreboard plate.





but apart from that and the metal claw, theirs really not much difference in the tonal out put of the guitar, but im wanting to by a jag too, they look pretty cool.





hope this helps.|||Jaguar is a shorter scale (frets are closer together). Plays a bit different. Sounds different, too. Both sound good to my ears.