As a result of Ted McCarty’s patent claims, Leo Fender obtained a patent of his own for the Jazzmaster body that his company introduced in 1958.

Fender’s patent covered one of the Jazzmaster’s least noticeable features – offset waists. The typical guitar body (even Gibson’s eadical Explorer) curved inward at the same point on both sides, but the Jazzmaster’s waists were offset to provide a more comfortable playing position for a seated guitarist. Gibson’s Firebirds had slightly offset waists, and Fender complained. Gibson used the complaint as an excuse to make the Firebird more conventional, reversing the body, giving rise to the term “non-reverse” for these models, and shortening the horns.

At the same time, Gibson made the Firebird easier to produce by discarding the neck-thru-body design for a traditional set (glued-in) neck. The makeover, implemented in 1965, effectively clipped the Firebirds’ wings, and they faded out of production in 1969.