Within a few years of launching the Stratocaster, Leo Fender was working on a major new electric guitar, the Jazzmaster.

As it’s name suggested, this was aimed at the jazz fraternity rather than the rockers, country pickers, and bluesmen that had favored the Telecaster and Strat.

It featured mellower sounding pickups, plus a switchable “rhythm circuit” for the neck transducer, allowing it’s volume and tone to be present for playing backing chords. There was also a locking vibrato, and a body that was shaped to maximize comfort for seated players.

It debuted in 1958 and it attracted a good deal of criticism for it’s unstable bridge, excessivd weight, and odd shape.