A 1965 Lake Placid Blue Jazzmaster.

1965 Fender Jazzmaster.

This great surfing guitar weighs just 8.00 lbs. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a very fast thin-to-medium profile.Veneer rosewood fretboard with 21 original medium frets, inlaid pearl dot position markers and pearloid side position markers. Headstock with matching Lake Placid Blue finish and 'transitional' decal with "Fender" 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 65 B." Individual dual-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons, each one stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No." Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "L87781" between the top two screws. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6451" (CTS December 1964). Three-layer white over black 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 ribbed sides and metal tops. Jazzmaster bridge and integrated tailpiece and tremolo. At some time a previous owner had fitted an additional string-tree between the G & D strings - this has now been removed and is included in the case. There is some light finish checking and several medium sized surface chips, mainly on the edges. The Lake Placid Blue finish is totally unfaded. Overall this guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition. Complete with the original tremolo arm, black leather guitar strap, gray guitar cord and an original set of Fender 'Electric Spanish Guitar' strings. Housed in the original Fender three-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.