Up for sale is this fabulously beautiful and interesting pre-CBS Fender Jazzmaster in factory Olympic White finish and matching headstock.
Its also featured in Terry Foster, Martin Kelly, and Paul Kelly's famous book "Fender: The Golden Age." The photos of the book are seen above in the pictures.
Sometime in 1964, the original owner sent back his 1958 Jazzmaster to the Fender factory for a new finish in custom color Olympic white. This was a kind of "refresh and refit" service offered by Fender in the 1950s and 1960s for guitars that either developed problems under warranty or were very worn from heavy use. The job was completed in early 1965, and the guitar has remained in very nice condition from that time forward.
The 1958 origins of the guitar are evident in the hardware and the electronics. The pots date to 1958, and the pickups are from the same year. The tremolo unit is the earlier "Pat. Pending" version (the "patent number" was placed on these beginning sometime in 1962). The bridge is also the late 1950s variety, with the narrower threads on the high B and E strings. The guitar retains its late 1950s single line Kluson tuners, and has a 1958 serial-numbered neck plate and screws.
As often happened with this service, rather than repainting the 1958 body and neck, the Fender factory replaced then with corresponding parts then current in the factory. The neck clearly has the veneer Brazilian rosewood fretboard introduced in late 1962, and it also has the "thicker" headstock (measured from the front of the headstock with the logo to the back). Again, this is distinguished from the "larger" headstocks introduced in 1966. It still has the "smaller" headstock of the pre-CBS era, it is just a few mm thicker as per the transition period begun in 1964. The body has no date, but the routes and counters also indicate the same time frame. The tortoiseshell pickguard would be from 64, since 58s all had gold guards.
The work was completed sometime at the turn of the year, and the neck left the factory with a January 1965 date stamp.
Sonically, this guitar sounds and plays absolutely wonderfully. Its nicely set up with 11 gauge strings.
Cosmetically, it is in very good ++ condition. It has a few nicks and dings around the edges of the body, but is otherwise remarkably clean. The headstock finish is in great shape, and the decal is well intact apart from a few blemishes. The only other thing to note is that the bridge pickup on this one had an open coil and had to be rewound. It was a pro job and done to vintage correct spec.
Comes in what is presumably its original "knuckle buster" brown tolex. The first run of these came with tweed cases, but the brown knuckle buster was introduced in later 1959. It is not inconceivable that it left the dealer with the slightly later knuckle buster case, as it sometimes took several months for small music stores to sell their products.