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The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar that was first introduced at the 1958 NAMM show and was designed as a more upmarket instrument than the Fender Stratocaster, which was originally to replace the current Telecaster model. As its name indicates, it was initially marketed at jazz guitarists. It was later used by surf rock guitarists and, more recently, alternative rock artists. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... It has been suggested that Fender Amplifier History be merged into this article or section. ... Jan. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Species About 20-30 species, see text. ... For other uses, see Maple (disambiguation). ... Rosewood refers to a number of richly hued timbers, brownish with darker veining. ... A tremolo arm, tremolo bar, vibrato bar, whammy bar, or wang bar is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the tailpiece of an electric guitar or archtop guitar to enable the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch... Three magnetic pickups on an electric guitar. ... This image shows three single coil pickups on a Stratocaster guitar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... It has been suggested that Fender Amplifier History be merged into this article or section. ... An electric guitar An electric guitar is a type of guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into electrical current, which is then amplified. ... The NAMM (National Association of Musical Merchants) Show is the largest musical trade show in the world. ... A Fender Stratocaster with rosewood fingerboard and three-tone sunburst finish. ... 1950s-style Telecaster with natural finish, with metal bridge cover removed. ... In the early 1960s, one of the most popular forms of rock and roll was surf rock. ... Alternative music redirects here. ...

Features

The contoured "offset-waist" body was designed for comfort while playing the guitar in a seated position, as many jazz and blues artists prefer to do. A full 25-1/2” scale length, lead and rhythm circuit switching with independent volume and tone controls, and a floating tremolo with tremolo lock, were other keys to the Jazzmaster's character. The tremolo lock can be manually activated to keep the entire guitar from going out of tune if one string breaks. The Jazzmaster also had an extra-long tremolo arm to facilitate note-bending. The body is larger than that of other Fender guitars, necessitating a more spacious guitar case. The Jazzmaster had unique wide, white "soapbar" pickups that were unlike any other single coil. The coil is wound flat and wide, in contrast to Fender's usual tall and thin coils. This gives them a warmer tone without losing their single coil clarity. The Jazzmaster has a mellower, jazzier tone than the Strat, although it wasn't embraced by jazz musicians. (Joe Pass, however, used one during his stay at Synanon.) Instead, rock guitarists used the instrument, especially for surf rock. The Ventures and The Fireballs were prominent Jazzmaster users. Fender then recognized the need for a purpose-designed surf-guitar, and introduced the 24" scale Fender Jaguar, with chrome decorations and more Strat-like pickups. The main aspect that deterred jazz players was the Jazzmaster's tendency to produce feedback, especially if the body cavity were left without magnetic shielding. More experimentally-minded rock artists like Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine later embraced this as a new way to color their music. The Jazzmaster was also the first Fender guitar carrying a separate rosewood fingerboard with clay dot position inlays glued into a 2-piece maple neck and a 4-ply brown tortoise shell pickguard, although from 1958 to mid 1959 they came with a 1-ply gold anodized pickguard. Some early pre-production/prototype examples came with a 1-piece maple neck and/or a black painted aluminum pickguard. Rosewood became a standard fretboard material on other Fender models around 1959. Binding was added to the Jazzmaster fretboard in 1965, and in 1966 the dot markings were replaced by pearloid blocks. An optional maple fingerboard with black binding and block inlays (black and painted, unlike the pearl inlays previously used) was briefly offered in the mid-1970s. The Jazzmaster was discontinued in 1980 and re-introduced in 1986 as a 1962 reissue model from Fender's Japanese factory. The American Vintage Series version has been introduced in 1999. A tremolo arm, tremolo bar, vibrato bar, whammy bar, or wang bar is a lever attached to the bridge and/or the tailpiece of an electric guitar or archtop guitar to enable the player to quickly vary the tension and sometimes the length of the strings temporarily, changing the pitch... Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Passalaqua, January 13, 1929, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, died May 23, 1994, Los Angeles, California), was a jazz guitarist. ... Synanon was initially a drug rehabilitation program founded by Charles Dederich Sr. ... In the early 1960s, one of the most popular forms of rock and roll was surf rock. ... Walk Dont Run (1960) The Ventures are a rock instrumental band formed in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle, two Seattle masonry workers. ... The Fireballs, sometimes billed as Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs, were an American rock and roll group of the 1950s and 1960s. ... The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar that was introduced in 1962. ... Audio feedback (also known as the Larsen effect after the Danish scientist, Søren Larsen, who first discovered its principles) is a special kind of feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for example... Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band formed in New York City in 1981. ... This article is about the music group. ...

