The Fender Jag-Stang

To:  The Fender Company

When Kurt Cobain designed the Fender "Jag-Stang", he did it because he wanted a quality left-handed guitar that suited his needs. He was left-handed and thus knew the difficulty of trying to find a decent left-handed guitar. In 1993, he cut up a picture of a Fender Jaguar and a picture of a Fender Mustang and put them together to create one unforgettable and distinct guitar. He showed Fender Company his drawings for this left-handed cross between a Fender Jaguar and a Fender Mustang, thus creating a Jag-Stang. Fender made him two of these guitars and later they made some for the public, in both left- and right-handed design. Fender stopped production of the Jag-Stang in 2001 and now, in summer of 2003, they have reissued this wonderful guitar. This is brilliant news for anyone out there who is looking for a really great guitar.
From Fender.com - a description of the Jag-Stang:

And, in the end – what transpired was an amazing guitar featuring a basswood body and a 24” short-scale maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard.
The Jag-Stang® guitar’s tones come courtesy of one humbucker (bridge), a vintage-style single -coil (neck) and a Fender® floating vibrato. The Jag-Stang comes complete with three-position slide on/off phase switch (neck pickup), three position slide on/off switch (bridge pickup) and its own gig bag. Rewrite your own chapter in musical history! Available in Fiesta Red (40) and Sonic Blue (72).

HOWEVER, when Fender re-released the Jag-Stang, they only re-released the right-handed model, completely leaving out the left-handed people in the world who would like a decent electric guitar. Left-handed people face challenges everyday, such as the difficulty of writing next to the binder on a notebook. Had left-handed people designed notebooks, the binder would be on the right hand side. The mouse on a computer is preset for left-click, and they are always set to the right of the computer which is extremely inconvenient for left-handed people who must move their mouse and reset the configuration of the buttons. While none of these things may seem exactly terrible and they in no way make a "lefty's" life miserable, they add up. All of these things cause such frustration! So we are doomed to frustration when completing menial tasks, and now we are denied the marvelous Jag-Stang!
It is one thing not to create a guitar in both left- and right-handed form, but it is completely another to take a guitar that was originally meant ONLY for a left-handed person and then turn around and make it available for only right-handed people! I am sure that Kurt Cobain would be terribly unhappy with this situation, as he designed the left-handed Jag-Stang for himself, so that he could have a magnificent left-handed guitar. He knew they were hard to find! Then there was one, and it was taken away from us. While the denial of this guitar may not seem like a very big deal to some people, to other people it means the world. Kurt Cobain wanted a good left-handed guitar, and he got one. He got his guitars. That doesn't mean there aren't still people in the world who would like to own a Jag-Stang. People who are not fans of Kurt Cobain still find this to be an exemplary guitar. Even people who are right-handed can sympathize with left-handed people and their desire for a Jag-Stang. This is practically prejudice. To make one design and not another, to deny a group of people something simply because they are the minority, is UNEXCEPTABLE. Fender should realize that what they are doing is wrong. Simply wrong! Please consider this.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The The Fender Jag-Stang Petition to The Fender Company was created by and written by Katherine Bieber.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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