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1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:53 pm
by kracdown
So this thread is going to take a few months to finish up, but I thought you guys might be interested in the process.

Background: I love vintage offsets. Not just because they're a great value in the vintage market, but the Jazzmaster and Jaguar just feel super comfortable in my arms. I also think they have the best trem systems and are my favorite sounding guitars after the tele.

I have a mint '66 Jazzmaster and a '63 Custom Blond Ash Jaguar. I played a '61 Lake Placid Blue through a '65 Deluxe Reverb the other night, and was blown away. I A/B'd it with my '66, and I figured the eras sounded different enough to justify owning both. That being said, I don't have the funds for a nice '61, sunburst or custom color. But I could afford a players grade slab board. So I found a nice early '62 with a stripped finish and grover tuners - but otherwise all original. The one bad thing is that it was signed by The Ventures 25 years ago on the body. The pick guard, the wiring, the nut, the trem, and neck finish all looks good.

The Plan: I'm going to have someone (anyone know of anyone? I'm fine shipping anywhere...) prep the body for a refin as well as sand the original headstock front facing finish off (not sure if the tuner holes had to be enlarged too, but I'm going to have to get that looked into also). I'm going to keep the rest of the neck finish.

Why would I loose the original Logo? Because this thing is going to be refinished, most likely by Danocaster, in a beautiful Lake Placid Blue. I will also probably do a nice 6105 refret once I have the funds.

I get that sanding off the signatures might be controversial, as well as refinishing the headstock finish, but with the guitar already in its current condition, I figure I'm doing the world a service. It should come later this week and I can't wait to start working on it!

Pictures from the add:
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Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 6:42 am
by øøøøøøø
lose the signatures, who cares.

however, sanding off the original headstock face and logo is about like throwing $500-1000 down the toilet. If you absolutely HAD to have an LPB JM with matching headstock, you could patiently wait on a basket-case slab board neck whose headstock finish had already been removed or compromised.

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:08 am
by mcjt
øøøøøøø wrote: however, sanding off the original headstock face and logo is about like throwing $500-1000 down the toilet.
indeed, like pissing away $. øøøøøøø speaks the truth!

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 7:40 am
by zhivago
Very cool of you to restore this one...I saw it on Reverb a while ago...looks to be a great guitar.

I must say I do agree with the others that sanding the original headstock is not something that I would do.

A '62 LPB JM with a natural headstock would be vintage correct anyway, and with a great Dano refin it will look exactly like an original JM. :-*


Still it is your guitar and I understand if you like a matching headstock :)

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 9:46 am
by kracdown
zhivago wrote:Very cool of you to restore this one...I saw it on Reverb a while ago...looks to be a great guitar.

I must say I do agree with the others that sanding the original headstock is not something that I would do.

A '62 LPB JM with a natural headstock would be vintage correct anyway, and with a great Dano refin it will look exactly like an original JM.


Still it is your guitar and I understand if you like a matching headstock
Really? Didn't Aztec Gold (or whatever they were calling it) also have a natural finish on the head stock early on?

I don't want to do any great injustice to the guitar. The only thing I'm worried about is that damage done by those grover tuners...

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:49 am
by øøøøøøø
If the holes have been enlarged, it's very likely that a dowel-and-fill plus new tuners with bushings will hide the evidence completely, or near-completely. :)

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 11:53 am
by Vinkie
Cool guitar, congratulations!

I'd also suggest to leave the headstock as is, apart from the $-value loss there's also the fact that the logo is complete and pretty much unscaved. The lacquer on the neck seems in pretty good nick too. While there are many Fenders around many were altered and they can never be remade in the same era. I'd feel proud to preserve this one in its original condition. The enlarged tuner hole issue should be fixable, either by careful plugging and redrilling or by fitting conversion bushings.

Having said that I have no issues whatsoever and even applaude you for losing the sigs and the clear finish and replace it with a nicer finish. Good luck with the restoration!

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 1:37 pm
by zhivago
kracdown wrote:
Really? Didn't Aztec Gold (or whatever they were calling it) also have a natural finish on the head stock early on?
The pre CBS version of gold was Shoreline Gold :)

Matching headstocks did become standard sometime in 1962, but probably not on January the 1st of '62...so in theory, you could have had a LPB 1962 Jazzmaster with a non-matching headstock 8)

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 1:48 pm
by countertext
zhivago wrote:Matching headstocks did become standard sometime in 1962, but probably not on January the 1st of '62...so in theory, you could have had a LPB 1962 Jazzmaster with a non-matching headstock
This.

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sat Aug 29, 2015 3:59 pm
by kracdown
Awesome. Well, it'll be tough deciding between shoreline gold and LPB. would these have a white guard or tort? I'll leave the headstock alone besides tuners ;).

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 12:10 am
by zhivago
kracdown wrote:Awesome. Well, it'll be tough deciding between shoreline gold and LPB. would these have a white guard or tort? I'll leave the headstock alone besides tuners .

You would have a white guard for these two colours. :)

The only colours that had tortoise shell guards were White, Sunburst, Blonde and Black (although there probably were some Black ones with white guards too)

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 4:52 am
by øøøøøøø
this is really cool. I'm glad you're not totally committed to sanding off that beautiful headstock face!

As the others said, either of your top 2 color options would have a white (mint green) guard. and non-matching headstock would be correct for early '62, AFAIK... and slab boards are early '62, and pencil dates are only until 3/62.

So in fact, a matching headstock would be historically incorrect for this guitar!

Good detective work so far.

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 5:26 am
by zhivago
øøøøøøø wrote:this is really cool. I'm glad you're not totally committed to sanding off that beautiful headstock face!

As the others said, either of your top 2 color options would have a white (mint green) guard. and non-matching headstock would be correct for early '62, AFAIK... and slab boards are early '62, and pencil dates are only until 3/62.

So in fact, a matching headstock would be historically incorrect for this guitar!

Good detective work so far.

10000% what Brad said... This is gonna be one of OSG's vintage beauties...can't wait for pics... Slab board Fenders are special 8)

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:34 am
by kracdown
Thanks for the info guys. The guitar should be coming sometime this week while I'm out of town in NY . To make matter worse, I'm relocating to Chicago for the rest of the year . So someone will be shipping it to me from LA to Chicago, where I'll need to find someone to prep the body and fix the tuners...

As for the finish, I'm having a tough time figuring out if I want LPB or Black... I absolutely love LPB, but maybe I'll save that for my first 100% original custom color Jazzmaster... Also, I will be able to use the original pick guard if I go black(I would grab a Spit fire for the Mint guard).

Also need to pickup a set of aged single line deluxe Klusons, but I want to get a better idea of the condition of the neck so I can decide on what level of aging I need...

Re: 1962 Fender Jazzmaster Restoration

Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2015 11:31 am
by Johno
Is the neck plate original, I thought it would have an L prefix being pre 65?