Early Sixties 'Slab-Board' Olympic White Jazzmaster


This forty-nine year old 'lightweight' Olympic White "slab board" Jazzmaster with matching headstock weighs just 7.90 lbs. and has a nice comfortable nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, maple neck with a medium-to-thin profile, slab rosewood fretboard with 21 original thin frets and inlaid clay dot position markers. 'Spaghetti' headstock logo with "Fender" in gold with black trim, "Jazzmaster" and "Offset Contour Body Pat. Pending" in black, and "With Synchronized Floating Tremolo" in black below and four patent numbers and a design number. Single "butterfly" string tree with large metal spacer. Individual 'single-line' Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons and "D-169400 PATENT NO." stamped on the inside. Two Jazzmaster pickups (large white rectangular six-polepiece pickups) with very strong and balanced outputs of 8.34k and 8.32k. Four-layer (tortoiseshell/white/black/white) celluloid pickguard with thirteen screws. Serial number "75408" on neck-plate. Two controls (master volume, master tone) with white plastic knobs and gold lettering and numerals, plus three-way selector switch and jack socket on the treble side of the pickguard, two roller knobs (volume and tone) plus two-way slide switch on the bass side of the pickguard. Jazzmaster bridge and integrated tailpiece and tremolo, The neck is stamped "4 MAR 62B". The pots are dated "304 6237" (Stackpole, September 1962). Complete with it's original tremolo arm. There are small areas of finish loss on the top-edge of the bass and on the treble and bass 'bout' sides. There are a few other small surface marks on the body and some varnish loss on the back of the neck, but overall this totally original forty-nine year old custom color Jazzmaster with matching headstock is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Housed in its original three-latch rectangular Fender light brown Tolex case with brown leather ends and orange plush lining (9.00).

"The Jazzmaster first appeared in Fender sales material during 1958, and at some $50 more than the Strat it became the new top-of-the-line model... Immediately striking to the electric guitarist of 1958 was the Jazzmaster's unusual offset-waist body shape...For the first time on a Fender, the Jazzmaster featured a separate rosewood fingerboard glued to the customary maple neck... The Jazzmaster's floating vibrato system was new, too, and had a tricky 'lock-off' facility aimed at preventing tuning problems if a string should break. The controls were certainly elaborate for the time…A small slide-switch selected between two individual circuits, offering player-preset rhythm and lead sounds. The idea was a good one: the ability to set up a rhythm sound and a lead sound, and switch between them. But the system seemed over-complicated to players brought up on straightforward volume and tone controls. The sound of the Jazzmaster was richer and warmer than players were used to from Fender. The name Jazzmaster had not been chosen at random, for Fender was aiming this different tone at jazz players, who at the time largely preferred hollowbody electrics, and principally those by Gibson. However, jazz guitarists found little appeal in this new, rather difficult solidbody guitar -- and mainstream Fender players largely stayed with their Stratocasters and Telecasters" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 26). Much to Fender's surprise, however, the Jazzmaster turned into the best surf guitar ever conceived.