Johnny Marr doesn’t remember a time without a guitar. From the toy one he picked up at five to a proper instrument a few years later, it’s been a constant ever since. Late nights in his bedroom or his parents’ room in Manchester, tracing melodies, recording on tape machines, layering riffs. Bowie, Blondie, The Byrds, Nile Rodgers – those were the blueprints. There were no YouTube tutorials or shortcuts, just repetition until the guitar began to answer back. Those early sessions shaped the iconic crystalline reverb that would go on to define The Smiths, transforming a private fixation into something audiences felt, influencing how generations of musicians conceive and shape sound – echoing through his work with Modest Mouse, Gorillaz, Hans Zimmer, and a decade’s worth of solo records.

That same sense of precision and curiosity runs through Marr’s latest collaboration with Fender: the limited-edition Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar, an update of his 2013 model. It’s a player’s guitar, fine-tuned with decades of experience: a flatter fingerboard, an extra pickup, and greater tonal flexibility built for exploration without losing his distinct chime. “My original guitar already did a lot, but with these changes, it now covers even more ground and opens up new sounds,” he says. It’s both an ode to Marr’s craft and an invitation to others. “I’m thinking about my guitar comrades and whether they’re going to like it,” he adds. “It’s not a vanity project.”

J.L. Sirisuk: I want to start with the guitar. Can you recall the moment you realised the guitar would end up being a constant presence in your life?
Johnny Marr: I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have a guitar. That’s the one hundred percent honest answer. I got my first little toy one when I was about five, then a proper one at eight or nine, and it’s been my companion ever since. When you’re that young, it’s all about the love of it, not fame or success. I just thought there was something really beautiful about the guitar. The real magic times were late at night in my bedroom, or in my parents’ room, stealing bits of time to play along with Bowie – Panic in Detroit and Aladdin Sane – or Blondie. I spent many, many hours experimenting. Even now, the guitar has given me amazing milestones, like playing with an orchestra at the Inception premiere. But from the start, I always knew it would be a permanent part of my life.

JLS: You went from that toy guitar to now collaborating with Fender on your Signature Jaguar.
JM: Some artists might be a little bit casual doing a collaboration like this, but I still find it amazing that I’m able to design and modify to my specification something as iconic as the Fender guitar. That kind of blows my mind, but I put a lot of time and energy into my Signature guitars. It’s something I get quite obsessive about and I’ve always got the idea of other musicians of all types in mind when I do it. I’m thinking about my guitar comrades and whether they’re going to like it. It’s not a vanity project.

“You don’t have to want to sound like me, it’s just that what’s useful for me tends to be useful for other musicians.”

JLS: When you were thinking about this new Signature model, how did you want it to become an extension of your own sound?
JM: That was a really big part of it, because my first Signature Fender came out in 2013 after about three or four years of dedication and obsession. I’ve been using that original Jaguar for over a decade now, pretty much exclusively live and when I’m collaborating, because it’s got that perfect sound that’s become associated with me. The new one, the Signature Special, is a development of that. I got to the point where I wanted to do more, to reach a little further, and that pleases me because it means I’m still progressing. I thought a lot about other guitar players too, whether they’re indie rock or more straight-up rock musicians. I changed the radius of the fingerboard so it’s a bit flatter – better for soloing – and added another pickup for more variety. It gives you the option to be a little more aggressive, a little more rock, whilst still keeping everything that made the original Jaguar what it was. You don’t have to want to sound like me, it’s just that what’s useful for me tends to be useful for other musicians. My original guitar already did a lot, but with these changes it now covers even more ground and opens up new sounds.

JLS: Looking back at your earliest recording from before The Smiths, before you were playing gigs – what do you think has changed the most in how you approach your playing?
JM: As a fan of music, and a listener, I kind of prefer the sound that records and guitar bands were getting in the early 80s, because much like the culture, everything now feels a bit pumped for me. There’s not as much space in the music. I’m known for layering a lot of guitars, and I’ve made records with fourteen or fifteen tracks on them, but that goes back to my bedroom before The Smiths, experimenting with tape machines and doubling parts. The technology’s changed massively since then. I love it – I’m terrible for buying pedals, but it’s also become so portable and affordable that you can get option fatigue. It’s like scrolling through too many shows on your TV; there’s so much choice that it can start to dull the quality. I think that’s true in art too. You’ve got to make sure the technology serves you, not the other way around. At this stage, I know what I’m good at. I’m lucky to have an identifiable sound, and I just try to be melodic, a bit unconventional, and authentic. My recent collaborations with Gorillaz and Franz Ferdinand, let me do what I do with just one guitar, across very different styles. So that’s where I’m at now: keeping it simple, keeping it me, and letting the song lead rather than the gear.

“I’m hoping this next record is the start of the next long chapter.”

JLS: Looking ahead, are there any different areas you’d like to explore? Anything you haven’t tried yet that you’re thinking about?
JM: I’ve got a collection of new songs, and we’ve been playing some of them on tour in America recently. It’s quite unusual, particularly these days, to be playing nine new songs. My band are kind of getting a little pissed off because I keep asking them to learn more, but I’ve been around long enough to know that’s a really good sign, when the songwriter in the band keeps bringing in new songs. It’s been about three or four years since the last collection, and that’s just the way it goes these days. I’m hoping this next record is the start of the next long chapter. That’s the way it feels. Me and my band have been together for about twelve years now, and it feels like we’re moving into a new phase. It isn’t just about this record, it’s a long-term thing. I still see Hans quite a bit, I hang out with him a lot, and me and Nile Rodgers have been talking about doing something together, so I’d quite like to do that. That’d be good.

Shop the Johnny Marr Signature Special Jaguar here.