Trying to find info on this exact Jazzmaster, 70s

[simonhpieman]

So about... I dunno, 10 or 12 years ago, a natural 70s Jazzmaster appeared on eBay.

Back then, your offset choices were pretty limited to either a vintage guitar, a squier Jagmaster or a CIJ model, and even those were pretty hard to come by. Certainly not as common as they are now.

The natural finish was beautiful, the glorious grain of the ash against a white pickguard and my favourite blocks on the neck. It started my love affair with natural finishes. Why hide what the guitar really is? Lovely, lovely wood.

Unfortunately the auction went up a bit beyond what I felt like spending while I found authorities to email about whether or not the finish was original or not as I'd never seen a natural Jazzmaster and couldn't find any pics on Google either.

I think I finally passed at about £1150/£1200. I'll just take a minute to think about that.

And the Starcaster I could have got for £599 before th3 guy in the shop talked me out of it as "you don't want that, it's rubbish".

But I digress. I always wondered where that guitar went. And whether there are any others. I think it would probably be my holy grail to own one.

I'd even be happy to see a few more pics to lust after. The one below is all I can find.

If anyone has any more info on this rarest of beasts ot remembers one being discussed on here before please chime in!

https://goo.gl/images/mmg47i

[andrewaward]

99% chance it was a refin. Was probably stripped at some point and clear coated.

Jazzmasters weren’t offered in natural finish unless it was a custom order. And as Jazzmasters were dead in the water by 73 it’s unlikely anyone wanted a special order one.

Unlikely but not impossible, but any vintage jazzmaster in natural out there it’s safe to assume it’s a refin

[simonhpieman]

Interesting. I'd surmised in my head that thanks to all the natural Strats that were knocking around at that time it was probably legit but what you say makes sense.

If it wasn't factory then it was certainly a very old refin by the looks of it, if I recall correctly.

[andrewaward]

Loads of Jazzmasters were stripped in the 70s / early 80s. That one probably lost its finish within 10 years of it being new, so it would look old.

These finishes were more often than not done by amateurs - seen plenty with brush marks showing!

[simonhpieman]

Doesn't bother me, the one in that pic above is LUSH!