The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as a more expensive sibling to the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Show, it was initially marketed to jazz guitarists, but found favour among surf rock guitarists in the early 1960s. Its appearance is similar to the Jaguar, though it is tonally and physically different in many technical ways.
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 25½" 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. The bridge and tremolo construction is very different from that of the Stratocaster and gives the Jazzmaster a different resonance and generally less sustain.
The body is larger than that of other Fender guitars, requiring a more spacious guitar case. The Jazzmaster had unique wide, white "soapbar" pickups that were unlike any other single coil. Jazzmaster pickups are often confused with Gibson's P-90 pickups. Although they look similar, they are constructed differently. Whereas the pole-pieces of the Jazzmaster pickups are magnets, the P-90 has its magnets placed underneath the coil. The JM coil is wound flat and wide, even more so than the P-90. This is in contrast to Fender's usual tall and thin coils. This "pancake winding" gives them a warmer thicker tone without losing their single coil clarity. The Jazzmaster has a mellower, jazzier tone than the Strat, although it was not widely embraced by jazz musicians. Instead, rock guitarists adopted it for surf rock. The Ventures, The Surfaris, and The Fireballs were prominent Jazzmaster users.
One of the Jazzmaster's notable features is the pickup circuit featuring the unusual "roller" thumbwheel controls and slide switch at the upper neck end of the pickguard. The slide switch selects between two different pickup circuits, the "lead" and "rhythm" circuits. When the switch is in the lead position, the guitar's tone is controlled by the conventional tone and volume knobs and the pickup selector switch. When it is in the rhythm position, it selects the neck pickup only with the brightness rolled off slightly due to the capacitor, and the volume and tone are controlled by the two thumbwheels; the other controls are bypassed. The intention was that this circuit would allow the performer to quickly switch to a "preset" volume and tone setting for rhythm playing.
As a concession to its more conservative audience, the Jazzmaster was the first Fender guitar carrying a rosewood fingerboard instead of maple. The fingerboard had clay dot position inlays and was glued onto a two-piece maple neck. The Jazzmaster initially came with a four-ply brown tortoise shell pick-guard, although from 1958 to mid 1959 they came with a one-ply anodised (aluminum) gold pick-guard.
Some early pre-production/prototype examples came with a one-piece maple neck, others with an ebony fingerboard and/or a black painted aluminum pick-guard. Longtime Fender associate George Fullerton owned a 1957 Fiesta Red pre-production body coupled with an unusual and experimental fretboard manufactured in 1961 using vulcanised rubber – reportedly one of two ever made. 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 was briefly offered in the mid-1970s. Jazzmaster bodies have been constructed from ash, alder, and basswood over the years.
The Jazzmaster was officially discontinued in September 1980, but has since then been re-released in many forms and modifications.
This is Elliott Randall's 1965 Fender Jazzmaster customised gold-sparkle finished body with ER initials, all original hardware. Appart being used with Sha Na Na, it was also used several times on Saturday Night Live (You'll notice Elliott behind Gilda Radner w/the Jazzmaster) and on sessions where it's very distinctive sound was required.
Elliott Randall describes the guitar: "I bought this surfer's delight in 1974, upon joining the American group Sha Na Na. As the act was a good-humored spoof of the earliest rock music (Bill Haley & his Comets, Elvis, Ritchie Valens, Sam Cooke et al), it made sense for me to use this guitar which was so 'true' to the era. So it was off to New York's Tin Pan Alley - where I purchased this 1965 highly collectable Pre-CBS Fender Jazzmaster. All parts are original; the sunburst finish gave way to the gold metal-flake finish that I had custom-designed and sprayed to suit the character of Sha Na Na's stage show. This instrument has appeared on hundreds of stages with me, as well as numerous television shows. One notable performance in which that guitar shone (no pun intended) was the famous Saturday Night Live episode in which Gilda Radner played 'Candy Slice' - parodying Patty Smith ...also called the 'tootskie' skit. trivia: The ER initials were my own small laugh as we all had stage persona names differing from our real names. I chose Enrico Ronzoni, thereby at least retaining my initials."
