My new sweet 66 JAZZMASTER

[scottme]

Greeting all!

I finally received my new 66 JM last week after a few months delay:









All the hardware looks great and the actions is nice. Nice case. Not quite as nice sounding as my 78. Has significant checking.

Decided to take a look under the hood, starting with the neck.



and



Hmmm..... Supposed to be 66. Looks a bit like 13FEB68B. The other clues:

Tuners removed:



Double drilled ,although I think 66s had that "feature".

Checking OVER the decal:



Insides look pretty good, can't read the PU sig though





Serial is for late 65 early 66, Vol pot is 8th week of 66 (CTS). Tone is an odd pot (dont have the codes with me).

So, is this possibly a nice partscaster?

[Aug]

I HATE YOU! 

f'ing sweet guitar...gotta love the blocks and binding. 

[Pumpkin]

cool,i got severe jazzmaster gas lately so because of this I'l go hide in the corner and sulk.

[i love sharin foo]

That heel stamp looks like a 66 to me. I'm not sure if the necks from '68 would have still had the Strat code either. Usually they would've been drilled for Klusons then had the F style tunes installed instead woudln't they? Maybe it came factory equipped with the F tuners and someone later switched to the set of double line Klusons that it has now. '68 probably would have had the black decal and a poly finish as well. Overall I think it looks pretty straight.

Justin

[Hellion]

[quote="Aug"]
I HATE YOU!   >:(

It sucks to be rich and famous--or to at least feel that way with such a MASSIVE guitar. Cheers!

[fullerplast]

It all looks good to me Scott. Nice score!  

Sometimes they doweled the unused holes, sometimes not. It can go either way, either Kluson or F-tuner with an extra set of holes (although more often it seems F-tuners are installed and the Kluson holes are left over). But this seems to be an early '66... nothing suspicious as far as I can see. The pots are sometimes mixed as well, usually CTS (137) mixed with Stackpole (304). See if you can find the code.  If the worst thing is that one pot has been replaced, that hardly qualifies it as a Partsmaster, IMO.

So the decal is under the lacquer? That seems odd for a '66.  I can't read that stamp at all, don't know if it's my resolution or my eyes! I see the 13 and a smudge of red and that's it. By the way, a '68 would have '66 pots.

It's beautiful!    

[scottme]

Thanks guys. I haven't checked in the trem cavity as yet, but I will as soon as I can.Maybe someone went to some effort to convert the neck to a 66? The 13 code was still around in early 68.

[daydreamdelay]

seems a little odd to me compared to my current and previous 66's

both codes on mine have black ink, I've only seen red on later versions.. both logo's were positioned differently, on top of the lacquer, and had blackened and slightly chipped over time. this logo looks brand new because it was lacquered over, the string tree and pickup covers look brand new also.. maybe it is a later version that's headstock was redone?

looks great either way.. mine finally has a twin on the board 

[fullerplast]

Thats true about the ink.

[i love sharin foo]

I never really thought about the color of it. My '66 has the stamp in black.

Justin

[slomomarc]

Nice looking Jazzmaster...............The block and bound necks always look really cool..................I'll have to put one on my shopping list

[mezcalhead]

The '66/'68 issue is interesting, and FWIW in that photo I definitely agree with Justin that the second-last letter of the stamp looks like a "6" .. although you're right there with it and can see it better than any of us can.

The bottom line, however, is that you have a damn excellent guitar there. Congratulations!

[fullerplast]

The bottom line, however, is that you have a damn excellent guitar there. Congratulations!

Amen Bro!

[scottme]

Yes, I can't complain either way, even as a good condition 68, still a good price. I would assume that if it was glossed over, it seems like a good job and was probably done a while ago. A concern is that maybe the top coat was rather different material, so there will be major checking / finish cracking as time goes by.

The tremelo cavity:



To the left of the cavity as shown, if you look closely, it looks a bit like a 6 and 8. Does anyone have pics of 66-68 date lettering on the body?

The tone pot has the following codes on the side:

134 117
BAO 11-346
1 MEG - C1

[fullerplast]

I have a set of those 134 pots right now. They have the same odd numbers under the first line.

Mine are:

134 7146
BAB 11  6374

But they have no value under that. I didn't even look them up to see the manufacturer, but I have a feeling they are CentraLab.

So that one pot has been replaced, not too uncommon. If you want to replace it, theoretically 1966 pots should be the easiest to come by (since they were used for so many years).

Dammit... I can't see any markings in there either, not even a trace. I must have a "date mark filter" turned on!

Your Jazzmaster is in great condition...