An All Original Pre CBS Candy Apple Red Jazzmaster

This great surfing guitar weighs just 8.10 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece 'flamed' maple neck, and (un-bound) rosewood veneer fretboard with 21 original medium-to-thin frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Large headstock with matching Candy Apple Red finish and decal with "Fender" logo in gold with black trim, "Jazzmaster" in black beside it, and "With Synchronized Floating Tremolo" and five 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 "4 JUL 65B." Individual dual-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons (stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No." Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "L65544" between the top two screws. Two grey-bottom Jazzmaster pickups (large white rectangular six-polepiece pickups dated on the underside "10-14-65" and 10-15-65") with outputs of 8.03k and 7.79k. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6419" and "137 6519" (CTS May 1964 and May 1965). 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. Complete with the original tremolo arm. There is some fine finish checking, especially on the headstock face where there are a few small surface chips. There are two small areas on the treble bout edge where the finish is chipped away - the largest being just under 2 x 1/2 inch. There are a few other small marks / indentations on the body and the varnish on the back of the neck is mostly worn away. With all that said this all original great surfing guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition and plays and sounds amazingly. Housed in the original Fender three-latch rectangular black hardshell case with black leather ends and dark orange plush lining (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.