Fender 62 Jazzmaster Electric Guitar

July 16, 2007 by Jo Minor · 1 Comment 


Surf’s up! Who wants to bring back the groovin’ sounds and cool guitars of the 60’s? We do! At a penny under $2000 list price (a little more for sunburst), you can have a Fender 62 Jazzmaster electric guitar, with vintage looks and sound that will (rock -n-) roll back that ole’ calendar. It has that same contoured alder body, offset waist, and cool color combinations.

Fender products are familiar standby’s in the world of electric musical instruments and amplifiers. Debuting in 1951 under another name, Fender’s first solid body electric guitar, the Telecaster, was little more than a guitar shaped slab of wood with electronics and strings, but it became one of the most enduring designs. The Tele, as it’s affectionately called, is still in production, and still has a wide following among guitar players. The more sculpted Stratocaster soon followed, and became possibly the most popular electric guitar style in the world.

By 1958, though, Fender was looking for a new modernistic design to replace the Strat, and came up with the Jazzmaster. With its offset waist design, it was advertised to be more well balanced and comfortable to play. The Jazzmaster, with its more mellow sounding pickups, appeared to be just the ticket for jazz musicians. Instead, an early version of rock-n-roll musicians, the surfer dudes, saw in it a perfect blend of style, sound, and features, and snatched it up. One notable feature was the rosewood fretboard - the first of its kind offered by Fender.

The guitar gained a bit of popularity for a while throughout the sixties, but began to fall out of favor. As a result, the Fender Jazzmaster electric guitar was discontinued in 1982. A Japanese made reissue was tried in 1986, and again in 1994. Finally, in 2000, the time had come for the Jazzmaster to be loved for itself again.

One thing that contributed to the renewed interest in the Fender Jazzmaster is that the older ones were often found collecting dust in pawn shops during the eighties and nineties. This made them attractive to young musicians who couldn’t afford a new electric guitar set up. The unpopular Jazzmasters could be had inexpensively, but still had that legendary Fender quality and sound. This new wave of young rockers bought the old Jazzmasters, along with their offset waisted cousins, the Fender Jaguars.

Also, as the baby boomers reach retirement years, and are possibly the last generation who will have plenty of financial clout in their retirement years, there has been a renewed interest in anything “vintage.” If it makes a 50-something-year-old remember their high school years, it’s likely to show up as a reproduction in a shop somewhere, whether it’s an electric guitar or a pet rock!

Of course, this is a good thing, because its made the new Fender 62 Jazzmaster electric guitar an option for a new generation of giggers!

Advantages: The Fender 62 Jazzmaster is a lot more versatile than you might first think. It’s a natural for jazz and surf music, of course, but is great for country, and even does a good job with metal and thrash, when used distorted. It has a really wide range of tone options. Even if you use the trem a lot, it stays in tune.

And could there be a better looking guitar? Well, that’s a matter of opinion, but this sweet little guitar comes in some nice color options for the ladies (who are bound to think it’s just plain cute!) The multiplicity of control knobs makes it look neat, too, and they are located in such a way as to be accessible and not hard to figure out.

Disadvantages: A lot of players add a “Buzz Stop” roller to the floating bridge. This is a bar that attaches above the trem system to increase the string angle. This is designed to decrease string buzz (a Jazzmaster weakness) while increasing the sustain. It costs about $45. You can get one from a company that sells parts for Fender guitars.

The Fender 62 Jazzmaster electric guitar is a little bit pricey. The quality is great, but you always wonder if part of the price is for the Fender name.

Specs:

  • Alder body in vintage off-set waist, contoured shape
  • Available in at least five vintage color combinations: Ocean Turquoise with Mint Green pickguard, Surf Green with Mint Green Pickguard, Black with Brown Shell pickguard, Olympic White with Brown Shell pickguard, and 3-tone Sunburst with Brown Shell pickguard ($50 more)
  • Maple neck
  • Fender/Gotoh vintage style tuning machines
  • Rosewood fingerboard
  • 21 vintage-style frets
  • 2 special design vintage Jazzmaster single coil pickups
  • Lead circuit volume and tone controls
  • Rhythm circuit volume and tone controls
  • 3-position toggle pickup selector switch
  • Chrome hardware
  • Vintage style floating tremolo with lock button
  • Fender hardshell case included

Pricing / Buy Online: Fender 62 Jazzmaster

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