I lay awake at night wondering: if someone told Leo Fender our concept of a "partscaster" being different from a real fender guitar, would he even understand that? He designed them to be partscasters 😎 Cool story.

I think the neck is a lot cooler than what would have been on a pre-CBS Jazzmaster. Candy Apple Red was available only as a custom color, so that body has a seriously interesting history that we can only speculate over. All in all, the mystique of that guitar is truly something to behold and it honestly sounds like you've got something really special.

My 80s les paul turned out to be a 50s lol

Pre-CBS body and a post-CBS donor neck. All’s well that ends well. Congrats! 🎸

Ah man, I can see why you’d want to restore the red finish but it looks killer in natural!

if your guitar could talk, it'd be screaming out to be taken back to candy apple, fulfil its wishes

Definitely think it's worth a full restoration You wouldn't want to do that to one from early on that was all original, but this one is a stripped partscaster so it won't compromise the value, and may well increase it. It very likely was originally Candy Apple Red, which makes it the more likely that the body is from a little later than 1960. Fender has always offered custom colors, but up until about 1962 they were available only by special order. My vote is for Candy Apple Red on the body, with a full refin (with a new period-correct decal) on the neck so you can have a matching headstock.

nice one.. I so relate to this story, I rescued a 59 body that has a 62 Strat neck that was in pieces. It was found in pieces stuck away in the back of someones garage amongst oily rags and a bunch of other stuff. All the electronics were inside a shoe box. Had been given a really horrid paint job with quite literally orange PVA paint. I asked if I could try to put it all together and see if it worked and was told by the owner that if I could make it work that I could have it - challenge accepted!! I stripped it down to natural wood and found that at some point it had been butchered somewhat as they had gouged out a piece of the body to connect a wire from the volume pot to the bridge post, apparently that resolved an earthing issue that used to cause a bit of a hum. Anyway, got a nice piece of ash to cut a wedge and fit it in the gap., sanded down and sealed with a clear, did a refret. Has the tortoise shell scratch plate and I have had this guitar for about 40 years now.. it is old, a beauty and a real partscaster. I suppose for me the real part of all of this is not so much about how original or how old the guitar is (although it helps) but actually how it makes you feel when playing it.. ;-)

Interesting story but im glad you didn’t get a fake one is just that it’s more vintage than you expected haha

i mean, the reason why fender chose bolt on necks were because if one gets damaged/frets wore out, you'd just swap the neck for a newer one.

Now that's a tale with a very happy ending...or at least the beginning of an even more curious story with an even happier ending to come! Very good detecting skills bro, the only question I have is to the other musicians and players here:- "How long will it be before some of those 'modded' Fenders, Squiers and De Armond guitars and basses become almost untraceable, history-wise, and another instrument detective finds a Squier neck on a 70s Precision or Jazz Bass body?" ...before any of you say it couldn't happen, check out the Facebook groups for modders and general owners of the various 'Fender' produced instruments. There you'll find some amazing finds, not quite as unique as your fine Jazz Master maybe, but the number of vintage Leo/CBS/Matsumoko built guitars, and in particular their basses, seems to be on the increase...possibly due to original owners selling off items they no longer want or use as they get older, or as most likely due to the owner passing away and family members not knowing full histories of work done, mods etc, and either giving away to friends of the family or younger members of said family who later trade or sell it for one of Fenders newer and shinier models. P.S. sorry for waffling on, I restore and sell basses for a living so find this video particularly interesting, I'm a massive fan of the Jazz Master/Jaguar line of guitars and basses. I own four as my personal basses and occasionally when I'm parts hunting I come across Fender bodies on Squier necks...and vice versa, Fender customshop vintage 60s pickups in Squier Affinity basses too, and so on. Keep up the good work young man, you have my undivided attention now :-)

You're a great Storyteller! Keep it up.🐾🎸

LOL this emotional rollercoaster is all too relatable. What a great find for you!!

Cool story Jarvis.

