A Near Mint Lake Placid Blue Jazzmaster.

1966 Fender Jazzmaster.

This great surfing guitar weighs just 7.60 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with a medium profile and a bound rosewood veneer fretboard with 21 original wide frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Large headstock with matching Sonic Blue finish and decal with "Fender" logo in gold with black trim, "Jazzmaster" in black beside it, and "With Synchronized Floating Tremolo" and four patent numbers and one design number in black in three lines below it. "Offset Contour Body Pat. Pending" decal at the ball end of the headstock. Single "butterfly" string tree with nylon spacer. The neck is stamped "13 MAR 66B." Individual dual-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons, each one stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No." Fender "F" series four-bolt neck plate with serial number "145541" between the top two screws. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6518" (CTS May 1966) and "304 6617" (Stackpole April 1966). Three-layer (white/black/white) celluloid pickguard with thirteen screws. Two controls (master volume, master tone) plus three-way pickup selector switch and jack socket on the treble side of the pickguard, two roller knobs (volume, tone) plus two-way circuit selector (rhythm/lead) slide switch on the bass side of the pickguard. White plastic "Witch Hat" knobs with metal tops. Jazzmaster bridge and integrated tailpiece and tremolo. This guitar is in near mint (9.25+) condition. There is a some very fine finish checking on the body and a couple of very small surface chips around the neck plate. The Lake Placid Blue finish on this guitar is totally unfaded - this is one of the finest examples of an LPB Jazzmaster one could ever wish for. Complete with the original tremolo arm and chrome bridge cover. Housed in the original Fender thtree-latch, black rectangular hardshell case with black leather ends and orange plush lining (9.25).

"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.