Superdrag has a new album, Industry Giants, which comes out tomorrow. And not only did the band allow Buzzgrinder to stream it, but John Davis was also kind enough to take over the posting duties for the day. So the staff gets to sit at home and eat bon bons.

The sound of the Fender Jazzmaster is a fundamental element of what our band Superdrag does. It’s a common thread that runs through so many of my all-time favorite records. We’ve used ‘em from the get-go, practically. I have two Jazzmasters; one (my first one) is sort of a “Frankenstein.” It’s a ’64 body and neck, spray-painted OSHA Red, with a cheap replacement bridge and a bastardized Strat input jack sort of MacGyvered into the pickguard. I played that guitar on every track on our first cassette-only release, Stereo 360 Sound, and those same recordings later resurfaced on our two Darla Records seven-inches in 1994-1995.

For the 10 people that might actually care, I played the same guitar through the same rig (three MXR Distortion +s, a 50-watt Fender Bassman head, and a Bandmaster cabinet loaded with two Eminence bass speakers with blown voice coils) on all the tracks from The Fabulous 8-Track Sound Of Superdrag EP and all the 8-track Regretfully Yours demos we issued on 4-Track Rock !!! 1992-1995 + Complete “Bender” Sessions.

When we got some money for (badly-needed) new equipment in 1995, right before we went to work on our first album, Regretfully Yours, (Superdrag drummer) Don Coffey Jr. and myself took a road trip to Atlanta and found the “White Jazz” (pictured above). It’s a 1961, Olympic White, and everything on it is factory except for the pickup switch, the tremolo bar (broken several of them since) and the bridge. I made a common mod to the guitar by substituting a Mustang bridge for the original. Any Jazzmaster player will probably understand why. I guess these guitars were never meant to be strummed “from the shoulder”, because the original bridge design was never able to keep the strings in place under heavy right hand attack. So the Mustang bridge takes care of that.

The “White Jazz” was my main guitar on Regretfully Yours, and it’s been featured on every Superdrag record since — particularly on our latest album, Industry Giants — alongside Brandon Fisher’s faithful 1960 Jazzmaster; which is refinished Natural, complete with “witch-hat” knobs. His guitar tracks on the new music were cut primarily with the ’60 Jazzmaster through a pile of RATs and boutique fuzz units, and a Vox AC15. The album comes out tomorrow, so, guitar geeks unite and check out the tones!

2 Responses to “Essential Superdrag: The Fender Jazzmaster”

1. 

   On 03/17/09 7:57 AM, Sean said:

   GEEZ! All this gear talk is giving me a “TONER!”

3. 

   On 03/27/09 2:44 AM, Zach Hunter said:

   I’ve always been curious about John and Brandon’s Jazzmasters and early equipment history. While Elvis Costello, Tom Verlaine, Kevin Shields, Thurston Moore and others were also huge influences on me, it was Superdrag that cemented the Jazzmaster as THE coolest guitar in the world. The summer after I finished high school after years of longing, I found a new Japanese model in lake placid blue at a guitar shop in a suburb outside of Little Rock. Since then I’ve slowly upgraded the electronics and hardware piece-by-piece (pickups, mustang bridge, pots, switches, tortoise pickguard) and it just seems to feel and sound sweeter every time I play it. The only thing I would consider doing to it at this point is swapping the mustang bridge for one of those new Mastery Bridges, but they’re a bit pricey so that may be in the distant future.

   Anyway, thank you so much for this article. It made my week

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