I have a similar story on my 1965. It was candy apple red but was painted black at some point. The pickups, pots, and neck all date to 1965, but it has later F-style tuners and a 68 neck plate. I refinished it in sonic blue and I love it.

wow thats such a cool story and Mike is the perfect guy to work with figuring it out

I think its beautiful the way it is now! You have made it this way throughout the years. If you change anything, it may not seem the same anymore. I found this thru Instagram, glad I did. Great story, and channel. I'll be watching from now on!

Yes Jarvis! I've had the pleasure of hearing this guitar live a number of times. It's an absolute tone machine. The guy playing it helps too ...nice one dude. Loving the vids.

i think it looks really cool with just the unfinished plain wood like that, especially with a black pickguard and white controls, pickup covers.

Dude, I enjoyed your story very much. Congrats on the find. Very Cool. Jazzmasters seem to be infamous for these kinds of mix ups. I had a misterious one myself a couple years back. It was a 68 with all 68 appointments but the neck was stamped 65. So I suppose the unfinished but stamped neck was sitting somewhere for three years. Oh, and mine was ex-CAR as well.

Super interesting! Mike is a total hero. From what I know CAR wasn't a custom colour option until 1963, but there is such thing as a factory refinish. And I have a feeling that sending a guitar back to Fender for a new neck wasn't entirely uncommon, so it makes sense that it doesn't have the original neck. That said, who knows the journey of both neck and body between 66' and 01'!

Man that was a crazy find! All those years playing it and never really knew you had a possible goldmine. Im surprised though the refin guy didn't catch this. Peace!

I just found your channel and when I saw it on Instagram I thought the pickup hole was filled with some type of candy apple red candy and I was so confused. I'll definitely be staying with your channel for a while

don't restore to candy apple red!

Bloody cool. It's definitely an early tort guard period '59 body which had 10 screws. The dowled screw hole near the jack gives it authenticity. Fantastic find. The neck looks great.

That’s so cool👍 glad u came out on top!

Nice Dansette Conquest Auto in background, got the same record player, along with a red 58 Major too.

Love the story! I don’t know that much about Jazzmasters. I’m more of a crazy Fender Mustang freak, I have a 64 Mustang in Dakota red. But as far as I know candy apple red was a custom order colour so it could have actually been the original finish even. Those custom colours were based on Cadillac colours which I think is pretty cool. So maybe what you have is a parts Jazzmaster but very real, maybe it’s a 59 or early 60’s custom order candy apple red but with a 66 neck. Whatever the case, it’s a very nice Jazzmaster!

Dude, this video was awesome! I saw your Tiktok post about it being fake and was gutted for you. I know how that feels. But this an awesome ending 😂 I hope this video blows up

Safe to say this is pre 62 body because thimbles (body inserts for bridge) have thicker rings that sticks out of body. This changed in 62 with introduction of jaguar which has the same bridge but has a string mute which would not fit with the pre 62 thimbles. Fender simply started making them thinner for both guitars so they don't need to produce 2 versions of the same part. Based on that I would guess both black bobbin pickups and trem must be indeed originals from earliest runs. What I would be skeptical about is the candy apple red being the original color. I think fender didn't spray color under bridge pickup as it was a place where they were putting serial number on a body - I would guess that might have been some earlier refinish. I would actually guess that the candy apple red and the neck and pickguard swap might have happen together. Maybe owner at the time might have been into the color but also wanted to have binding and big inlays to go with it. I think these modifications together would make it more modern looking in late sixties, early 70s which might have been the point of these.

was this before or after you put the mastery bridge on it? the one that looks like a violin :)

Absolutely beautiful wood grain, If i were to refinish it I would go with navy blue!

Loved this video! Congrats man.

So glad theres a happy ending!💙 I was gutted for you. Such beautiful guitars.im getting my 1st Jazzmaster in January. American professional or fender Ultra Not sure yet.but I'm preety set its gonna be a JM🤘

@Jarvis Guitar I read somewhere that the original Candy Apple Red was done with a gold flake underspray for a year or two until they changed it to silver. This might help you narrow down when it was painted. Cheers.

