The Fender Jazzmaster is intrinsic to the history of alternative music. What was originally intended to be, you guessed it, a jazz guitar, the Jazzmaster was rejected by its target audience in the late 50s, but eventually became the indie icon we know and love today.
In 1958, Leo Fender and Co pitched the Jazzmaster as a deluxe model loaded with bells and whistles, designed for refined, professional jazz musicians. For whatever reason, this vision didn’t quite come to pass, but another budding scene embraced the model wholeheartedly just a couple of years later.
In the early 60s, surf rock was enjoying its brief but bright moment in the sun and for their weapon of choice, the surf rockers chose the Fender Jazzmaster. With its unique tone, long scale length and extended vibrato arm, it was the perfect tool for the job and was readily adopted by surf bands like The Ventures, The Surfaris and The Fireballs. Whilst the Jazzmaster’s large offset body was designed with the sitting position favoured by jazz guitarists in mind, the surfers didn’t seem to care, falling in love with the guitar’s bright but meaty tone and its unique style all the same.
The Jazzmaster rode the wave of surf rock while the getting was good, but all good things must come to an end. By the 1970s, it had very much fallen out of favour, but its story was far from over. As we know, the Jazzmaster was destined to become the guitar of choice for left of the dial bands the world over and that started with a man by the name of Elvis Costello. In the late 70s, punk and new wave were making their way out of the underground and into the public consciousness and the Jazzmaster was coming along with them.
Read up on all the latest interviews, features and columns here.
Ever the contrarian, Costello favoured the somewhat antiquated Jazzmaster over the more popular guitars of the day and the guitar quickly became associated with all things alternative. Today we know the Jazzmaster as the guitar of shoegaze, grunge, indie sleaze and all that’s in between. It has never enjoyed the limelight of the Les Paul or the Stratocaster, but it doesn’t want to. It’s a tool for the noisemakers and the rule breakers and that’s how we like it.
Robert Smith
From Robert Smith, J Mascis, Kevin Shields and Thurston Moore to Nels Kline and MJ Lenderman, the Jazzmaster is a unique instrument that attracts unique players. But what unites them? What is it about this guitar that appeals to noisy bands with weird names? For a start, let’s talk about the bridge.
The long vibrato arm of the Jazzmaster allows for a more dramatic effect than other whammy bars, perfect for the making of noise in conjunction with delays and reverbs. Aside from that, the floating bridge/anchored tailpiece design allows for playing ‘behind the bridge’, another useful tool for shoegaze sounds and for general sonic weirdness.
Aside from its distinctive offset body, the most truly unique thing about the Jazzmaster is its circuitry. Famously adorned with many confusing switches and dials, the Jazzmaster’s elaborate circuit works in conjunction with its singular pickups to create a myriad of unique sounds. Jazzmasters carry very wide, soapbar style single coil pickups that are unlike any other. Bright like other single coils but not as thin sounding, they have wider coils than a Strat or Tele and therefore pick up a broader range of frequencies.
Fender Jazzmaster pickup
Whilst not quite as beefy as a P90, they are definitely warmer and thicker than the average single coil and provide a very versatile range of tones that are applicable to almost any genre. They are also particularly well suited to fuzz pedals which is another reason why they remain so beloved by noisy alternative bands.
As for the circuitry, it requires a bit of explaining. The Jazzmaster has two entirely separate tone circuits. The lead circuit has standard controls for a Fender guitar: a single master volume and tone control on the lower bout, and a three-position pickup selector toggle switch. The darker-sounding rhythm circuit has its own separate volume and tone control wheels found on the upper horn.
The lead circuit is fairly simple. Activated by setting the upper horn slide switch in the down position, the master volume, tone and three way pickup selector switch work as one would expect. The rhythm circuit, activated by setting the upper horn slide switch in the up position, is controlled by two inside wheels on the upper horn next to the slider switch which function as passive tone and volume controls. When in the rhythm setting, only the neck pickup is operational and the bridge is deactivated. The pickup selector switch and lower-bout volume and tone controls also become non-functional in this setting.
As a result, there are two ways to set a Jazzmaster so that only your neck pickup is heard, but the interesting thing is that each method provides a different sound. The rhythm circuit’s neck pickup tone is noticeably darker than the lead circuit’s neck pickup tone. This is due to different potentiometers being used in each of the circuits. Functionally, this is a bit like having a third pickup, adding to the versatile range of tones already provided by the Jazzmaster were it only to have a lead circuit.
MJ Lenderman
So what do The Ventures, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr and MJ Lenderman have in common? Not much, other than that they are, to put it simply, different. The Jazzmaster is different. From its borderline impractical, but very cool offset body, oversized whammy bar, weird jumbo sized single coils and even weirder circuit design, it just isn’t like any other guitar. It’s an oddball and it’s for the oddballs.
The Jazzmaster was kept alive by underground street cred alone when it went out of production in the 80s, but we can now safely assume that it’s here to stay. For as long as the universe keeps churning out weird arty kids who want to make some noise, Fender will keep building them Jazzmasters.
Keep reading, learning and watching about the Jazzmaster here.
