Rare Original Fiesta Red Jazzmaster

This great surfing guitar weighs just 8.00 lbs. and has a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, maple neck, and rosewood veneer fretboard with 21 wide frets and clay dot position markers. Headstock with matching "Fiesta Red" and decal headstock logo with "Fender" in gold with black trim, "Jazzmaster" and "Offset Contour Body Pat. Pending" in black, and "With Synchronized Floating Tremolo" and six patent numbers in black in three lines below. Single "butterfly" string tree. Individual Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. Two large white rectangular six-polepiece pickups with outputs of 6.53k and 7.85k. Three-layer (white/black/white) celluloid 'green' pickguard. Two controls (master volume, master tone) with white plastic knobs plus three-way selector switch and jack socket on the treble side of the pickguard, two roller knobs (volume, tone) plus two-way slide switch on the bass side of the pickguard. Jazzmaster bridge and integrated tailpiece and tremolo. Inside the guitar, the solder joints are untouched, as is all of the wiring, and as are all of the small pieces of white tape used by the original assembler. The pots are dated "1376419" (CTS nineteenth week of 1964) and "3046450" (Stackpole fiftieth week of 1964), and the neck has is stamped "4NOV64B". With the original bridge cover and tremolo arm. A wonderful guitar, extremely rare in this color and in exceptionally fine and totally original condition apart from the minutest amount of belt buckle scarring (which you can hardly see), a small area of surface loss on the side of the bass bout and a few very small and insignificant chips or marks on the sides. There are two tiny chips on the top and a few equally small ones on the bottom of the guitar. We have been super critical about the condition of this extremely rare color, the Fiesta Red on this guitar is totally unfaded. Shipped to Australia when new this wonderful example is housed in its original brown and beige hardshell case with green plush lining. On the outside is the Fender silver logo, and on the inside is a label with "W.H. Stamford & Sons, PTY. Ltd. Australian made. Apart from some surface loss to the top of the case it is in excellent condition (8.75).

"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.