I have owned many great guitars in my life, but I have never owned a Fender Jazzmaster… Being a fan of Pops Staples, The Ventures, Luther Perkins, J Mascis, Willie Nelson (!) and Nils Cline I have always been drawn to their modernistic look and versatility….
I sold a couple guitars this year and I decided to have a Jazzmaster built for me. I am a huge neck junkie and no stock Fender Jazzmaster has a large enough neck, so I started with a Musikraft neck built to their largest stock specs which I love. It is a big 1″ deep C shape with a 1 3/4 inch nut…
My East Nashville buddy Jake Bradley has started building solidbody electric guitars from scratch. Jake is a great picker and woodworker. He has great way of building the body to suit the neck, making the neck pocket route off of the neck itself rather than a stock route from a template. This insures a great neck to body fit, a very important aspect of making a great solidbody guitar. I love how he builds, and assembles the guitar to make sure its a good one one, before the painting process. I had the unpainted version at my house for about a week and could not put it down! Its back to Jake for painting (mid 60’s Fender Shoreline Gold Metallic), finishing, and a few tweaks. For now, here a few pics of the unpainted Jazzmaster… (Guitar photos by Kathryn Johnson)
Grant McE. Johnson 