Blonde '59 Jazzmaster at Lark street....

[zhivago]

very nice.... 

FENDER JAZZMASTER, 1959, Blonde,rosewood board,  neck dated 1/59, late '58 pots, some overspray on peghead which had other tuners- now has originals, gold anodized pickguard, very rare, brown case, vgc

[starfish]

Looks nice, but I wonder if it's original.  That looks like a white basecoat and probably alder body.  Plus, has anyone actually ever seen an original blonde with anodized guard?  It's likely that none exist.  also the entire neck looks oversprayed with certainly doesn't help in favor of an original finish.  Bakelite switch tip is missing, but that's a lesser issue.

Funny, I see quite a few JM's and other custom color Fenders popping up on dealer's sites where the guitars are clearly refin'd, but now the dealers just say nothing instead of 100% or refin.  I think this is another sign of the drying up of the good guitars.  I'll bet he's asking north of $7,500 for that guitar.

[zhivago]

Jim Shine had a real '59 Blonde with a gold guard...it now belongs to Lalalandstudios...he drops by here occasionaly...

you are right though, they are quite rare guitars...

actually this one reminds me a bit of the guitar Fllerplast used to have...it was sold to another forumite and then sold again...could this be the one?

[Sonicly Duo]

I like the Champ behind it.

[fullerplast]

could this be the one?

Naw... that's not it.

[Daysleeper]

AHHH...don't like that color and guard combo.  

[mynameisjonas]

that's lovely

but it's not blonde. looks like OLY with a yellowed clearcoat to me, there's no grain showing through the finish, and you can clearly see the white coat where the top coat has worn off.

[chrisjedijane]

i really like that

[PorkyPrimeCut]

J'aime beaucoup aussi, innit? Le blonde c'est magnifique.

[StevenO]

that's lovely

but it's not blonde. looks like OLY with a yellowed clearcoat to me, there's no grain showing through the finish, and you can clearly see the white coat where the top coat has worn off.

Wooh, glad somebody else said it. I wasn't sure if it was only me.

[mezcalhead]

has anyone actually ever seen an original blonde with anodized guard?  It's likely that none exist.

I think I remember Jim saying that he personally had seen or knew for sure of only six blonde gold guards .. so yes, incredibly rare.

I also agree that doesn't look blonde to me, but olympic white. It does look a little like Doug's old blonde gold guard .. IIRC that one had a repro guard with a deliberately reliced wear spot in almost exactly the same place, thus the confusion I guess.

[Soiouz]

They are very rare, there's no doubt about that.

But the internet being such a wonderful source of information, I think we can count more than six just here. We could play "spot the blonde gold guard"! 

Just off the top of my head: Doug's old one was a refin, but was an original blonde gold guard; in that Japanese Vintage Guitar magazine issue on Jazzmasters and Jaguars, there's at least 2 different ones pictured; there's Jim Shine's old one of course; then the one on that Japanese blog/website I posted a couple of months ago; then there's the one from the Fender ad; finally, there's the one given to that TV show guitar player I posted here also (was that one white or blonde?)....

So we're up to at least six just now.

[scott]

What is the desireability of the blond/ash in general? I've read that they can be lighter in wight, but does this have a noticable effect on the sound? There is a nice blonde Jag "transition" mid-sixties model going for 4k locally.

Does blonde in particular justify the high price, or is it just considered pretty much the same rarity as other custom colors of the period?

[mezcalhead]

Yeah, apparently ash does have an effect on the sound .. I've never owned one, but I believe they've got more high end in the sound.

Just off the top of my head: Doug's old one was a refin, but was an original blonde gold guard; in that Japanese Vintage Guitar magazine issue on Jazzmasters and Jaguars, there's at least 2 different ones pictured; there's Jim Shine's old one of course; then the one on that Japanese blog/website I posted a couple of months ago; then there's the one from the Fender ad; finally, there's the one given to that TV show guitar player I posted here also (was that one white or blonde?)....

So we're up to at least six just now.

Well .. you haven't convinced me that all those are different guitars .. ?

[Soiouz]

Well .. you haven't convinced me that all those are different guitars .. ?

Of course I can't prove they are different guitars, just as no one can prove they aren't, unless there is a serial number register somewhere, but I doubt such a thing exists, unfortunately. I would be very interested to just know how many gold guard JM's were made overall, sunburst and other colours.


As for the blondes, I'm not saying there are plenty of them, I just thought the possibilities of the internet could help uncover more of these rare birds.


This discussion reminds me of the one on the JM's with maple necks a couple of months ago. On that matter, everyone was saying "Yeah, they exist, it's just that we don't ever see any" (on which I agreed)..
Now, we do see some blonde gold guards, but hey, it's not because we see 6 of them in 6 different places that they do exist...     ;D