Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Classic Jag vibe dictates removing the mute and storing in case pocket...

BAH! You need that mute in there... so you can use it and knock your tuning a half-step sharp. Yeah, baby!!!

Sean Lennon opened for Rufus Wainwright on Sunday and he grabbed a jazzmaster for a song. It was really good.

Ahh, yes... the chrome. Instead of using one's palm, the mute could enable a guitarist to mute the strings without having to take off the shiny, chrome bridge cover.

See...? Leo wanted you to "look pretty" on stage, too.

Speaking of Jazzmasters

It's a Jaguar, Richard. But it was hard to tell with Ellie Mae standin'there lookin' all shiny and stuff...

Walter, I think the mentality of the "working musician" was in a completely different place (and generation) from where it is now. In 1962 (Jaguar--the Chrome King) there was classical, Jazz (Tal Farlow Gibson being a good example, although the Johnny Smith was the top of their line beginning in'63--anyway, thick full-bodied archtop jazzboxes), and Rock was in its infancy, and Leo and Freddy Tavares were, as always, plowing virgin soil. "Working musicians" played hollowbodies, except for C&W stars, who played Teles. Some Rockers played Strats. One model of Tele and one of Strat, not including color variations. That the JM, on which Leo and Freddie were working in '57, could ever appeal to jazz players, is a superb chuckle 50 years on with 20/20 hindsight. But after a few years, the JM started to filter into well-heeled surf amateurs' hands.

I believe that the Jag was intended to fine tune the completely unexpected demographic that the Jazzmaster finally settled in with: surf musicians, mostly amateur and semi-pro, who wanted flash, style, and an unbeatable single coil sound.

The gestation of this guitar came at a time when Leo (maybe Freddie, too)was making frequent trips to the Rendezvous in Balboa to hear Dick Dale and work out just why it was that he was burning up speaker coils in those hotrodded 100W prototype Dual Showman amps that Leo was developing. He spoke of his first trip to the Rendezvous as an incredible eye-opener. I think it's interesting to speculate how much influence the youth surf culture and style had on Leo--whose initial customers were all Californicated Dust Bowl Okies.

From where, indeed, would the radical, timeless, and highly arbitrary shapes (without precedent in guitars) have sprung? Any other possibilities? I am not aware of any. True, Freddy Tavares is credited with the patented "offset waist" idea, which manifested itself in these two guitar designs, but showed up also in the Duo-Sonic and its descendants, too, which were much more Strat-like in shape. It's the degree to which the silhouette was skewed around that waist, and the sheer exuberance of the trim details and control placement, that makes these guitars ahead of their time, even today. When I saw my first Jag, in 1963, I was simply floored. But the CBS writing was already on the wall. No more classics from Fender, despite what their marketing people try to tell us every year...

Richard - that's one of the coolest clips I've ever seen. Shame granny didn't start rockin out on that Jag. Now THAT would have been awesome...

I left my JM in London when I moved to Vancouver. I'm a stupid stupid man.

Leo was not a guitar player..a little bit of lap steel player. As Paul wrote, Leo's early pieces were geared toward country players. Leo had the wisdom to listen to and use as a proving ground, many players. Freddie and Leo were a team like no other in the history of amplified guitars...so many inovations..guitars and amps in a short time span. Leo not only was inovative on his own, but he also had an ear to what was needed by musicians. Leo used Dick Dale to test drive his amps and then worked with him to improve several models. The Showman was named for Dick's stage presence. Also Dick helped design the outboard reverb unit and the transformer used in the Dual Showman amp....a quick question to see who knows their surf music..On Dick's first Lp Surfer's Choice (with Miserlou, Surfbeat, Death Of A Gremmie..etc)..how many tracks featured reverb? Best thing about Fender now is that they can offer a good guitar for not much money...on the other hand...another topic...

WOW. Check out this beauty!

http://cgi.ebay.com/2007-THINSKIN-SONIC-BLUE-JAZZMASTER-FIRST-ONE-MADE_W0QQitemZ330153409617QQihZ014QQcategoryZ47069QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A beauty for sure John...kinda high...the price not me doh! At that price point, I would start thinking vintage,,,,

nice color though!

Great color. But the "thin skin" thing on solid body guitars is, to me, 99% el toro poo-poo.

Gorgeous overpriced Jazzmaster!

My bandmate, a dyed-in-the-wool Fender slinger recently had his Jagmaster painted a beautiful orange (somewhere between a sparkle and metallic). The stock humbuckers now replaced with some big single coils, that guitar turns heads and ears.

My point -the offset waist Jag/Jazz style guitars sure are pretty. But I won't be switching from my Rickenbackers just yet.