Our goal with our Custom Shop Jazzmasters was to make the absolute best sounding and playing JMs out there. Seems pretty simple right? Combining a mix of vintage specs, and modern mods we think you’ll agree that we hit the mark. From 1959 to 1966, our “Chicago Special” Jazzmasters have a 7.25” radius, a slab rosewood fretboard, and a rift sawn maple neck. The magic really happens under the guard with the combination of a 250k volume pot and our Chicago Specials. Based on a set of 1961 Jazzmaster pickups, George Bland helped us craft our set to have higher output in the neck position than the bridge. The bridge pickup is slightly overwound giving it a smooth and round presence, while the neck pickup is moderately overwound giving it a huge bottom end with with round highs. Both Alnico 5 pickups are potted in shellac to give them a wide and open dynamic range, and wound with 42 gauge enamel wire. When you put everything together, you get the most balanced Jazzmaster on the market!
"Chicago Special" Jazzmaster® pickups
- Custom set modeled after CME's favorite 1961 Jazzmater AlNiCo 5 magnets
- 42 gauge enamel wire for round highs
- Potted in shellac for open wide range frequency response
- BRIDGE: Slightly overwound for high end punch but still still smooth and round
- NECK: Moderately overwound for huge bottom end but with clear, round highs
Deluxe Closet Classic is a house favorite here at CME. It shows its age like a fine wine, built for those who want to more clearly feel the life of the instrument, but without all those forced dings and dents. Maintaining many of the subtleties of a traditional Closet Classic such as less brilliance to the finish, slight discoloration of plastics, and mild oxidation of metal parts, this aging package adds notably more extensive and lush finish checking that you will see and feel throughout. (*Note. Our photographs sometimes do not capture finish checking as well as we’d like, so please get in touch with us for an in-hand description and additional photographs.)
