And BTW, at the time, I had no clue Cobain was "nobody knows I'm New Wave" or into The Cars. Imagine the shock I had at those two things later on when YouTube became a thing, lol.

All I knew was I was into this 80's new wave band, mabye even 2 bands, one I supposed all had moustaches and played SG's in the 70's, and another one in the 80's with the tall dude who looks like clean shaven Abraham Lincoln singing and MAYBE playing guitar, and yet another Lefty in the fold - Elliot Easton - in tow on Lead guitar. Well, here's Ric Ocasek, dressed like a day , fingerpicking on this pink Fender Jazzmaster while lamenting the loss of his girlfriend to the Sunshine Movers outside....but me...aside from laughing at the Vacuum Cleaner deciding to leave on it's own accord (Ocasek's response to that was hilarious), I was all about that wacky pink "Jaguar with big pickups" in the music video.

I have little doubt Ric might have bought this guitar new sometime around 1974 or 1975, and started using it. This means it would have predated The Cars a bit. See, The Cars were formed in 1976 after changing their lineup, after a A&R rep told them "one guy looks like he's in the Velvet Underground, and the other guy looks like he's in the Greatful Dead". I would not be surprised if Ric was playing this in Cap'n'Swing and possibly even Richard and the Rabbits - two Pre-Cars bands that hosted some early Cars songs such as Bye Bye Love.

When The Cars got together, initially, the Jazzmaster was still it's original Sunburst Color. It seems since day one, this was the "My Best Friend's Girl" guitar - a song punctuated with Ric's signature "clickety 8th's" rhythm tone that it seems everyone after The Cars copied to some extent. All the 80's bands I liked: The Motels, Loverboy, hell even Martin Jenner on Cobain's Jaguar was playing this on "Every Man" for Cliff Richard. It's such a stereotypical and influential late 70's early 80's sound nobody talks about, because nobody seems to want to talk about Rhythm guitar, as important as the rhythm guitarist actually is in a band. No single lead guitarist can be on their own without good Rhythm Chops - and Ric Ocasek - in a big way, is part of why my rhythm chops are so good, even as a lead player (got to Credit Easton too).

So The Cars went to AIR Studios in London after being signed by Elektra records, and created the first record. Now, I'd say that about 75% of Ric's rhythm work on this record, is the 1973 Gibson SG, another guitar I might cover later on (if I feel like it). But that Jazzmaster was definatly on My Best Friend's Girl, may have been used for some parts of "Just What I Needed" "Moving In Stereo" and "All Mixed Up", or even, "Youre' All I've Got Tonight". You have to understand, when The Cars went into the studio for their first record, the only actual new gear it seems nobody had beforehand were the Magnavox owned Ampeg Amplifiers that they got - with the Ampeg V4 being Ric's favorite right after this if not already. So Ric Ocasek would have had the 73' SG, and the 74" Jazzmaster, and that's it. The Dean did not exist yet, and he likely was not going to blow the budget on expensive crap to make a record they'd already been playing live for about a year and sounded great at that with the gear they already had.

What I know also, is the Jazzmaster was still Sunburst at that time. The reason is because, the promo above came out right as the first album was coming out. And the Jazzmaster was absent from some shows around the summertime - meaning it was sent to a guy in Boston to be repainted (who likely did all of The Cars custom guitar paintjobs including Elliot's Les Paul, Ben's Vox Constellation V bass, and maybe even Greg's Ovation Breadwinner). Ric has said, in interviews, he's the kind of guy who buys guitars for their color, and he does not like "Wood colored" guitars very much. In that same interview, he said he has a "7 year old Fender Jazzmaster that he uses on every album, all the time".

This is the earliest concert footage/photos I can see of the Jazzmaster post-paint job, and this is some of the longest stage time that guitar ever got. Ric switches from the SG to the Jazzmaster for "Since I Held You" off of Candy-O, then the Candy-O Title track, then the usual "My Best Friend's Girl". This means, this guitar was getting at least 3 songs a set before the Dean Elite showed up and the B.C. Rich Bich - both of which turned up late on the 1st Cars tour in their original colors (White and natural) - meaning no paintjob yet.

Let's talk a little about those two - just briefly, to understand instrument change roles in The Cars setlists of the time. The Jazzmaster was the twangy, pokey, guitar, but it also was used for some more raspy, less as pronounced high gain work. Later, when Ric got the B.C. Rich, he started playing "Since I Held You" on that, and the Dean Elite was used on all the songs the Jazzmaster was likely used on with overdrive in the studio.

