Eric Clapton's 1958 Jazzmaster

One of the earliest Jazzmasters, with a gold anodized pickguard. This guitar weighs just 8.10 lbs. and has a nut width of slightly under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Solid alder body, maple neck, and slab rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and clay dot position markers. Headstock decal with "Fender" logo in gold with black trim, "JAZZMASTER" and "OFFSET Contour Body PAT. PENDING" in black beside it, and "WITH SYNCHRONIZED FLOATING TREMOLO" in black below it. Single "butterfly" string tree. Individual Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval metal buttons. Four-bolt neckplate with serial number ("32808") between the top two screws. Two hot Jazzmaster pickups (large white rectangular six-polepiece pickups) with outputs of 8.68k and 7.71k. Original gold anodized metal pickguard. Two controls (master volume, master tone) with white plastic knobs plus three-way selector switch and jack socket on the treble side of the pickguard, two roller knobs (one volume, one tone) plus two-way slide switch on the bass side of the pickguard. The potentiometers are stamped "137 850" (CTS DEc 1958). Jazzmaster bridge and integrated tailpiece and tremolo. The neck is dated "12-58." This great slab-board Jazzmaster is in near mint (9.25) condition. There is some finish checking. On the back of the neck there are some very small marks, probably where a capo was used, and a few very small surface chips on the edges of the guitar. With the original bridge cover and tremolo arm. Housed in its original Fender "tweed" hardshell case with brown leather ends and orange plush lining (9.00). With a piece of green adhesive tape on the top of the case, inscribed by Lee Dickson: "Auction #14./'58 JAZZMASTER," and a piece of white adhesive tape on the end of the case, inscribed: "'58 SUNBURST -- ALENOVAS/FENDER -- JAZZMASTER #32808."

This guitar was Lot 72 in the 24 June 2004 Christie's New York sale of Eric Clapton's guitars. "Beautiful. I had one of these in the Yardbirds, with a tortoiseshell effect scratchplate. It was a nostalgic buy, I got it for the look of the guitar as much as anything… beautiful shaped body design, just pure…" (Eric Clapton, quoted in the sale catalogue). "This one's a particularly nice example. I seem to remember you got it just after the George Harrison Tour in Japan (November/December 1991)" (Lee Dickson, quoted).

"The Jazzmaster first appeared in Fender sales material during 1958, and at some $50 more than the Strat it became the new top-of-the-line model...Immediately striking to the electric guitarist of 1958 was the Jazzmaster's unusual offset-waist body shape...For the first time on a Fender, the Jazzmaster featured a separate rosewood fingerboard glued to the customary maple neck...The Jazzmaster's floating vibrato system was new, too, and had a tricky 'lock-off' facility aimed at preventing tuning problems if a string should break. The controls were certainly elaborate for the time…A small slide-switch selected between two individual circuits, offering player-preset rhythm and lead sounds. The idea was a good one: the ability to set up a rhythm sound and a lead sound, and switch between them. But the system seemed over-complicated to players brought up on straightforward volume and tone controls. The sound of the Jazzmaster was richer and warmer than players were used to from Fender. The name Jazzmaster had not been chosen at random, for Fender was aiming this different tone at jazz players, who at the time largely preferred hollowbody electrics, and principally those by Gibson. However, jazz guitarists found little appeal in this new, rather difficult solidbody guitar -- and mainstream Fender players largely stayed with their Stratocasters and Telecasters" (Tony Bacon, 50 Years of Fender, p. 26). Much to Fender's surprise, however, the Jazzmaster turned into the best surf guitar ever conceived.