Elvis Costello - Walnut Jazzmaster

Costello started the sessions for his first album, "My Aim Is True", playing a new Telecaster that a drummer friend who worked for Fender had gotten for him with a company discount in California.

Back in the UK, Costello walked past a shop window that had a Jazzmaster in it.  Says Costello: "I'd never seen one before; it kinda looked like a Strat someone had cut a bit off.  I didn't even know the guitar existed."

So he traded in his new Tele for the used Jazzmaster.

Costello's new guitar came with a DIY refinish, a "home furniture varnish like you would have on your auntie's footstool."

Later he had it refinished in a "not entirely attractive grey finish and put my name up the neck 'cos I was always into country and western-style guitar gimmicks. And I figured no one would nick it then, it'd be useless to them."

Mid 1970's Jazzmaster - Walnut

Robert Smith - The White Jazzmaster

Used on many classic Cure tracks, Smith explained how he got his trademark Jazzmaster for "Guitar World" in 1996:

"It was because Elvis Costello used one. I saw him do "I Don't Want to go to Chelsea" on Top of the Pops and I said, "That's one really good looking guitar." At that stage, my knowledge of guitars was pretty basic."

"It had to be a Fender when I went out shopping. I thought of buying a Jaguar when I went to the shop, but they didn't have one; they had a Jazzmaster instead, and they gave me a price knockdown - like $150 or something. So I bought it. And that was basically my sound."

"I used a Storm overdrive pedal and Storm distortion for years as well. That was my setup through the Pornography album."

The Jazzmaster was customized with the addition of a Silvertone pickup and was eventually painted black.

1965 Fender Jazzmaster - White

Nels Cline - 1959 Jazzmaster

Nels Cline of Wilco on his Jazzmaster from "Downbeat":

"It was going to be a Jazzmaster or a Jaguar, whichever one I saw first, because they were still really cheap then. Because of my fixation on Television and Sonic Youth, I felt like I needed to have one of those guitars, particularly to have strings behind the bridge, to get some of those Sonic Youth effects. Because also when I finally did play one, I found the whole shape of everything, the body and the neck, the whole feel of it, extremely appealing. So, in the late ‘80s I got this Jaguar that I played on all my Trio records back then, and all the stuff with Mike Watt."

"Then I saw Joe Baiza playing this Jazzmaster one night at an old concert series I used to do on Monday Nights [at a Santa Monica club] called the Alligator Lounge. And he didn’t have his Strat, and I said, “Joe, what’s with this guitar?” And I remember thinking, Man, that’s the coolest Jazzmaster I’ve ever seen, it’s black, it just looks so great. And he said, “It’s Watt’s. He loaned it to me because my Strat’s being refitted.”

"I knew [Watt] had guitars. I had just never seen this one. So I asked him when we started touring. And he said, “Well, I don’t need this guitar. Why don’t you use it on tour, and when you’re done you’ll have some money and you can buy it from me.” So that’s the guitar, the ’59 black Jazzmaster – it was black, until I scraped all the paint off it and started trashing it – that’s my main guitar. That’s the guitar I play with Wilco, it’s the guitar I play with the Geraldine Fibbers."

"I used to think of it as my rock guitar, and I used to just throw it around. I didn’t realize when I first had it that it was going to be the best Jazzmaster that I’ve ever played. Oops. So now it’s almost destroyed."

1959 Fender Jazzmaster - Black

J Mascis - Jazzmaster

J has many Jazzmasters,all from the 1960's, He also has had a '62 blue/tortoise pickguard, '65 Lake Placid Blue/white pickguard and '59 blue/gold-anodized pickguard. This is his first Jazzmaster, that he said that he got for $300 at "Slimy Bob's Guitar Ripoff Shop". It is a sunburst covered in stickers and has Grover tuners installed, and was used on the first three Dinosaur Jr albums. He uses his signature Jazzmasters on stage now, along with a couple of vintage sunburst Jazzmasters. 1965 Fender Jazzmaster - Sunburst

Thurston Moore - Jazzmaster

Date Unknown - Fender Jazzmaster - Red

One of several Fender Jazzmasters purchased by Thurston in the "Daydream Nation" era, and one of his main guitars up until its theft in July 1999.

Moore usually deletes the Rhythm circuit, preferring to have everything wired to a master volume and a simple three way switch. Moore also replaces the bridges of his Jazzmasters for something a little more substantial.