But in the studio, why was he not using the Dean - because it was "too Bright" - so Ric would use the Jazzmaster on those songs for a brighter overdrive sound methinks. And given my experiences playing Jazzmasters on Cars rhythm parts, that sounds very very likely. It also lines up with him using it "on every album, all the time".

Because, you have to remember, The Cars are not a "Grunge Band" - that went in the studio and one-taked everything. They were a polished, produced, New Wave rock band where the album tells a story, and the stage is supposed to be an accurate enough recreation of what they did in the studio. Huge difference from say - Nirvana. And this meant, Overdubs a plenty - though the grunge bands did that too - but The Cars might have 3-4-5 guitar tracks on something, a lot of that Easton, but Ocasek also overdubbed parts too I believe at times.

That brings us to Candy-O. I think the Jazzmaster had a bit less of a role on this record. I'm pretty sure it was used on the opening to "Let's Go" doubled with the Bich. "Since I Held You" sounds like a similar story. It's definatley on the verses of "It's All I Can Do" and "Double Life", and I think "Candy-O" given that it was used on that at Selland and later the Dean was used live but not in the studio, the Jazzmaster is the grimey overdriven rhythm guitar on that track. I think it also got parts on "You Can't Hold On Too Long" "Lust For Kicks" and possibly "Dangerous Type" assuming that's not the P-90 Les Paul Junior (if Ric got that before the tour), since it's a little more overdriven.

One of my god-tier rhythm tones though....is "Got a Lot on my Head". Elliot is playing a Dean ML on this, and Ric I swear, is playing that Jazzmaster on it. The reason why, is Ric, I think around this time, was experimenting some with pedals. Candy-O has some pretty fancy toned rhythm parts compared to the first album which were basically a tubby Jazzmaster clean, a woody-toned clean from the SG, a fuzzy thick distortion from the SG, and a clankier distortion from the Jazzmaster. I confirm this to be possible because, one of my first experiences playing a Jazzmaster found me running it through a BOSS Hyper Fuzz, and it NAILED Ric's fuzzy, midrangey, and spikey rhytm tone - listen to the Monitor mix of the song below - right speaker - THAT's the Jazzmaster I believe, and one of my holy grails of rhythm tone. My hopped up Butterscotch Beastie (2010 Home Built Jazzmaster clone) also almost nails that with my home built Skull Fuzz (which hilariously enough was unintentional, but a great outcome obviously). Also got to love that scream midway through...lol.

Next, we move to the tour, which has hardly any footage (seriously, where are all the videos of the Candy-O tour besides Midnight Special?). This outing, Ric used the Jazzmaster on Best Friend's Girl still, The B.C. Rich was used on Since I Held You, the Dean Elite was used on You're All Ive Got Tonight and a bunch of other tracks, and the SG was used for the rest of the set aside from the P-90 Les Paul Jr. he was playing on the song above and Dangerous Type. By contrast, Elliot had even less changes than Ric (he always did), Telecaster for Best Friend's Girl and Dangerous Type, the Bun-E-Carlos Strat for "Candy-O", and the rest of the set on this tour was the Dean ML.

Now let's move to Panorama. This is sort of The Cars' "Black Sheep" album of sorts, some consider it a "Sophmore Jinx", I always considered it a "Sophmore Win". Ric started to move more to double-cutaway Les Paul Specials (think Rick Beato's signature model style guitars), and stopped using the Ampeg as much and started using Marshalls, JMP-45s I think, a lot more. The Jazzmaster, I suppose, on Panorama, was for sure on "Getting Through", likely "Misfit Kid", and "Down Boys". So his rhythm tone changed a lot. It's a lot more midrangey, less a thick, and more gain. He may have also used it on "Up and Down" - the album closer, and possibly even "Touch and Go". It's a little hard to tell because this album has a lot more Andy-Summers esque "textural" guitar compared to the first two records, and Elliot is a lot more isolated.

Interestingly, on the tour, Ric Ocasek - via Elliot Easton - got a 1964 Fender Jaguar in Candy Apple Red with matching headstock from a hock shop for $80. Ric said "I think he liked the idea of it being all beat up". Interestingly, Elliot himself got a 64 lefty Jazzmaster. Ric stated in an interview later on that he took the Jaguar on tour instead of (the Jazzmaster) but did not like it because the other one (Jazzmaster) was cleaner. Listening to bootlegs of this tour, you can usually tell when Ric has the Jaguar going, it has a duffier-attack, a darker tone, but it seems Ric liked it well enough to keep it.

