Under the Bed for Thirty-Eight Years…

This great surfing guitar weighs just 7.60 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 maple neck, and bound rosewood veneer fretboard with 21 frets and inlaid pearloid block position markers. The profile of the neck is quite thick… going from 0.89 inches at the first fret and rising steadily to 0.99 at the fifteenth fret. Large headstock with "Fender" logo in black with gold 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 DEC 71B." Individual Fender "F" tuners with octagonal metal buttons. Fender "F" series four-bolt neck plate with serial number ("346261") between the top two screws. Two Jazzmaster pickups with outputs of 7.67k and 7.48k. The potentiometers are stamped "304 6610" (Stackpole March 1966) and "137 6632" (CTS August 1966). Four-layer (tortoiseshell over white / black / white) celluloid 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. This guitar has been 'under-the-bed' for thirty eight years and is in absolutely mint (9.50) condition. Housed in the original Fender black hardshell case with reddish orange plush lining (9.50). Complete with the original chrome bridge cover, tremolo arm, and case-candy including original (unused) black leather strap, Fender Jazzmaster Instruction Manual, Fender polishing cloth, case key and bridge saddle adjustment tool.

What a perfect gift… a thirty-eight year old Jazzmaster that is still brand new!

"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.