My guess is Andy's were going to strip and restore it, then went into liquidation and the wrong neck was thrown on so it was sold as a '66 and not a '59. The timing of 2001 was when they were in one or three liquidations. At times the shop was being run by people employed by the receivers. One thing I hate to mention, but a lot of guitars taken in for refinish and repair by Andy's were sold off by either Andy or the receivers (depending on who you talk to) hopefully this isn't the case here.

Thats a great ending and cool guitar. Crazy someone got rid of the candy apple though!

A restoration video or even series would be neat :)

Could it be possible that it had a damaged neck, was sent back to Fender during the years of bound & block neck options, and the owner requested to upgrade to such a neck and similar era finish? That would make sense for a bound neck with a candy red body. The next things to try would be to lift the brass shielding inside to inspect for previous over-spray, as well as apply some acetone to the red and see if it's actual nitro.

that's not fake, that's fantastic

Cool video. I have a 1975 Jazzmaster with a black pickguard. The black ones were produced until 1980. So you probably have a mid 70s pickguard, it looks authentic with the metallic underside.

Based on the title I expected a much worse outcome, crazy story! Is the only thing dating this to '59 the pots? If so, is it possible that those could be after-market?

They probably saw only the neck and didnt looked deeper in the body like "oh look another cbs era one" great for you 😄 I would honestly keep it in that stripped wood finish with all dings and dents 🤩

Cool guitar and cool story .. its actually more common than you might think when it comes to offsets as they were never really considered collectable throughout the 90's. I have a similar story in reverse .. but first .. quick question .. did the case come with the guitar ? Because that is an early jazzmaster style case? Brown with gold lining would suggest 59/60. Then moved to Brown with red/orange before getting to the the black cases (via the white ones). Clearly you can't use a case to date a guitar but if you have a 59 body that came with a 59 case the evidence adds up. I'm sure you know already but the tuners are changed on that neck as they would have been f plate tuners .. you can just about see the holes on the back of the headstock. Also what's the neck plate as that would help ... I'm guessing its a F plate CBS version if they sold it as a 66? As I say my story is in reverse ... I bought my first jazzmaster form a London vintage store (remaining nameless at this point) but not Denmark street in 1992. They had about 10 refinished Jazzmasters / Jags that had just come in from the US .. I played them all but left this crappy refinished red ish pink jazzmaster until the end. Picked it up .. played one chord and bought it straight away. It was sold to me as a fin 64/65 ... the L series neck plate and the decals suggested so. They offered a service to bring the guitar back 4 weeks later for a setup, which I did ... when I went to pick it up they tried to buy it back from me because how much they liked the neck ... I was already in love with it so said no. I had no idea what it was .. played it throughout the 90's. I then got into vintage guitars at a later date .. realised that the neck on this one I had owned for year was a pencil date 1961 slab board. I figured that it was most likely to have been refinished at Fender in 65 as Fiesta Red hence the plate and the decal but that had a body refinish again later in the 80's (the crap red / pink one ... the headstock always looked right though). While I've taken apart all the 100% original offsets I have since owned I've never bothered taking apart my first one to date the body ... I suspect like you ... when I bought it it was cool to be a vintage guitar but it was just a guitar that I used in my band ... its nice to guess at the history but the end of the day it won't change what it means to me as it was my number one for years. My guess is yours is a 59/60 and had the neck changed in 66 instead of a refret (which is what Leo intended you to do) and like a lot of offsets got messed around with over the years with finish / pickguards tuners etc. Could have been refinished CAR at that point too as that was the most popular custom colour at that point so not crazy to think ... I agree with many others that it was most likely sunburst originally. I have to say ... love this stuff!

Went from...”Oh crap” to “ Hey good days” Great story mate. Turned out good 😎👍

I soon as I saw the old tweed case I as wondering if it was older than you thought it was. A 66 would have a black tolex case. Too bad the neck is gone, those clay dot jazz masters are the best looking in my opinion. But the bound/ block inlayed 66 are cool too

I don't think they were offering candy apple red in 1959, so maybe that's what the first refinish coat. But in 1960 they started offering it so maybe that's correct

Haha a mix mash of awesome parts at least 😍 great video thanks man 👌

Great story, great vid 👌I love these types of stories.