But contrary to Ric's mention of not touring with the Jazzmaster, some photos turned up of both Ric and Elliot playing Jazzmasters live in Japan on that tour - Elliot with the Fiesta Red 64' that had nailed in pickups at one point, Ric with the pink 74'. Also, listening to the Milwaukee Wisconsin bootlegs from 1980, it sounds like the Jazzmasters were at that show as well, since MBFG has the same tone as previous tours, and Elliot's tone on Down Boys really sounds like a Jazzmaster and not a Strat very "Stacey era Hendrix" type sound. I'm thinking these Jazzy shows may have been after the show we see on Unlocked where Ric throws his Dean Elite over the backline - where it's destroyed (possibly to be rebuilt later).

Shake It Up I feel the Jazzy was used a little bit less on this. I think it's on Victim of Love, Think It Over, Shake It Up, and the studio version of "Since You're Gone" possibly since it has the right sound for that. But live, the Elite returned, now with a black Japanese flag graphic and an extra middle position humbucker installed - as per the Friday's performance.

I think, however, this was, aesthetically, the Jazzmaster's tour. And it seems Ric got a renewed interest in this guitar around that time, and I theoreticize that it's because Ric likely got the Ibanez Gilbritar/Gibson Harmonica bridge fitted to it at this point. I noticed on all shows before this, the Jazzmaster seemed to have a stock bridge, then Ric got this Gibson style bridge fitted to it. There was a article with The Cars in 1981, put into the Daily Event's Book blog back in the 2000's, mentioning how Ric "has a 7 year old Fender Jazzmaster" and he says "I use it on every album, all the time". To add to it, The Cars got outfitted with multiple pink Fender guitars at that point: Elliot got a Stratocaster (a "proper" Fender version of one of the lawsuit Japanese copies he has in the music video for Shake IT Up), Greg got a Telecaster, and Benjamin Orr got a Precision Bass with a Tort pickguard. It seems highly odd that the Jazzmaster wouldn't have something to do with this aesthetic choice of the same color across the entire guitar-playing part of the band.

On the tour for Shake It Up, the Jazzmaster seems to have been used for a lot of tunes though, Shake It Up, Think It Over, My Best Friend's Girl, probably Getting Through if they played it, but based on what I saw, Ric was getting taste for a red Gibson SG he got around the same time - basically a Backup to the 73'. On Friday's - a SNL type show - Ric uses it for Shake It Up and Think It Over. At the US Festival 82', it's played on Shake It Up, My Best Friend's Girl.

Heartbeat City was recorded at Battery STudios in London with the band staying in some Country Shire type place in England. The interesting thing is this record is where we really see guitar taking a back-seat to synths. On this album, I think the only two songs the Jazzy could be on is "You Might Think", which it also appears on an Alarm Clock in the music video for, and then it turns up again on "Why can't I Have You" through Ric's not playing it at all in the video.

The Heartbeat City tour seems like it may have had the JM in tow, but it seems most of this tour was really the 73' SG, a 54' Stratocaster (or a new Reissue, Elliot was working with Fender at the time and ordering a few custom Telecasters from their Custom shop, which back then was an artist exclusive thing), and the red SG. Little surprise, when the songs are not completley guitar-free, most of them don't have the "clickety 8th's" sound everyone talks about, they have a fatter, hard-rock guitar tone that John Mutt Lange was known for from his work with AC/DC, Def Leppard, and later Loverboy.

From this point the guitar was used for "Tonite She Comes", as well as on some of his solo stuff. On Beatitude, I think the Jazzmaster was used on "Something to Grab For", the clacking overdriven rhythm guitar suggests that, and then one thing not a lot of people notice, is Ric had a VERY high gain signal chain in the 80's, like Metal tone level, and on the extended remix of "Connect Up To Me" sounds like the Jazzmaster with the tone rolled off and a heavy high gain fuzz or distortion.

I believe this was used for a rhythm guitar overdub on "Tonite She Comes" because the clicks are back on the verses.

Door To Door would come out in 1987. This would be The Cars last record in a 11-12 year run. Most of this album is Gibson stuff, with "You Are The Girl" being the main exception, and "Coming Up You", "Go Away" being the old style rhythm guitar with the Jazzy most likely (or some kind of Fender). It seems aroudn this time, Ric took to a black late 70's Strat most of the time for music videos, but the Jazzmaster (and Jaguar) did tour on the final tour - as both can be seen in Ric's rack in a lot of different shots from that tour on Unlocked. However, most of the tour was the two SGs and maybe the Roy Orbison ES-series Gibson, and a J-200 Evereley Brothers for "Everything You Say".

