NGD: '58 Jazzmaster Gold/Ash

[will]

Long story, but I fixed up a '60 Jazzmaster to sell, and it was taking forever to find a buyer. ...so I figured I'd sell my two other Jazzmasters and keep the '60. ...and then right after I sold the other two, someone found the expired listing for the 60 and contacted me about buying it.

And then there were no Jazzmasters around the apartment!

A few days later I saw a post for an amazing guitar - a '58 Jazzmaster with a gold guard and an ash body - for sale for just a little more than what the '60 ended up selling for.


Here's some pics from the first sunny day after the guitar showed up:








This guitar has been around OSG several times over the years, and I was surprised that no one ever mentioned the funky side marker dots - they sorta wander a bit! Maybe the folks at Fender were still getting used to the different dimensions with Rosewood-board guitars in late '58?







It was a bit tricky to track down all of the threads where this guitar popped up over the years!


I think this is the thread from where Fullerplast celebrated picking up the guitar way back in 2006, with a different case, missing the gold guard, and with some mods around the pickup routs::
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... lit=blonde

...and here's Fullerplast's NGD thread for this '58:
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... lit=blonde

...and then he picked up a 59, and swapped the bodies and necks between the two guitars and eventually sold the blonde '58 body and '59 neck
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... lit=blonde

...not sure, but I think some of the parts from this one wound up on my guitar?
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... d&start=60

Here's a thread detailing the restoration from 2011 - the guitar was re-purchased and the necks and bodies were un-swapped:
Fullerplast did a purty relic-refin job on the guitar and Stereordinary did a super job patching the pickup routs:
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... last+guard

...and then Fullerplast sold it in 2012:
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... last+guard

...and then the guitar popped up for sale again in 2014:
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... d#p1137982

...and for sale again in 2020!
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... 4&t=116097

[will]

The pictures from the restoration thread have vanished into a photobucket/flickr internet black hole - does anyone out there have copies?

It's weird for me to have a guitar that doesn't need some sort of major work, but the case got damaged in transit, so I'll have some repair work to keep me busy.

[zhivago]

Awesome looking guitar! Good to hear it's still "in the family".

[BoringPostcards]

I remember this guitar well. Doug (Fullerplast) did a great job on this one.
Glad it's still in the hands of an OSG member.

[HNB]

Perfect guitar. My favorite jazzy color combo.

[Embenny]

Now that's an incredible guitar. Congrats.

[kaboodle45]

beautiful, love the cracking/wear in the finish

[Jazzmastervsjaguar]

Beautiful guitar. Congratulations on the NGD. That's about as perfect as a JM can be.

[fuzzjunkie]

Beautiful guitar. I am not a huge fan of gold guards, but on this guitar it looks perfect!

[SWFC68]

Its really awesome, such a great look

[Gonkulator]

Glad you snagged this Will! I was bummed I missed the listing. Good to see it's still in the OSG family.

[rbrcbr]

Dear lord, what an incredible guitar Happiest of NGD's to you man.

[Veitchy]

Holy cats that's nice. Doubly so given the increasing scarcity of ash bodies these days. Hang on to that one.

[will]

Holy cats that's nice. Doubly so given the increasing scarcity of ash bodies these days. Hang on to that one.

Is ash being used less in guitars lately? Do you know why?

This one is a bit heavier than an alder guitar, but that extra grain has to weigh something!

[Veitchy]

Holy cats that's nice. Doubly so given the increasing scarcity of ash bodies these days. Hang on to that one.

Is ash being used less in guitars lately? Do you know why?

This one is a bit heavier than an alder guitar, but that extra grain has to weigh something!

According to Fender, yeah. A combination of an aggressive borer beetle killing trees, plus water is no longer receding as often or as far in the south where they get their swamp ash so it's hard to harvest. They've looked into northern species of ash but apparently they're a fair bit heavier then they'd like. Going forwards ash will be reserved for guitars that need to be historically wood-correct, and higher end/CS stuff, with alder for regular production instruments (which they reckon sounds really close and apparently more consistent in grain and weight). They're also looking into using pine more which as a Tele fan excite me to no end.