NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
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Mechanical Birds
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NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Mechanical Birds » Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:25 pm

Traded a new AV65 Jazzmaster for this thing. It's beautiful, and only a lake placid blue finish with matching headstock away from being my dream deal. I notice the string spacing on this one being a lot closer together than pretty much any guitar I've ever played, so it'll take some getting used to, but it feels good! The biggest difference between this and all the reissues I've played I've noticed is the weight of the body - it's super heavy and wouldn't surprise me at all if it weighed somewhere close to 9 pounds. It's reassuring though, like it feels like it could be a single piece of wood or something? aside from he weight, the neck is SUPER thin, especially compared to the AV65 I had a while back. Really like night and day. Speaking of the neck, something I've been curious about but been unable to confirm is whether they were still using Brazilian rosewood in 1966. Anybody got confirmation one way or the other?

It's in really good shape. The only checking (semi-sadly?) is on the headstock. There are a few small dents and a couple possible surface-scratches, but for a guitar this old it seems to be in amazing condition. I traded it to a bandmate who, for whatever reason, totally hated it, and he was the second owner, and since it was barely played while he had it I'm just going to consider myself the second owner going forward :whistle: :whistle: I honestly don't think this guy has ever been taken apart either; there's about a .70 gap on the top side of the neck pocket, but it feels like it's straight up glued in there. Allegedly the original owner passed away within a year of buying this thing and it sat in his son's closet for decades before he finally decided to let it go. I know, that's some typical salesman rhetoric but it feels good to believe it haha

Anyway, I only have my phone to take pictures so they aren't amazing or anywhere near the level of detail that the best of these posts usually contain, but I thought I got the highlights for you all

Image

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inlays like diamonds

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We'll see how it feels after a month or two, but I think I'm stuck with this one for a while, folks.

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windmill
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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by windmill » Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:31 pm

Nice looking jag

Well done

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by ThePearDream » Wed Jan 17, 2018 5:27 pm

That's a beaut! Nice snag.
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Gavanti
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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Gavanti » Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:28 pm

Really nice. Have fun!

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Ursa Minor » Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:37 pm

Nice! This is exactly where I started down the vintage Fender rabbit hole.

:-*
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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Ursa Minor » Wed Jan 17, 2018 6:41 pm

fwiw, my old 66 Jag was super heavy too. Eventually it was too much and I sold it to fund a 66 JM. :whistle: Probably too soon. That guitar still sounded amazing! Mine was beat to shit though, in all the right ways. 8) Kinda wonder who has it now, despite being in total love with my '63.

See, this is what I mean by rabbit hole. Several years pass and I went from a beater '66 Jag to an early '63 by way of several other guitars along the way. :D :whistle: :ph34r:
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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by sunburster » Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:50 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:25 pm
Speaking of the neck, something I've been curious about but been unable to confirm is whether they were still using Brazilian rosewood in 1966. Anybody got confirmation one way or the other?
Fender stopped using Brazilian Rosewood in late '65.

Nice Jag, and a good deal for your AV65 JM, provided it was a straight swap and the Jag is all original.

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Embenny » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:13 pm

sunburster wrote:
Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:50 pm
Mechanical Birds wrote:
Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:25 pm
Speaking of the neck, something I've been curious about but been unable to confirm is whether they were still using Brazilian rosewood in 1966. Anybody got confirmation one way or the other?
Fender stopped using Brazilian Rosewood in late '65.

Nice Jag, and a good deal for your AV65 JM, provided it was a straight swap and the Jag is all original.
Yes, but just like the weird intermittent overlap of D&B and B&B, sometimes a BRW neck pops up with a '66 date on it, though it's hard to tell these things just looking at them.

And yes, I'd take a straight swap of an original '66 B&B for an AV65 any day of the week, both financially and in terms of the guitar itself!

