Tom Verlaine's Jazzmaster Mods Made Perfect Sense

Tom Verlaine didn’t modify his Jazzmaster randomly — and once I opened it up, every decision, even one's with a flawed execution, started to make perfect sense. This video is a work journal documenting the service and setup of Tom Verlaine’s 1965 Fender Jazzmaster, brought to me by his close friend, Television bandmate, and Legendary Guitarist, Jimmy Rip. As a supplement to my in depth interview with him, here I walkthrough and focus on what I found under the hood, why it may have been done, how those choices connect directly to Verlaine’s playing style and sound and the mods I had to undo to make this Jazzmaster professionally "stage-ready" Inside this guitar were a number of unconventional but thoughtful modifications: unusual pickup wiring and flipped orientation, copper foil-wrapped pickups show an attempt to address the Jazzmaster's awful hum, and prefab solutions from the 70s to address the Jazzmaster's inherent lack of sustain; these mods reflect Tom’s experimental approach to offset guitars and perhaps give a clue as to what he was chasing tone and feel wise. While Verlaine was an undeniable Guitar God, a closer look at this guitar of his makes perfectly clear, that the struggles that we mere mortals deal with on our own Jazzmasters, Jaguars and Mustangs are issues he too had to find novel DIY solutions for. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Featured in this Video (Non-Affliate Links): Mastery Bridge & Vibrato: https://masterybridge.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Want to support the channel? Rep your favorite offset! 👕 Totally Wired Guitars Offset Tees: https://totallywiredguitars.etsy.com Check out the rest of my favorite & recommended gear (affiliate link): https://www.zzounds.com/share--totall... Have a question about offset guitars or need a setup, mod or custom build? Email me: [email protected]