Influence

Jazzmasters, along with Jaguars and countless other models, fell out of fashion among players during the 1970s. Fender continued to offer the Jazzmaster as part of its product line until 1980, however many collectors believe actual production ceased around 1976, with guitars sold after that period representing unsold inventory. Due to the unwanted, pawn-shop status of the guitars, upstart musicians were able to purchase the instruments very cheaply, securing the quality (albeit 'old-fashioned') guitars for little money. Just as Fender discontinued the Jazzmaster Tom Verlaine of Television, and Elvis Costello started giving the guitar a cult following. Thus, they were later embraced by the American grunge and indie rock scene. Sonic Youth are notorious for their hoarding of Jazzmasters while they were still affordable, and for their unique customization jobs (e.g. Lee Ranaldo's "Jazzblaster" with Telecaster Deluxe pickups). S.Y. were also famous for playing on the strings below the bridge (near the tailpiece) to get church-bell-like tones; this is sometimes referred to as 3rd Bridge technique. Ranaldo even has a pickup mounted in this unorthodox position on one of his guitars. Sonic Youth had nine Jazzmasters stolen from them in July 1999, along with dozens of other items. Robert Smith of The Cure used two Jazzmasters (which he named Black Torty & White Torty) for the majority of his band's work. J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr is a noted Jazzmaster icon, and as of 2007 Fender produces a signature J Mascis Jazzmaster model. The Jazzmaster continues to have a cultlike following in the "shoegaze"/ "dream pop" community. Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine used them as his main guitars, and bandmate Bilinda Butcher used them in addition to her Jaguars. A closeup picture of a Jazzmaster is featured as the cover of their critically-acclaimed album, Loveless (1991). One is also used as the cover of Band of Susans' Blessing And Curse EP (1987). Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies used a reissued Jazzmaster during the period of the band's second album, Maybe You Should Drive, and still occasionally uses it in studio. Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1976 Pick up sticks(MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tom Verlaine (born Thomas Miller, December 13, 1949, in Morristown, New Jersey)[1] is a singer, songwriter and guitarist, best-known as the frontman for the New York rock band, Television. ... Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick McManus August 25, 1954) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter. ... Grunge music (sometimes also referred to as the Seattle Sound) is an independent-rooted music genre that became a commercially successful offshoot of hardcore punk, thrash metal, and alternative rock in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music often used to refer to bands that are on small independent record labels or that arent on labels at all. ... Lee Ranaldo at Ilosaarirock 2003 Lee Ranaldo (b. ... The Fender Telecaster Deluxe is a solid-body electric guitar originally produced from 1972 to 1981, and since re-issued by Fender in 2004 as the 72 Telecaster Deluxe. ... In 2006 luthier Yuri Landman built the Moodswinger, a 12 string overtone guitar for Aaron Hemphill of the noiseband Liars The 3rd bridge guitar is an electric prepared guitar with an additional 3rd bridge. ... This article is about the band. ... J Mascis (born Joseph Donald Mascis on December 10, 1965) is an American musician, best-known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for Dinosaur Jr, though he also has been an occasional producer and film composer. ... Dinosaur Jr is an American alternative rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1983 as Dinosaur. ... Shoegazing is a style of music that emerged in Britain in the late 1980s. ... Kevin Shields (born Queens, New York City, USA on May 21, 1963) is a singer, guitarist, and producer who fronted the London-based band My Bloody Valentine in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... This article is about the music group. ... Loveless is the second studio album by the Irish alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. ... Band of Susans is a band formed in New York in 1986 by Robert Poss (guitar/vocals), Susan Stenger (bass/vocals) and Ron Spitzer (drums) with Susan Lyall (guitar), Susan Tallman (guitar) and Alva Rogers (vocals). ... Steven Page, 2005 Steven Jay Page (born June 22, 1970 in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada), is a Canadian musician. ... Barenaked Ladies (often abbreviated BNL or occasionally BnL) is a Canadian alternative rock band currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Steven Page, Ed Robertson, Tyler Stewart, and formerly Andy Creeggan. ... Maybe You Should Drive was the second full-length album by Barenaked Ladies. ...

Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo favors a Jazzmaster as well as other vintage Fender guitars, often playing behind-the-back solos in concert. Nels Cline, solo artist and current (2007) lead guitarist of Wilco, has also used the Jazzmaster as his main guitar for decades. Jazzmasters are popular with many other alternative and indie rock bands - Jesse Lacey of Brand New, Adam Franklin of Swervedriver, Emma Anderson of Lush, Mave Hinricks of For Against, Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips, Nick Salomon of The Bevis Frond, James Baluyut of Versus and +/-, Russell Senior of Pulp, Takaakira "Taka" Goto of Mono, Sune Rose Wagner of The Raveonettes, Tim Gane and Mary Hansen of Stereolab, Jason Martin of Starflyer 59, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Aaron North of Nine Inch Nails and Mike Einziger of Incubus all have used Jazzmasters. Yo La Tengo is an American indie rock band, based in Hoboken, New Jersey. ... Nels and his Jazzmaster. ... This article is about the music group. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Brand New (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Lush was an English shoegazing band, formed in 1988. ... // For Against are a United States post-punk/proto-shoegaze rock band from Lincoln, Nebraska. ... The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are an American alternative rock band. ... The Bevis Frond is a British musical group whose range covers hard edge to melancholy vintage indie rock to poetic, classic-rock songcraft with a thick Walthamstow accent. ... Versus is a New York City band which was formed in 1990 by Richard Baluyut, Fontaine Toups and Robert Hale. ... +/-, or Plus/Minus, is an American electronic indie band formed by James Baluyut and Patrick Ramos from the band Versus and joined by Chris Deaner. ... Pulp were a rock band, formed in Sheffield, England in 1978, by then 15-year-old school boy Jarvis Cocker (vocals, guitar). ... The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Stereolab are an English alternative music band formed in 1990 in London. ... For the Japanese airline see StarFlyer. ... Radiohead are an English rock band. ... Aaron Wright North, (born March 22, 1979), is an ex-member of the punk band The Icarus Line and current guitarist for Nine Inch Nails 2005-2006 With Teeth world tour. ... NIN redirects here. ... Incubus is a five-piece American alternative rock band based out of Calabasas, California. ...

Ric Ocasek of The Cars played a distinctive pink 1974 model. Jimi Hendrix regularly played a Jazzmaster in blues bands before becoming famous, and on his hit "Fire"; this guitar is now owned by actor Steven Seagal. The Cars were an American New Wave band, one of the most popular to emerge out of the early punk scene in the late 1970s. ... Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitar virtuoso, singer and songwriter. ... Steven Seagal (born April 10, 1952) is an American action movie actor, producer, writer, director, martial artist, singer-songwriter, and activist. ...

In 1958-1959 Leo Fender sent a white Jazzmaster to Luther Perkins (Johnny Cash's lead guitar player) who used it for about 2 or 3 years. Image:Leo Fender tinkering. ... Luther Monroe Perkins (January 8, 1928 – August 5, 1968) was an American country music guitarist renowned for his work with Johnny Cash and their boom-chicka rhythmic style. ... For the song of the same name, recorded by Tracy Byrd and later by Jason Aldean, see Johnny Cash (song). ...

Imitation

With the increasing popularity of old Jazzmasters, and the prices of old Telecasters and Stratocasters soaring out of sight in the 1980s, Jazzmasters became highly valuable. Thefts of vintage Jazzmasters from Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, and The Raveonettes in recent years illustrate this. There are a wide array of budget-priced overseas Jazzmaster imitations, particularly from the 1960s and '70s. Dillion, Yamaha, Framus, Aria, Jansen, Harmony, National, and Demel are some of the companies who indulged, mainly to capitalize on the surf rock sound of the 1960s, and equally the alternative rock trend of the 1990s. Fender eventually got the offset-waist body shape patented. Fender has sporadically reissued the Jazzmaster during the last 20 years. Its Japanese facility is noted for the high quality of its offset-waist guitars. However, the "M.I.J." Jazzmasters are often criticized for essentially having narrow Stratocaster pickups inside the wide soapbar Jazzmaster housings, thus giving the guitar a Strat/Jaguar "honk" rather than the classic, mellow Jazzmaster sound. Since 1996, its Squier offshoot has manufactured a budget version called the Jagmaster, though its humbucker pickups and stratocaster type bridge give it a much different, "hard rock" sound. In the early 1960s, one of the most popular forms of rock and roll was surf rock. ... Alternative music redirects here. ... The Squier Jagmaster is an electric guitar marketed by the Fender Musical Instruments Company under their Squier budget brand. ... Traditional humbucker pickup, uncovered A conventional humbucker (or Humbucking pickup) is a type of electric guitar pickup that uses two coils, both generating string signal. ... A Fender Stratocaster with rosewood fingerboard and three-tone sunburst finish. ...

