A Near Fine August 1961 'Slab-Board' Fiesta Red Jazzmaster

1961 Fender Jazzmaster

This sixty-one year old Fiesta Red "slab board" Jazzmaster weighs just 8.00 lbs. Solid alder body, contoured on bass side. One-piece maple neck with a comfortable nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and very comfortable medium profile. Brazilian rosewood 'slab' 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 outputs of 8.21k and 8.23k. Four-layer (tortoiseshell/white/black/white) celluloid pickguard with thirteen screws. Serial number "64444" on neck-plate between the top two screws. 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 dated in pencil "8-61". The pots are dated "304 6121" &  "304 6124" (Stackpole, May & June 1961). Complete with it's original tremolo arm and bridge cover. There is some playing wear to the original frets which is mostly confined to the first nine, and some very light varnish loss (playing wear) behind the first three frets, on the back of the neck. There is some light finish checking which is confined to the back of the body. There are two small areas of finish loss on the back of the body and a few other very small areas mainly confined to the edges of the body. Overall this totally original sixty-one year old custom color Jazzmaster is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. The original Fiesta red finish is bright, fresh and totally unfaded. 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.