Fender Jazzmaster, Sunburst (1959)

$18,500.00
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Product information

A wonderful playing and sounding example of Fender's original "Gold Guard" Era Jazzmaster

With just one owner under its care until 2024, this '59 Jazzmaster is just a wonderful sounding, playing, and looking example of the original issue Fender offset electric. The combination of 3-Tone Sunburst, the early style anodized aluminum pickguard, and slab Rosewood fingerboard present a distinctive and distinguished look and sound unlike any of its counterparts.

The guitar was lovingly cherished and played throughout its life by the original owner, a Navy man stationed out of Texas. The family proclaimed that it accompanied its original owner at sea, often traveling internationally. A well-traveled guitar, indeed!

These early Jazzmasters seem to have a particularly high fidelity like tonal response, with very clear and powerful trebles and a sweet but defined low end. They're very dynamic and touch sensitive as well, allowing for quite a wide variety of playing styles and genres. It's easy to understand what made these guitars so popular beyond their namesake.

Electronics are entirely original, including the black bobbin single coil pickups, Rhythm circuit, and Lead circuit. One of the original CTS potentiometers shows as a partial date code of the 18th week of 1959, which aligns with the body's pencil date of 5/59. In typical 1959 fashion, Fender omitted a pencil date from the butt end of the neck heel, which was reintroduced in the early/mid part of 1960.

The guitar was recently refretted by Maine luthier and vintage restoration master Laurent Brondel, breathing new life into its playability. A long-ago repair of a headstock split across the tuner holes that had been subsequently doweled was also cleaned up, along with some finish touch-up and blending into the original headstock finish. While somewhat unsightly from the player's viewpoint (you can't really see much of the repair head-on), it's very stable, and really the only true defect of any otherwise original and intact guitar.

The original first-issue tweed Jazzmaster case was painted black ages ago, likely in an effort to keep up with the look of Fender's new black tolex cases. It's in relatively good shape considering the paint job.

Body

Style
Solidbody Offset
Body
Alder | 5/59 Pencil Date
Finish
Nitrocellulose
Color
Sunburst

Hardware

Pickups
Original single coil | 7.85k Neck / 7.76k Bridge
Electronics
Original CTS | 137 918 visible code (18th week of '59)
Controls
Lead Circuit: Volume / Tone / Rhythm Circuit: Volume / Tone
Bridge
Original w/ original cover and vibrato tailpiece
Tuners
Original Kluson Single Line
Pickguard
Original Anodized Gold

Neck

Neck
Maple
Carve
Oval C | .80-.98"
Fingerboard
Slab Brazilian Rosewood
Radius
7.25"
Inlays
Dots
Frets
Jescar 55090
Nut
Bone
Scale Length
25 1/2"

Other

Serial #
37436
Weight
8lb
Case
OHSC

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