Jag Update
I spent Saturday afternoon fiddling about with my new Fender Jaguar. I removed the strings, polished the fret ends, oiled the fretboard, ran a file through the nut slots, restrung with a set of 10s, messed with the bridge height and got it to the point where it should have been straight out of the box.
On Sunday I sorted the intonation out. Having a bridge with a set radius makes sorting the action out such a simple job. Just stick the alley key in, do a quarter turn top and bottom, check the string clearance, rinse and repeat until satisfied. Even the intonation required very little work.
I was reading a forum thread where people were discussing hi-fi snobs and guitar snobs; the sort of people who pay £100 for a cable to connect their turntable to their amp, or who pay over the odds for a guitar body made from a certain wood. There may be no measurable electrical difference between a £100 cable and a £1 cable, but if the user themselves discern a difference in sound quality, then that improved quality is there.
I think that's where I am with this Fender. There are things about it that are actually better than my Squier (tuners & vibrato) because they're made with better materials, but then there's the feeling that the neck has been made with better wood, which really shouldn't be something you can discern - wood is wood and I've also owned Squiers with the same satin finish necks that felt like this.
As with all my guitars I like to put my own choice of scratchplate on. With this white guitar I wanted a white scratchplate or a mint green (very very very pale green), so I sent off for some samples from the top UK scratchplate provider on eBay. Suffice to say, the pure white of the plastic does not match with the white of the body and the cream of the pickups - neither does the mint green. So I'm really leaning towards something colourful like an orange or purple. When that decision is made and the item installed this guitar will be complete.
After the initial "expectations not met" with this Jag, I think I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out.