INFLUENCE

The Jazzmaster has been a key tool in music and has touched every typed of genre possible. Upon its release, it was not embraced by the Jazz world, but instead by California surf rock. Bands like The Fireballs, The Ventures, and The Surfaris created a whole movement around Fender’s newest guitar. Luther Perkins, known mostly as the guitarist for Johnny Cash’s band The Tennessee Three, was one of the earliest Jazzmaster players. Luther credited the Jazzmaster as the source of Cash’s signature sound. Early photographs of James Marshall Hendrix show him holding a Jazzmaster strung upside down while on stage with The Isley Brothers. That’s right - Jimi Hendrix played a Jazzmaster. Photos can also be found of Lennon and Dylan with beautiful offsets in their hands, although they were not in any sort of permanent use. Tom Verlane of Television, Elvis Costello, J Mascis, Kevin Shields, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, Steve Drozd, Stephen Malkmus, Thom Yorke, and Nels Cline have all used Jazzmasters throughout their careers of making some of the most influential music of the past forty years. As long as Stratocasters and Telecasters are in the forefront, it seems as though the counter culture grasps on to the Fender Jazzmaster and makes something as innovative as the guitar itself.

Forty years later, the Tubescreamer is an enduring example of design done right. It’s been endlessly imitated, replicated, and redesigned, but nothing has managed to exceed the magic of the original. To commemorate the development of this rock and roll mainstay and ubiquitous feature of pedalboards everywhere, Maxon (yes, that Maxon) has released the 40th Anniversary OD808-40K. Designed in collaboration with the one and only Robert Keeley, this Tubescreamer features his new “Max Gain” mod, which offers a “louder, hotter, stacked-gain sound” without getting in the way of the classic OD808 tone.