Shopping for vintage guitars in Denmark Street was your first mistake. Those Music Ground chumps were probably involved.

Damn, this is a bummer. Very informative video here, though. And here you’re finding out that it’s even older! 🙌🏻 I have an old 60s telecaster, and I can tell some of it isn’t original, but I don’t mind. It looks bad ass, feels amazing.

Hello! Great video and such a cool ending of the story, a 1960 jazzmaster body :) Congrats! I have '65 Fender Jaguar stripped many years ago to natural and I'm thinking of refin to original blonde, but it looks amazing like it is now - just like your Jazzmaster. So it's a 50/50 to do this or not :)

How many 59' pots do you have? How much a piece? How much for the bridge?

I seen a dead giveaway, right away. These always had a filled nail hole just adjacent to the low E tuner on the back of the headstock. It's missing on this one !

Jarvis you're a national treasure

Whoamy mate n i just searched him down a candy red jazzmaster Japanese but i am think cost wise it must be a shock to the system going from mid to thinking low to thinkin high value . God bless a good fender . There is nothing better than when u crack up on that case for the first time

Crazy story. I'd assemble it and leave it be I like how it looks. When I thought it was fake I was thinking somebody did a GREAT relic job. That stuff really looks old. :)

What about the number on the neck plate ? is it '66 correct ? Long time ago I had a '65 (13 DEC 65B) with bound neck also but still dots, all original, sanded too, natural refin(previously sunburst) with tortoise pickguard, and patent numbers on the bridge. Its serial was 116204. A few years later, I saw it again for sale in a shop in Paris, I knew it was mine because of every known dings, and bad refret job. And...when I looked at the back, it had a 204XXX number, the plate had been changed probably for a strat or a tele that was worth more ! It was in 1985...

Mike is just the nicest of guys.

That is the Tremolo not the bridge, you also don't see copper shielding in the cavity on fakes

great video mate!

I like your style (or is behavior the better word?) and really enjoy your way of talking and the british accent. Im a simple man, i love vintage guitars, so i subscribe. Thumps up! Many best greetings from berlin- germany 😃

Brilliant story with a great ending

You can lift the shielding. Under the bridge pu shielding there might be a pencil written date. Candy apple red was a custom colour until the mid 60's, from the mid 60's it was a more common colour on Fender guitars. I asume the the was a CAR refin. Most likely the original colour was a 3 tone Sunburst. Early 58-59 bodies were most done in Ash, Alder was more common late 59. Most Alder Jazzmasters were finished in a 3 TSB. It looks like your shielding is consistent to an early 60's Jazzmaster. I think the simplified the shielding later on. The wires on the pick ups are non original, there should be 2 cloth wires running from each pickup, perhaps that's why you are thrown on on them. But the bobbins look the real deal as do the windings. It's not uncommon to find the early Jazzmasters to be robbed of their necks as they are very close to strat necks. Mind that Jazzmasters were pretty much unwanted after the 60's... My guess is that you have a Late 50's - early 60's Jazzmaster body with a 70's pickguard mated with a 1966 Blocks and Binding neck, making it a "Partsmaster".... Don't call it a Fake as it certainly isn't one ;-)

Thanks for the rollercoaster ride :-)

Awesome video! I remember this from the Guildford days.

I'm not sure if anyone's said this yet, but shouldn't the tuners be f-stamped tuners on a post CBS neck with blocks and binding? the ones on yours look like kluson style.

its legit pre cbs other than the neck witch was likely replaced in 66 due to how the two aged together..i think dakota red would look better but candy apple or sonic blue even? ide be tempted to go blonde myself...

Really enjoyed the story!

great video!!

Clapton swapped around necks and bodies on Fender Strats back in the day. I wonder where they are!

If you do restore the Candy Apple Red, I highly suggest you get MJT guitars in the US to do it, they can give it a patina/relic without it looking bad!

