Vintage Fender Style with Raw Gold Foil Tone
Inspired by the catalog store instruments of the vintage era, Fender’s Gold Foil series seamlessly merges garage-rock swagger, vintage Fender flair, and effortless modern playability. This guitar’s warm-sounding mahogany body takes a wild leap from the typical Jazzmaster formula, with a trio of Gold Foil mini-humbuckers designed to capture the chimey, articulate, and raw flavor from countless catalog-order instruments from the ’50s and ’60s. Still, while old-school budget guitars inspire the Gold Foil Jazzmaster’s tone, playability is a different story — this guitar’s ebony-topped maple neck, robust ’60s “C” profile, vintage-tall frets, and 9-inch radius boast a high-performance feel your typical Teisco could only dream of. Top it all off with a stability-enhancing Mustang bridge and a Bigsby-licensed B50 vibrato, and the Fender Gold Foil Jazzmaster takes Gold Foil tone to an entirely new level of feel and performance.
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Gold Foil pickups straight out of a vintage catalog
Gold Foil pickups are a true underdog story in the history of the electric guitar. Originally found on import and department store instruments in the 1950s and 1960s, many high-level players scorned these pickups not for their tone, but because of the budget instruments they were attached to. However, as the ’60s garage rock movement began to bloom, young players started to adopt Gold Foil-equipped instruments out of sheer necessity. As it turns out, the classic low-output spark of the Gold Foil served as the perfect foundation for the era's loud, energetic, and unrefined rock music, later influencing 6-string icons such as Ry Cooder to hot rod their Fender instruments with a Gold Foil pickup. More than a half-century after the fact, Gold Foil pickups now rightfully reside among the pantheon of timeless pickup designs.
A powerhouse of playability
While the rest of the guitar sports a serious vintage vibe, the Gold Foil Jazzmaster’s neck detours from the budget guitar playbook with an ultra-high-performance feel. Starting with a piece of rock-solid maple carved into a chunky ’60s “C” profile, the Gold Foil Jazzmaster’s block and bound ebony fingerboard offer high-class refinement and a smooth, silky feel. Moreover, 21 narrow-tall frets in a 9.5-inch radius afford you effortless modern playability up and down the fingerboard — even when pushing out multi-step bends on the fingerboard’s upper register.
Bigsby-licensed B50 Vibrato
The Gold Foil Jazzmaster mixes up the standard Jazzmaster design with the combination of a Mustang-style bridge and Bigsby B50 Vibrato. Like the original Jazzmaster setup, this pairing results in effortless warble and surfy flutter, but the increased break angle also goes a long way to enhance sustain. What’s more, the bridge forgoes the standard notched-saddle, individually height-adjustable vintage Jazzmaster bridge for a Mustang-style bridge — a modification that’s been around nearly as long as the Jazzmaster.
Fender Gold Foil Jazzmaster Electric Guitar Features:
- Inspired by the old-school style and raw tones of the garage rock era
- Mahogany offset-style Jazzmaster provides a slightly warmer tone than alder or ash
- Maple neck carved into a robust ’60s “C” profile, then topped with an elegant ebony fingerboard, binding, and block inlays
- 21 narrow-tall frets in a 9.5-inch radius for full-featured modern playability
- Mustang-style bridge for enhanced stability
- Bigsby-licensed B50 unlocks surfy warble and deep vibrato
- Jaguar-style per-pickup switches for a touch of style and expanded tonal options
- Triple Alnico V Gold Foil mini humbuckers deliver the spark, chime, and grit of their vintage inspiration, but with added weight and heft
