ALL THAT JAZZ

When Leo Fender first drew up the plans for the Precision Bass in 1951, 70 years ago next year, who knows if he had a second, iconic bass model planned for release just nine years later? When the Jazz Bass debuted in 1960, it was initially advertised as the ‘two-pickup Precision’, but this it most certainly wasn’t. The Precision gets its distinctive sound from the over-wound split-coil pickup—more like a humbucker—while the Jazz was and remains equipped with a pair of single-coil units.

Furthermore, the J body combined elements of Fender’s Stratocaster and Jazzmaster guitars to provide a twin-cutaway design, set at an offset angle with a startlingly narrow neck and fretboard. This created a visual sleekness about the Jazz design that