Seems to me that a shop like the one you bought it from would have researched beyond the neck date, because what is the resale value of a '59/60 vs. a '66? I realize it has mixed parts, but it makes me wonder, how many people rely on the shops word and might either be thinking they have say, a '62 Jaguar that they paid $$$ for, when it's actually a CBS model?

Easy to imagine the guitar could have been repainted in the mid 60's and stripped natural late 60's through 70's - everyone was going to natural in the 70's it seems and pickup routes might have the evidence of a prior refin. I've seen it a lot. The volume pot doesnt date to 1959 though and is too clean/modern design for a CTS to be that old. The tone pot is a vintage style though and might be more likely to be original. The black shielded wiring has all been redone. Body does seem pretty old though so that not a bad thing.

Nice Guitar BTW, Most likely, you have a late 59 early 1960 guitar here. What was common in the 2000's would be to buy this guitar for the neck. What fakers would do is take the 59/60 stamped Jazzmaster neck and make it into a Stratocaster neck, as there the same neck. I would bet that guy had a 1966 strat, swapped the necks to make it a pre-CBS then put the Startocaster 1966 neck on your Jazzmaster to sell it off, because at the time the price difference was minimal at best. The stanard color for the Jazzmaster was three tone sunburst, BUT you could customer order it in many General motors metallic paints, and yes Candy apple red was a custom color, and the black pick guard is most likely original, the 58 had the anodized aluminum gold pick guards, but Leo, always the economist switched to plastic to save the money.

Right on man! Congrats. Dig the story.

Looks like the neck had a repair with cleats around the 4th fret? hmmm...

How much was it wen you bought it

I once bought a fake baby.

What a story! Subscribed and liked mate 👍

man googles creepy, i was talking to my friend about a 66 jazzmaster i found at a pawn shop and did a few searches yesterday and now this pops up on my recommended

Oh, this is actually a humble brag. I am glad that everything came up Milhouse for you in the end though, sincerely. 😀

This was great. Mike is a great guy

This is a classic CBS / Fender story. Just partscastering things together after they bought Fender. I believe they ran out of old stock bits by 68-69?

Hi Jarvis, are you in Brighton? I can’t imagine that the UK is home to too many luthiers called Pedro.

8:27 creepy breathing in the background D:

Leave it as it is. Is a killer guitar. Awesome story 😎

Loved how this turned out! Have you always preferred Jazzmasters over Jaguars?

Great Story! You have a Great Jazzmaster Jarvis!

What about the pick guard?

Bridge you mean vibrato/trem bud 👍🏻

Dude what a story! Definitely go candy apple red!!!

Yep im local too an a jazzy buff. The saddles too are 50s. i have a bunch of em ranging in dates up to 70s. Your pickups match 59 too they have just had new cables added. 58s had plain enamel wire. The body too is 59. i have pot pat pend hardware on one of mine. My advice to you, get rid of that ugly gaurd an either buy a expensive original, but it will look great. Or get a great repo. dont paint it, leave it as it is, a played partsmaster an a workhorse with history. It will totally transform with a celuloise gaurd. i may be able to help with the gaurd i know few guys.

Some argue even as late as '66 it's effectively pre-CBS as they continued using exisitng stock, staff, tooling and machinery etc. but looks like early body anyway. Very cool. I say restore to original paint job but make sure it's nitro.

I think you should restore it to candy apple red. That would be awesome. Great video! Subscribed!!

Pat (rhymes with hat) - N pending. Patent is something that give you credit for inventing something. Pending means the patent was submitted, but the official acknowledgement had yet to come through.

Yeah I think you should get it refined in candy apple red. Anyone who trys to tell you it'll change the sound of the guitar doesn't know what they're talking about.

Nah. Wouldn’t say it’s fake. But it appears to be parted. Seems you have a mostly vintage parts caster. I have a ‘65 mustang the same way. It’s a vintage instrument. However a previous owner either got it incomplete and put an aftermarket Pickguard and strat pickups in it. Or decided to put those parts in himself, and lost the originals.

It'd be a crying shame to paint that body

amazing story!