Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

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zhivago
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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by zhivago » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:59 pm

hmmm...I'm pretty sure they were on at the same time...

but hey, it was years ago...I could easily be wrong....  :-[
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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by StevenO » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:17 pm

Soiouz wrote:
zhivago wrote:
glimmertwin wrote: See the odd thing about those pictures is if they are as rare as we are all thinking, what are the odds of a place having two at the same time?
very good point...

I saved these a while ago, but I'm pretty sure they were on gbase at the same time too....  :-\
Aren't they pics of before and after a sonic blue refin of the same guitar?  ??? The wear pattern on the gold guard sure looks the same... And it would explain the cleanliness and freshness of the blue paint and the odds of having two gold-guard-black-pups JM's at the same place!
Yeah, that is definitely the case with this one. They both even have the same wear patterns on the back of the neck near the neck/body joint.

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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by Mad-Mike » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:35 pm

I remember reading in the first edition of the Fender Book by Tony Bacon and Paul Day (which came out around 1994 or so, I used to have a copy of that book) that the Jazzmaster first got the black pickguards around 1976, and around 1977-1978, they started putting black pickup covers on the Jazzmaster.  This was their chronology.......

1958 - Jazzmaster released, anodized gold guard
1959 - pickguards changed to celluloid material
1963 - non-slab fingerboard starts to appear
1965 - Dots and Binding
1966 - Blocks and Binding
1977 - Black pickguard
1978 - Black pickup covers
1980 - Discontinued

However, I was willing to believe this because of The Cars at the time (I was just getting into their music), and had just found out Ric played a Jazzmaster, which I presumed was a 77, but turns out it's a refinished 1974 (that's straight from Ric at an interview).  Which means the Fender book could be wrong about the makeage of 1970's Jazzmaster design changes, particularly pickguard color.

I also remember around that same time getting a guitar magazine, with I think Soundgarden in it, and Kim Thayal was holding a late 70's Fender Jazzmaster in sunburst with black pickup covers AND black pickguard.  So apparently, there may have been some late 70's Jazzmasters made with black pickup covers as well, I also believe I may have seen one on Ebay a few years back, it was a 77', looked a lot like the one in the Soundgarden interview.  I wish I still had the pictures of that one, it was  a  beauty, had nice woodgrain.
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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by JazzBlaster » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:40 pm

they should have put WRHB in the JM, I don't understand why they never made any jazzmaster variants?  ???
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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by blacktiger » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:59 pm

Black covers came on really early and really late Jazzmasters.  I remember around the time of the first Television reunion in the early '90s Tom Verlaine was using a 50s Jazzmaster with black pickup covers.  IIRC it was in whatever video they did for that record too ("Call Mr. Lee"?). 
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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by mynameisjonas » Thu Mar 22, 2007 3:40 am

StevenO wrote:
Soiouz wrote:
zhivago wrote: very good point...

I saved these a while ago, but I'm pretty sure they were on gbase at the same time too....  :-\
Aren't they pics of before and after a sonic blue refin of the same guitar?  ??? The wear pattern on the gold guard sure looks the same... And it would explain the cleanliness and freshness of the blue paint and the odds of having two gold-guard-black-pups JM's at the same place!
Yeah, that is definitely the case with this one. They both even have the same wear patterns on the back of the neck near the neck/body joint.
i agree, it is the same guitar. the most obvious sign for me is the cigarette burn mark next to the low E tuner.

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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by AMILCAR » Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:28 am

.  I remember around the time of the first Television reunion in the early '90s Tom Verlaine was using a 50s Jazzmaster with black pickup covers.  IIRC it was in whatever video they did for that record too ("Call Mr. Lee"?).   
[/quote]
TV S    BLACK JAZZMASTER ,AS SEEN IN THAT VIDEO ,ACTUALLY HAD WHITE BUT PAINTED BLACK PICKUPS COVERS ,IT LOOKED  LIKE EARLY SIXTIES  JAZZY TO ME ...

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Re: Black PU covers-Vintage Jazzmasters

Post by StevenO » Thu Mar 22, 2007 11:07 am

mynameisjonas wrote:
StevenO wrote:
Soiouz wrote: Aren't they pics of before and after a sonic blue refin of the same guitar?  ??? The wear pattern on the gold guard sure looks the same... And it would explain the cleanliness and freshness of the blue paint and the odds of having two gold-guard-black-pups JM's at the same place!
Yeah, that is definitely the case with this one. They both even have the same wear patterns on the back of the neck near the neck/body joint.
i agree, it is the same guitar. the most obvious sign for me is the cigarette burn mark next to the low E tuner.
Good point. Didn't even notice that.

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