It’s hard to believe the Fender Jazzmaster was first introduced 50 years ago, back in 1958. While it’s not one of the guitars that has it’s own section here at jag-stang.com we do have a strong affinity for the Jazzy.

It’s very likely that if there was no Fender Jazzmaster there would be no Fender Jaguar and thus no Fender Jag-Stang ! And oh how sad that would make us!

Are you a current or former Jazzmaster owner? We would love to hear your thoughts on the jazzy and how it influenced your playing over the years in the comments to this post.

If you’re interested in more of the inner details of a 1958 Jazzmaster you should visit this fantastic web page. [link] That page has a lot of detailed photos and descriptions of one.

And here’s a few vintage Fender Jazzmaster ads to enjoy while reminiscing. (Click the images for larger versions.)

A bit more info is trickling out above the upcoming Billy Corgan signature stratocaster.

Fender blogs about some custom DiMarzio BC pickups HERE. Being called BC80 and BC89 they also have a photo on the blog post. If anyone has a guess as to what DiMarzio model these might be based on let’s hear it.

[photo via Fender Blog]

On Jan 21 there was a post on the Fender blog with the following quote: “soon-to-be Fender signature artist Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins” Which would indicate an official signature guitar is on the horizon. Along with that post was a great video of Billy visiting the Fender booth at Winter NAMM 2008.

The blog post and video have since been removed by Fender so it appears the community team jumped the gun a bit in sharing the news of this signature guitar.

EDIT: the Fender blog post and video that were unavailable since Jan 24 have now returned. (Jan 29)

Fender Blog Post with video [link]

The online buzz is that the strat will be the one he’s been playing on the latest pumpkins tour. The newish looking 70s styled strat. And it will come in 2 colors, black and white (creme?).

Hopefully Fender will give some official info soon.

Now that Winter NAMM 2008 is complete we thought we would put together a summary of some of our favorites things from the show. Feel free to tell us your favorites by commenting this post.

AXL Badwater Guitars With “Eldorado” Body Style - great looking guitar with telecaster vibe

BOSS GT-10 Guitar Effects Processor

Gadow Guitars American Series

Bunch of new Gibson custom model guitars including a Steve Jones (Sex Pistols) model.

Gig-fx Pro-chop pedal for crazy chopping, panning, and tremelo effects. This could be a whole lot of fun.

So that was some of our favorites from the show. Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of excitement from this years releases. I’m sure we missed a bunch so let us know if you saw any cool gear announced and what your favorites were.

(Note: Here is a link to harmony-central’s complete list of press releases from the show.)

Not a joke! On a recent shopping trip to JC Penny and Kohls department stores I was shocked to see t-shirts and hoodies with jag-stangs on them! They are actually Nirvana t-shirts and hoodies which have the below graphic.

The t-shirt looks like this.

The shirts were cheap at around $9 and the hoodies at around $19. I would guess that whatever semi-large department store that carry many of the printed t-shirts this time of year would have them. Or if you search google for ‘nirvana guitar shirt’ you can find them.

There also appears to be a jaguar shirt (shown below) but I did not see it in the stores.

Earlier this year saw the addition of the J. Mascis Jazzmaster to the Fender Artist Series and it looks like there will be an addition of a Elvis Costello Jazzmaster to the series shortly.

This upcoming announcement can be assumed from a recent Ebay auction claiming to be the first prototype of the signature guitar.

The guitar is based on Elvis’ vintage jazzmaster that appeared on the cover of his fantastic debut album My Aim Is True.

The jazzmaster will feature a satin brown transparent lacquer finish. Other details are not known as of yet.

It’s always interesting to look at variations of popular guitar shapes and what direction creative builders and companies take them in. Well here’s an interesting guitar based on the J-style by a company called Peekamoose guitars. I had not heard of Peekamoose until reading this post at stratoblogster about this guitar.

Here’s the details on the J-style guitar which Peekamoose calls their “Model 3″. (their Model 3 web page)

Model-3 basics

• 22 fret, quarter sawn, rock maple neck
• Rosewood Maple, or Ebony fret board
• All necks have their frets dressed on our Plek machine.
• Truss-Rod access at the headstock
• Ash body

Hardware & Appointments:

• Tusq® bridge saddles
• Tusq® nut
• Sperzel® locking tuners
• Dunlop® Strap Locks (traditional style)
• Nickel Neck Plate and Stainless Screws
• Ivoroid Knobs
• Three-layer Tortoise or Vint-Mint pick guard and back plate
• Peekamoose custom spec pickups by Seymour Duncan
• Peekamoose, full coax, isolated wiring
• Dual sound switching for each pickup and a phase reverse switch
• Optional 250K or 500K volume taper (specify when ordering)
• High pass filter standard on all hi-impedance models

Seems like it would be a great Jagmaster-ish guitar.

If you’ve played or own one of these please let us know what your thoughts on it.

(photo credits: peekamoose.com)
Visit Peekamoose

As reported by EGR and Gearwire, Gibson adds another great model to it’s “Inspired by” series with the new Dave Grohl inspired DG-335 semi-hollowbody.

Grohl has been a long time Gibson user almost seen exclusively with Gibson guitars on stage, including various Explorer’s, Les Pauls, and SGs. Especially if you leave out the period where he used the Ampeg / Dan Armstrong plexi guitars you rarely see him with anything else.

Grohl’s DG-335 has a Firebird-style headstock with six-side tuners, ES-335 semi-hollow body, split diamond inlays inspired by the Trini Lopez signature model, and Burstbucker pickups. Features from musicians friend shown below.

Gibson Inspired By Dave Grohl DG-335 Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitar Features:

• Scale Length: 24-3/4″
• Neck Joint: Set-in
• Neck Wood: Mahogany
• Fretboard: Rosewood
• Neck Shape: ’50s
• Frets: 22
• Nut Width: 1-11/16″
• Fretboard Radius: 12
• Bridge: Fixed
• Pickup Bridge: Burstbucker 2
• Pickup Neck: Burstbucker 1
• Controls: Volume / Volume / Tone / Tone
• Tuners: Grover
• Hardware color: Chrome
• Pickup selector: 3-way
• Finish: Lacquer

Overall it’s a great looking guitar with the ebony version retailing at $2500 and the pelham blue at $2900. Gibson is doing a great job of pushing their product into the alternative guitar market over the last few years as Fender continues to flounder a bit.