The thing that caught my attention, with this particular Jazzmaster, was it's looks. The "oxblood" coloured body and head, with a tort scratchplate and creamy white pickups and "witch hat" knobs, just looked amazing. And boy was I pleased that it played and sounded just as good as it looked.

I've had this guitar for a few weeks now and have played it every day, through my current amp of choice, a Peavey Classic 30. I understand that the guitar is made from all American parts but assembled in Mexico, to keep the price down. And they even included a very nice Fender hard case. I've owned a couple of Jazzmasters before, a Classic Player and a Blacktop. Both were decent guitars but this model stands head and shoulders above them. One aspect I was particularly pleased with, is the tremolo. It's as smooth as can be. Many Jazzmaster and Jaguar trems, I have tried, have always seemed rattley, especially when used vigorously.

The Fender Troy Van Leeuwen Jazzmaster has a Mustang, brass-saddled bridge. The neck is C-profiled, with a 7.25”radius, bound rosewood, fingerboard and block markers. The pickups are American Vintage ’65 Jazzmaster single-coils. As with most JMs, you get a lead/rhythm switching, for variety. To be honest, I have it on lead all the time. I've always been a player, on basses or guitars, to have tones and volumes at full, unless they are active. I just tend to use the pickup selector and playing technique for tonal variety.

I pretty much exclusively use this guitar for instrumental surf music. I use plenty of the Classic 30's, delightful, spring reverb (which is even better than the one I had on my Fender Princeton Re-issue) and a single repeat, slap-back echo, most of the time. I also occasionally add tremolo, rotary speaker effect and/or longer, multi-repeat echo. And within it all, the Fender Troy Van Leeuwen Jazzmaster just sounds wonderful. And for me, is the ultimate surf guitar. It doesn't quite have the full-bodied clarity, I got previously, from my Burns Marvin 64 but somehow, it just sounds more authentic, with a lush, sparkling tone.

So yes, this guitar was a very good buy, for me.

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The bridge post adjustment holes look bigger than normal. Nice guitar.

That is a really good looking guitar!

SaschaReynders wrote:

One thing I noticed though, and I see it in these pics as well, is that the rosewood fretboards on these models are very pale and dry... Dunno if they leave the factory like that, or if this is the result of bad conditioning during transport overseas. But I applied some Dunlop lemon oil and fretboard conditioner, and it already looks and feels a lot better.

That is the case on pretty much all new Fenders, going back a few years, even my '65 AVRI Strat. I think the available rosewood is no longer of the quality it used to be....

Ivan
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You see light boards going back to the late '60s.

Fender also appears to save the darker woods for custom shop instruments.

It certainly is quite different from other rosewood 'boards, I own.
There's some very obvious grain, in parts.
I didn't find mine dry though. It's very smooth and comfortable.

http://soundcloud.com/graham-pike

Old punks never die... They just become surf rockers.

Ivan, the first I heard of it was maybe 6 or 7 years ago on the Telecaster forum. There was a lengthy discussion about it with a couple of Fender employees chiming in & confirming it along with posting a couple pictures of pallets of Strat necks with Pau Ferro fretboards awaiting finishing. I've also spoken with an exec from Fender about it at the Tempe guitar show a couple years back. I don't know exactly when they started exploring alternative fretboard woods, but I suspect it could've been as early as the late 90's. The supply of East Indian rosewood is dwindling & it's becoming more expensive, so alternatives need to be found. Pau Ferro's scientific name is Caesalpinia ferrea. To be a true rosewood, it would have to be part of the Dalbergia family. Fender probably calls it rosewood because one of its common names is "Bolivian Rosewood". As I said before, it is an excellent hardwood. In fact, I like it better than East Indian rosewood & I have used it for fretboards before. It machines & sands beautifully. It is slightly more dense than E.I. Rosewood too. It tends to resemble Brazilian Rosewood in looks, feel & tone. It usually has more brown tones in it rather than the purple tones found in E.I. Rosewood. Lemon oil will darken it up nicely.

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Man, I keep looking at the pics above. That's such a snazzy guitar. I love how the white around the pickguard makes it pop off that dark body. So crisp and classy looking. And all the white accents throughout look great, and pop nicely...knobs, pickups, binding, blocks, etc. There's just nothing wrong with that guitar, visually.

I honestly believe if I had $2,000 or so to spend on a guitar, I'd just get this one and pocket the change. Unless I went with with something homemade or custom-built where I got to choose every little thing, I don't think I could get anything nicer-looking off-the-rack, stock.

What's the story with the color? Is that something Fender has used in the past, or is it something TVL requested? Is that a color he's used on other guitars, a signature sort of thing (sorry, I don't know anything about the guy other than the very basics)?

I know that I've never seen, or heard of, the color before now (but I'm not a Fender historian either). I've only heard it used in relation to grill cloth color.

Last edited: Jul 15, 2014 21:58:00

JakeDobner wrote:

I've been having recently with friends, and we all agree, is that poly isn't as satisfying. Our bassist has a killer MIM 60s Jazz Bass that should be worn through, but looks pristine. He has worn through two bridge pickup covers(the metal ones)... Yet the finish is new. He really laments that the finish doesn't age or feel broken in like the brilliant feel of a worn guitar. The dirt and grime just doesn't make the neck nice and smooth/slick. the finish will never seep into the finish. It will always feel nasty when the least amount of sweat gets on the guitar.

There's only one thing worst than damaged poly on guitars and that's poly relicing! My '83 JV is poly coated and as you say, (especially with some polishing) from a short distance it looks new. But luckily it's a thin-skin over basswood which dents easily and the paint sticks to the dent rather than breaking off. The back of the body has hundreds of tiny dents and looks very cool in my opinion.