Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar vs. Special
 

I'm planning to buy a Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar bass and i'm choosing between the jag with sd and jag special.
Any thoughts about this?


The black version of this has agathis body, I'm not sure if this has agathis body also. Stacked pots for Vol Tone for each pickup.


It has basswood body. Has active bass boost that make it active.

They have $40 difference so I'm taking my time on choosing what bass to purchase.

Any thoughts about this?

FWIW the Special only sounds good if you employ the bass tone boost (the active bit) otherwise the pickups are quite bad. It can sound good, but it needs that crutch. The other model has nice pickups in their own right.

Not sure how long the sale lasts, the normal difference in price is $100.

Edit: don't knock on Agathis, some very nice sounding instruments can be made from it, I would personally put it above some of the really soft basswods and poplars out there.

Thanks for your input. The Jag with SD is only 239.99 right now on mostly sellers at ebay and amazon.com
I read a review on the concentric pot issue of the SD Jag. Do you have same observation?

I have not played one outside of a music store so i can't comment.

Are you seeing the non-special in colors other than the black at Amazon and eBay? I thought the Candy Red and Sunburst were GC/MF ( and associated web names) only.

Well, as sometimes explained along the posts, I'm one among the agathis detractors...
 

What FourBanger tells is partially true in this sense:
agathis can be on par with poplar and very hardly compares basswood.

But just like that:
agathis is a hard wood off pine family (in this case, havin' pine in China - see Squier Classic Vibe butterscotch '50s Precision - agathis is, from Indonesia, where Vintage Modified Squier are manufactured, the Indo pine) it can be clearly resonant yet poor in fundamental so, employed in entry level/beginner instruments, where the kid's just startin' to learn, with no band
in sight yet, he/she can experiment a brilliant timber whenever
playin' in a shop or at bedroom practicin'. Furthermore, learnin' to improve side by side his/her skills and bass performance, agathis is hard enough to allow drillin', chamberin', moddin', etc

Basswood is less clearly resonant but, still with not so much fundamemtal, has a much more distinctive edge so, even if sometimes a bit "nosy", cuts thru and sits better in the mix. So if he/she are good to go for band rehearsals/gigs, they won't be disappointed with their tone together with other band members. Yes, basswood it's soft, so sometimes lighter than agathis and generally not so forgivin' before drillin' and moddin'

Back to basses from Op, I never came across a stacked knob 3TS Squier Jaguar, only full black are available over here. Yet I once owned a crimson red Jaguar Special (because no 3TS was available back in the day) especially for its basswood body, and it sounded huge. Yes Duncan Designed (pay attention here: no original Seymour Duncan's, just cheap reproductions) are way hotter than Special's with phatboost rolled off. But if you'd like a passive P/J Jaguar, with a few bucks more you can achieve a MIC Fender Modern Player Jaguar, assembled in the Squier Classic Vibe facility and with perfect fit and finish

Cheers,
Wallace

I got the VM Jaguar Special today.

I like the P pickup but the jazz pickup is thin sounding.

I took off one of the Duncan Design jazz pickup from my beat up VM jazz 77' and put it on the Jaguar.

I didn't had much time to play it yet... Tomorrow! (can't wait...)

The regular one is well worth $40 more.

I agree with you.