About a week ago I acquired a Fender Player Duo-Sonic HS (in ice blue metallic). I’ve been enjoying that guitar paired with a Marshall SL5, and that inspired me to make a new, smaller, pedal board that is more convenient for practice. But I needed some additional pedal cables, so I went shopping. I got the pedal cables, of course, but that’s not the only new gear I ended up with today…
@jkahn and I were talking about the Squire Contemporary Jaguar HH ST in another thread. It was a guitar I’d considered before buying the Duo-Sonic, but I didn’t want jumbo frets. I still wish it had medium-jumbo instead of jumbo, but I love the combination of 24" scale length and 12" radius fingerboard. And the guitar being a Squire made the price right. Long story short: I got it. The action was slightly high so I did a quick set up. Relief was fine, and even after I lowered the action I was surprised to find the intonation was good too. So that was it. Plays great.
I’ve played other Squires (mostly Classic Vibes), but this is the first one I’ve owned. First impression is that I’m amazed at the value for the money. It’s a nice guitar.
So I have two new 24" scale length offset beauties to play with, now.
I’ll post real pictures tomorrow when I can get some natural light, but the guitars in question are these (pics from the Fender site):
I’m curious on what you feel the differences are between these guitars. Is the Jag comfier with the bigger body?
Pickups - my departed Squier HSS Strat’s bridge humbucker sounded tinny compared to the meaty tone from regular humbuckers. How are the pickups in these, and are they similar tones across both guitars?
The Jaguar definitely feels beefier. I wouldn’t really say “comfier” – they’re both comfortable, but the Jaguar feels more substantial. It’s noticeably heavier, has a slightly bigger body, and the fretboard feels flatter (which makes sense) and wider (which doesn’t, because they have the same width at the nut).
The Jaguar also feels “fast,” which I think is down to the flatter radius and (possibly) slightly lower action. It feels great for single note lines, but not quite as comfortable as the 9.5" radius on the Duo-Sonic for things like bar chords.
The guitars sound quite different. The Jaguar’s pickups are quite a bit hotter. I’d say the Jaguar has “modern voiced” pickups and the Duo-Sonic is more “vintage voiced”. I’d compare the Jaguar’s pickups to Seymour-Duncan JBs – in that ballpark, anyway. Quite good for gain. They’re also quite a bit darker, compared to the Duo-Sonic. I crank the Presence knob on the Marshall with these. You also have the coil splitting and series/parallel switches on the Jaguar. I haven’t played with those much, but I did notice that series/parallel added some brightness in one of the settings (not sure which, I was just goofing around). I’d say the coil split tones on the Jaguar are okay, but not stellar. Although in fairness I really haven’t had a chance to delve into that yet, and the multiple switches give you a ton of options to try out. And just to be clear, the driven tone with the Jaguar humbuckers and the Marshall sounds really good.
As I mentioned, the Duo-Sonic has a less modern and more classic tone, to my ears. And I think its single coil tones sound better than the Jaguar. That should be obvious for the Duo-Sonic’s neck pickup, which is a single coil, but I think it’s also true of the the Duo-Sonic’s humbucker when it is coil split. It’s one of the best split coil humbuckers that I’ve heard, as far as its single coil sound goes. The Duo-Sonic has a very nice balance to its two pickups, in general.
Oo very nice, hmm that Jaguar look like a nice companion to my modded Harley Benton Jazzmaster, a 24” scale length would be nice! Also it’s a good candidate for a Guyker trem like on my Jazzmaster!
Always had a weak spot for offset; 24" feels so great for bluesy and solo stuff.
I always wonder if people get that kind of “aha erlebnis” like I did when I first played 24" after years of being only on 25.5" scale length
That’s why I have a hankering after one, well either that or a Mustang, I like both but by the sound of it I would perhaps like the Jaguar more - must go have a look see
They’re both nice guitars; I’m hard pressed to choose one over the other. I guess I’d probably pick the Jaguar if I had to choose just one. But it kind of depends on your situation and preferences. For me, the Duo-Sonic is good, but I have other guitars that could do similar things. The Contemporary Jaguar with those hot humbuckers and 12" radius is different from most of my other guitars. I’ve really been enjoying playing it. (And I like its gold+black+chrome looks.)
Try 'em both and see what you like. (The Mustang with P90s is what got me into the 24" scale guitars.)