Congrats. I've got a '66 SB Jag (D&B though), and it's a keeper as well!
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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Mechanical Birds » Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:58 pm

sunburster wrote:
Wed Jan 17, 2018 9:50 pm
Mechanical Birds wrote:
Wed Jan 17, 2018 4:25 pm
Speaking of the neck, something I've been curious about but been unable to confirm is whether they were still using Brazilian rosewood in 1966. Anybody got confirmation one way or the other?
Fender stopped using Brazilian Rosewood in late '65.

Nice Jag, and a good deal for your AV65 JM, provided it was a straight swap and the Jag is all original.
It was and it is. I mentioned in the post that I honestly don't think this guitar has ever been taken apart in any way.

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Mechanical Birds » Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:59 pm

Really don't know if I'll ever get over the fact that I have an actual Fender sitting in front of me.

I know, I know, early CBS and all that, but still. It's insane.

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Embenny » Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:29 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:59 pm
Really don't know if I'll ever get over the fact that I have an actual Fender sitting in front of me.

I know, I know, early CBS and all that, but still. It's insane.
Don't let anyone tell you that early CBS is inferior quality. It makes a difference to collector value and on certain models, but the only details that are different on your guitar thanks to CBS are those blocks and binding, which were two of their home runs in my opinion. Jags and blocks and bindings just work so well IMO.

Once you get to the poly-covered 11lb stratocasters with the gaping neck pockets and micro-tilt necks, I start to agree that "CBS" isn't such a good thing, but that doesn't make your guitar worse by association.

And yes, once I got my first 60's Fender, I just suddenly went, "Whoah. I get it."
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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Axolotl » Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:20 am

Congratulations on your awesome trade! Your Jag is gorgeous and there is nothing like the magic of getting acquainted with a 60s offset in my book.

Some 66ers can be heavy af. My 66 mustang is heavier than any of my jazzmasters! :wtf: but is still an awesome guitar. IIRC in this year of peak production Fender used some heavy ash for the bodies besides alder so maybe that's what your is made of.

The neck of my 66 JM is as you describe it, incredibly thin indeed. It's one of my favorite as it feels amazingly fast and my hands are not big. Late 66 necks are also in my experience rather narrow at the nut (1.5 inches in both my mustang and JM and a couples of Jags I've tried). If at some point you want to replace the nut, you can have cut with the outer strings a tiny bit closer to the edges in order to open a bit the overall string spacing. It worked wonders on both my JM and Mustang.

These are great guitars in every department. As the old adage says "You won't part with your either" :P . Enjoy a great instrument and all the intangible and subjective magic that comes with it (for me that is as real as priceless)

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Mechanical Birds » Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:11 am

Hell yeah, thanks everyone!

The new nut trick sounds like it would help me a lot. It's getting weird trying to adjust every time I switch guitars so that sounds like it might be the ticket.

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by Axolotl » Fri Jan 19, 2018 6:31 am

I say go for a new nut, man. I'm sure you'll be amazed by the huge change to few millimeters can can make.

When I first got my 66 JM I was very used to my enormous 65 JM neck that is 1.65 inches at the nut and pretty thick too. The 66 neck looked and felt so thin and narrow that for over a good year I was pretty sure it was a "A" width neck (the stamp at the heel had been sanded off). Then later on I tried other 66 Fenders that were labeled as "B" and had the same 1.5 inch nut width. It's been said here that at some point in 66 the necks thinned and narrowed down from a much more hefty feel they had in 65. I wonder if this was a conscious decision or maybe some new woodworkers came in? Who knows...

In any case, at first the string spacing of the 66 JM was driving me nuts but since a refret was in order, I asked my luthier to do the nut trick and since then this has become one of my favorite necks ever.

Regarding the rosewood, I'm fairly sure your Jag has Indian rosewood since it looks clear and almost reddish (again, like my 66JM and Mustang). Brazilian RW looks much darker, almost as black as ebony at least in my examples.

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Re: NGD - my first old boy, born in 1966

Post by PJazzmaster » Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:50 am

Nice one! Yes, don't think twice about getting a new nut !!!

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