Improvement

Many guitar players find fault with the design of the original Jazzmaster bridge, which features saddles that have many grooves cut into them (similar to screw threads). The idea behind this design was that you could space your strings to best suit your needs. In reality, the strings would jump out of the grooves while playing with any sort of force. As a solution, many Jazzmaster players replace the Jazzmaster bridge with a Fender Mustang bridge, which has one string groove per saddle. A cheaper and equally effective solution is simply to deepen the saddles with a file. More issue is found with the rocking bridge design, which can pivot forward and backward and can occasionally get knocked in one direction or another. This is similar in concept to a modern roller bridge and works well in concept, but many players fix the bridge by wrapping its posts with electrical tape. However, tuning can suffer when the trem is used. The Fender Mustang is an electric guitar by the Fender Musical Instruments Company, introduced in 1964 as the basis of a major redesign of Fenders student models then consisting of the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. ...

Another common Jazzmaster modification is the addition of a "Buzz Stop," a bar that mounts above the tremolo system and increases the angle of the strings behind the bridge, supposedly increasing sustain while decreasing string buzz (another common problem with the original Jazzmaster bridge). Some, however, claim that such implements are not necessary, forcing the bridge forward on some examples, and the trem can often bind on the buzz stop.

Bridge buzz can be minimized, however, with a good setup. The most effective way is to raise the bridge, which will increase the break-angle of the strings, thus providing more downward force on the bridge. Raising the bridge will increase the 'action' or height of the strings from the fretboard, unless the angle of the neck relative to the body is also changed. Original vintage Fenders were usually sold complete with plastic 'shims' of varying thicknesses, which were designed to be placed between the neck and the body for exactly this purpose. The use of heavier gauge strings (10 gauge and above) also helps to keep a high downward force on the bridge. In the 50s, when the Jazzmaster was introduced, heavy gauge strings were common - the increased popularity of lighter gauges from the 60s to the present day has been attributed to Jimi Hendrix, amongst others. Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American guitar virtuoso, singer and songwriter. ...

Jazzmasters featured bound necks with pearloid inlays from 1966 until the end of their original run in 1977; the headstocks were also larger ("CBS-style") in this era.

Colors

The Jazzmaster is currently produced in the following colors:

• 3-Color Sunburst
• Olympic White
• Black
• Ocean Turquoise
• Surf Green
• Ice Blue Metallic

Their pickguards come in Mint Green or Brown Shell colors. Sunburst is a type of finish for e. ...

They have featured matching headstocks (headstocks painted the same color as the body) at several points, on and off, throughout the guitar's history. Matched-headstock versions generally fetch a higher price and are currently not in production.

In July of 2007, Fender released the J Mascis signature Jazzmaster, in honour of the Dinosaur Jr frontman. This model is much the same as previous Jazzmaster models aside from its Adjust-o-matic bridge (the Fender equivalent of the Gibson Tune-o-matic bridge), and its unusual purple sparkle finish. It is currently the only model of Jazzmaster in production with a matching headstock, and the only Jazzmaster model produced for a signature guitarist.^[1] J Mascis (born Joseph Donald Mascis on December 10, 1965) is an American musician, best-known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for Dinosaur Jr, though he also has been an occasional producer and film composer. ... Dinosaur Jr is an American alternative rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1983 as Dinosaur. ... // Gibson may refer to: Gibson Amphitheatre Gibson Appliance Gibson Girl Gibson Guitar Corporation Gibson cocktail Alexander Gibson (conductor) (1926–1995), Scottish composer and music director Alexander Gibson (industrialist) (1819–1913), Canadian industrialist Alfred Gibson (?–1874), Australian explorer Althea Gibson (1927–2003), African-American tennis player Bob Gibson (born 1935), American... Typical Tune-o-matic bridge with stopbar Tune-o-matic (also abbreviated to TOM) is a fixed bridge for electric guitars, designed by Gibson and introduced in 1954 in Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar. ...

References

It has been suggested that Fender Amplifier History be merged into this article or section. ...

External links

• The Higher Evolution Of Offset Waist Guitars
• Jim Shine's Jazzmaster site on the evolution of the guitar from prototype stages through the minor tweaks in its design
• Offset Guitars A discussion forum dedicated to Fender Jazzmasters and other offset-waist guitars
• Guitar rigs of noteworthy Jazzmaster users at GuitarGeek