Easily the best of all humbucker-equipped Jaguars, the Classic Player HH is an excellent guitar. To start with, the offset body and short scale of any Jag makes for comfortable play while sitting and ease of use for those with smaller hands.

Don't let the name 'Classic Player' fool you, the HH is a thoroughly updated iteration of the venerable Jaguar, although it may look similar. Intent on keeping the vintage look, Fender put some serious thought into how best to utilize the old control layout with the new humbucking pickups. Its a little hard to explain, but on old-school Jags, at any time, half of the controls are non-functional; which half is dependent on the position of the rhythm/lead switch. On the CP HH, Fender dumped the rhythm circuit and made all the controls active all the time by completely rerouting the controls on the upper horn. The rollers coil-split each humbucker. The switch that was once used to swap between circuits is now a killswitch. Finally, on the lower horn, the high-cut switch is now a low-cut switch to take the edge off the bass and give back some of that vintage jangle. These changes vastly improve the ability for the player to shape the guitar's sound, just take care to avoid striking the controls on the lower horn while strumming.

The humbuckers themselves, Fender Enforcers, give off a crisp, well-defined roar. They are great for chording and can be thinned out using the new coil-splitting controls to simulate the clarity of single-coils for solos. A reverberation caused by all the metal and springs in the tremolo assembly makes the Classic Player HH sound brighter than most humbucker-equipped guitars I've played.

If you plan on using the tremolo bar, you may have a problem with the bridge. The new Adjust-o-matic bridge isn't well suited to trem use as it doesn't allow the wound strings to slide easily, but it has done wonders for tuning stability under hard playing. The tremolo plate has been moved half an inch closer to the neck to increase string tension across the bridge, improving sustain. Personally, I wish Fender had kept the floating bridge, but swapped out the old saddles for the type found on their Mustangs.

A few other minor issues: The functionality of a bullet-style headstock instead of the Classic Player's old-school truss rod adjustment at the base of the neck would have been nice. The Jaguar Special Edition had a bullet-style before the CP's release, so why they went back to the vintage version is beyond me. Also present on on the SE, but lacking on the CP, is a matching headstock. Granted it wouldn't be available on the Sunburst model anyway, but it would have looked gorgeous on the Olympic White.

This is a fantastic guitar, capable of a range of subtle to ferocious play worthy of the name Jaguar.

oninoyakamo owns this item

I got this guitar about 2 months ago and it plays great , it sounds really good and the neck fits really nicely in my hand. It has very nice features on it with lots of buttons that can make the sound of the guitar sound very bright or thick/warm. The only downside for me is that it is kind of heavy but thats very minor and forgivable , its just not very fun to carry around when you travel lots , This guitar 9/10 , great for the money

DonutMaster owns this item

Bought this fine item a month or so ago and I am extremely happy with it. I'm a heavy rock/metal player mostly but I was amazed at the tonal capabilities/versatility of this guitar, the cleans are really really sweet on this beauty and it can get heavy and dirty with the best of them. Not extremely *brootalz* but easily has the capability to pull of a good metallica/pantera sound with the right amp. You'll probably find yourself busting out a hell of a lot of Nirvana numbers when you play it though!!!!

My main gripe if you will is the fact that this is an £800 - £1000 axe and the bridge rings terribly when not plugged in and can get noticable if you dont play behind a wall of gain when ampped. Now i know that Jaguars are renowned for this to the point that the problem is known as Jaguar Ring but i feel Fender could quite easily address this problem that has been well documented for years all over the internet, it could be the difference maker if you let it get to you.

Other than that, it's an awesome guitar and i would gladly buy again- ringing bridge or not. I would also recommend to anyone in the market for one.

Jagstangdemon owns this item

Real nice guitar, plays and sounds great. The only problem for me is the kill-switch, wich for me is unusable. On the otherside, the coil-splitting is really usable, you can get many sounds out of one guitar, if you want. Or just one great sound. The short scale is getting more comfortable to me.

I'm very pleased with my guitar, it sounds and feels great and does what it's supposed to do.

dfolkeringa owns this item

i picked up this guy about a year ago cause i was looking for a guitar with humbuckers and have always loved the jag body style. it was a little rough to play at first, but a good setup solved that problem. i still have a little trouble keeping it in tune, but had a similar problem with a jaguar in the past. it's a high quality guitar for the price, and you can't beat the adjustability of the sound with the coil tapping and kill switch.

toothysaw2 owns this item

Fit and finish of my guitar is perfect. I'm in love with the olympic white color. So much so I ordered an acoustic Sonoran to match my Jaguar. I really like the blend knobs for Hum canceling. If I had one criticism with this guitar it would be the lack of the bridge string mute like on an original version. That said I really like the components on this guitar. The chrome control plates and trem assembly really pop. The guitar has a great feel, and while it is large enough it doesn't fit in a start/tele case, to me the body doesn't feel big or cumbersome in any way. Overall I am very pleased. Versatile tone for a variety of musical genres. She's a keeper.

mojocaster owns this item