A Dakota Red Jazzmaster

This great surfing guitar weighs just 8.10 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, and bound rosewood veneer fretboard with 21 wide frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. Large headstock with matching Dakota 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 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 "13 JUN 66B." The word "show" is also written on the underside of the neck in green ink together with the number "22," which is written in pencil. The word "show" is also written in red ink in the neck pocket. Individual dual-line Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. Fender "F" series four-bolt neck plate with serial number ("145613") between the top two screws. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6612" (CTS March 1966) and "304 6530" (Stackpole July 1965). The initials "ES" are stamped on the body between the two pickups. 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. With the original chrome bridge cover. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition. There is a minimal amount of belt buckle rash on the back of the guitar (but nothing through the surface), some very fine checking on the top of the body and on the back of the headstock, and one tiny chip (about the size of a match head) on the bottom edge of the guitar. The Dakota Red finish on this guitar is original and totally unfaded. Housed in the original Fender black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.00). We believe that the word "show" means that this guitar was probably made for the 1966 NAMM show. We have been unable to identify the initials "ES."

"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.