An All Original 1965 Candy Apple Red Jazzmaster - Leo's Favorite Custom Color

1965 Fender Jazzmaster

This wonderful surfing guitar weighs just 8.10 lbs. and has a contoured solid alder body. One-piece maple neck with a nut width of between 1 5/8 and 1 11/16 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a very comfortable medium profile rising from 0.82 inches behind the first fret to 0.97 inches behind the twelfth fret. 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" 'transition' logo in gold with black trim, "Jazzmaster" in black beside it, and "With Synchronized Floating Tremolo" and the last two of four patent numbers in black below. "Offset Contour Body Pat. Pending" decal at the ball end of the headstock. Single "butterfly" string tree with 'large' nylon spacer. The neck is stamped "4 JUN 65B". Individual double-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons, each stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No." Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "L79609" between the top two screws. Two grey-bottom Jazzmaster pickups with outputs of 7.88k and 8.12k. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6451" and "137 6519" (CTS December 1964 and May 1965). Three-layer white over black plastic 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. There are a few small surface marks on the back and sides of the body. There is some very slight touch-up on the edges of the headstock face, most prominent around the low 'E' tuner bushing and the first two patent numbers of the decal have worn away. There are are few slight and very small small indentations on the back of the neck - most likely from the use of a capo. There is very little fret-wear and almost no wear to the fretboard. This fifty-three year old Jazzmaster is still in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. The Candy Apple Red (over Silver) is as fresh as it was when it left the factory. Complete with the original tremolo arm, bridge cover, original black leather guitar strap, an original? gray guitar cord, and even the original twelve page Fender Jazzmaster Instruction Manual/Hang Tag with matching serial number and price of $250! . Housed in the original Fender three-latch rectangular tan hardshell case with brown leather ends and dark orange plush lining (9.00).

"Candy Apple Red (CAR), first introduced in 1963, was alleged to be Leo's favorite custom color, and hence was a very popular Fender color. It was also a "true" custom color. CAR was not simply a 1960's car color used on guitars. It was an actual custom finished used by Fender and custom paint shops. It was certainly the most difficult color for Fender to apply since it required an additional step of using a metallic base-coat before a translucent red color coat. All other metallic Fender finishes have the color and metallic particles mixed together into a single paint unit. "Candy" colors have a metallic base coat applied first. This is followed by a translucent color coat, and finally by a clear coat. This gives a much deeper metallic look to the finish because the color is not mixed with the metallic sparkles. The metallic particles shine through the translucent color coat instead of being surrounded by the color which stifles their effect. Also by separating the metallic particles and color, larger metallic particles could be used in the base-coat. This also enhanced the metallic effect. Fender typically used a white primer under the metallic base-coat to limit the amount of basecoat needed. The base coat used by Fender was usually silver until 1965/1966, and gold starting some time in 1966. The final finish looks slightly different depending on the color of the base-coat. Gold base-coat makes the CAR look more maroon and turns brownish-red with age. Silver is the much cooler base-coat as the color is more red than maroon and ages better." (http://www.guitarhq.com/fenderc.html)

"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.