A Near Mint Sonic Blue Jazzmaster
Super Crazy Rare Color

This great surfing guitar weighs just 7.90 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with a medium profile, and bound rosewood veneer fretboard with 21 original medium frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Large headstock with matching Sonic Blue 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 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 large nylon spacer. The neck is stamped "13 SEP 66B." Individual two-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. and "D-169400/Pat No" stamped on the underside. Fender "F" series four-bolt neck plate with serial number "504043" between the top two screws. The potentiometers are stamped "304 6515" (Stackpole, April 1965) and "304 6612" (Stackpole March 1966). 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 and chrome bridge cover. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition. There are a few very small and insignificant surface marks on the back and sides of the body. There is virtually no finish checking. The Sonic Blue finish on this guitar is original and totally unfaded. Housed in the original Fender black hardshell case with 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.