Fender Jazzmaster Model Solid Body Electric Guitar (1959), made in Fullerton, California, serial # 36189, sunburst lacquer finish, alder body, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, original tweed hard shell case.
This is a lovely, superbly well cared for early example of a Fender Jazzmaster, one of the very nicest we have seen. It carries a beautiful deep 3-color sunburst set off by the classic gold anodized pickguard that marks the first versions of the model. This then brand new model was Fender's showpiece instrument, their upscale top of the line prestige instrument and the Fullerton factory lavished a maximum of care and effort on Jazzmaster production. We find these first generation "offsets" to nearly always be exceptionally fine instruments.
This guitar's neck is pencil dated 3-59 on the heel (March 1959) not many months after Jazzmaster production commenced in the fall of '58. The visible pot date is 9-06; there is no body date evident. The guitar was likely assembled and shipped in the spring of 1959. The striking looking anodized pickguard proved unfortunately prone to pick wear and was replaced with the familiar tortoise celluloid piece by late summer '59; the early models carrying it are exponentially rarer than their 1960s descendants.
When this guitar was made the Jazzmaster was a brand new, completely unique concept and a bold step into the future for Fender. Novel features including the patented liquid sculpture "offset" body with a staggered waist, dual rhythm/lead circuit wiring, floating bridge and tremolo and the wider-coil pickups; all fresh ground for Fender. The thick "slab" rosewood fingerboard with clay dots was introduced with this model, and soon became ubiquitous across the entire Fender line replacing the earlier one-piece maple neck.
Leo's concept for the instrument was to appeal to the "sit-down" jazz players mostly loyal to hollowbody guitars; the design was bold and brilliant but failed to entice dedicated Gibson players to embrace Fender products. Still the Jazzmaster was quite successful in other genres from the start, and remained popular into the mid 1960s before losing ground as playing styles changed at the end of the decade.
Over the last 25 years or so the Jazzmaster, once maligned, has caught the fancy of new generations of players and risen to be one of the most widely played and copied of all vintage designs. This wonderful early example has been only lightly used and never abused; it remains an exceptional-sounding and extremely attractive twang machine. This guitar has a great feel and a lovely "ring" to it, even when not plugged in. Jazzmasters simply do not come much better than this.
Overall length is 41 in. (104.1 cm.), 14 in. (35.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 1/2 in. (648 mm.). Width of nut is 1 5/8 in. (41 mm.)., 7.8 lbs.
This Jazzmaster is one of the cleanest early examples we have seen and shows some only very minor general wear, remaining 100% original and unaltered. The deep, rich sunburst finish on the body has very little fade; there is some light checking and small dings, dents, chips and scrapes but the only really notable areas of loss are some typical belt buckle wear to the back and a touched-up spot on the tip of the lower cutaway. The finish in this area has one small chip and some heavier checking. There are several small chips and dings on the lower body edge, and a few have been filled (rather whimsically) with gold sparkle paint! The original anodized pickguard is exceptionally clean with only the tiniest wear spot off the lead pickup, the gold finish is otherwise completely intact.
The back of the neck has very little finish wear. Just some light loss on the lower edge. The headstock has some typical linear checking and a nicely intact decal. Internally it appears untouched; we believe we were the fires ones to crack it open since new. The original small frets have some wear in the lower positions but the instrument still plays very well. This superb first-generation Jazzmaster has seen only light use over the last six decades and has survived very well with its distinctive sound and character fully intact. It is still housed in a very nice original tweed HSC complete with the original trem arm, snap-on bridge cover and even the polish cloth. Excellent Condition.