In 1988, The Cars broke up, and Ric continued to make solo albums, during that time, he also became an A&R rep for Elektra and a producer, producing Weezer's Blue album (the Jaguar he got on the Panorama era was used on that album - "Say It Ain't So" is the most cited song with the Jag on it). Seems most of this time, Ric was playing either acoustic shows with the J-200, or playing Double Cutaway Les Paul Specials and his 2 SGs the most.

Around 2003/2004 - Robert Schwartzman's band Rooney sent a demo in to Ocasek as their prospective producer. The band got a gig at CBGB's around that time, and apparently after expressing his love fot this guitar, Ric loaned it to him to use at the CBGB's show, where then it found it's way back to L.A. and was "on loan" for quite some time. Eventually he gave it back, probably around 2010 or 2011...there's already a picture of Ric in his office at his house at that time with the Jazzmaster in the background. Schwartzman tried to get the Jazzmaster cloned by the Fender Custom Shop but all they could match was the color.

In 2011, the remaining Cars (minus Ben Orr basically, because Ben died of Pancreatic cancer in 2000), got back together for one last album. The Jazzmaster I think is on this, Blue Tip in particular. However, it did not tour. I saw them at their first live show on the tour - at the Showbox Sodo in Seattle, and most of the night, Ric was on his 2 SG's, and Elliot was playing his new SG signature model in Pelham Blue. That said, Ric's rack rig was something awesome tonally, not to mention EE's rig (JCM2000 Triple Super Lead - that's probably my favorite Marshall amplifier, and I did not know EE was using those until AFTER I'd tried one out and wished I had the $3000 for it).

The Cars did a little short tour, the JM did not tour with them, I think at this point Ric was a bit iffy about taking that one on the road. However it would turn up again in 2018 as they entered the Rock N' Roll Hall of fame. Seems it got a good bit of use at that performance, as a LOT of pictures form that show have Ric playing the Jazzmaster. However, when they were on Colbert, he was using the Jaguar instead.

And then in September 2019, Ric passed away due to health remediation related complications at 75. Ending The Cars permanantley. Since then, Elliot and Greg have been the most verbal spokesmen for the history/sound/etc on this band.

Right around the same time I bought Heartbeat City at the Guitar Shoppe, a 1960 Fender Jazzmaster in Sea Foam Green (my favorite color) came in with a matching headstock. It was in a glass case in it's original black tolex, red interior hardshell - and little did I know this guitar belonged to my high school guitar teacher, the late Robert Orr. I figured this out because Orr would sometimes talk about having owned a Jazzmaster in class and selling it sometime in the 90's. So very likely that was that guitar. I had just seen the video for "Since You're Gone". I'm not big on the color Pink for myself, but Foam Green, hell yeah!

But alas, they were not going to let a 12 year old kid playing guitar for one year with no job play a vintage $1500 pristine guitar.

However, what turned up next was a 1994 Fender Jazzmaster in Foto Flame with Seymour Duncan upgrade pickups in it - vintage toned ones. I came down to the Guitar Shoppe on a rainy Saturday and basically hung around all day playing Cars songs on it, the minute I hit the first few lines of "Good Times Roll" - Chuck walks over and cranks the Peavey Delta Blues I'm playing through UP. I remember sucking drool back - the neck was to die for, skinny, fast, easy to play, the action was low enough, it stayed in tune, the vibrato did not have much range (I'd figure that problem out later on my Jaguar), and it actually sounded really really good. Yes, the low E kept sliding off the bridge saddle, but honestly, it was not as bad as some guys made it sound. I was so obsessed with this guitar I actually almost bought it - except when I came in that Friday for lessons, it'd sold. They were asking $450 for it - only $200 more than the Kramer I got.

After that sold, the other guitar store got a Candy Apple Red Japanese Jazzmaster in, and I played that. The other shop, who shall remain nameless, was run by this weird homophobic guy who looked like he could be Conan O'Brien's evil twin. He had this bitchy girlfriend who was there while I was trying out the guitar and she YELLED at me to stop and that my tone sucked, then called me a few slurs. That's when I basically boycotted that shop from that point forward. In the time that I boycotted them, they got a Jag-Stang, several Mustangs, and 2 other Jazzmasters - that encounter was enough to put me off from them and vote with my wallet and support the Guitar Shoppe instead. Needless to say, that shop was closed down for about 2 years before reopening with someone much nicer at the counter, where then my ban on them was lifted, but the damage had been done, nobody wanted to go there anymore because of the previous asshole who owned it.

That said, as I got older, and got more into playing 80's hard rock guitar, I started to kind of dissmiss the Jazzmaster for awhile. It only had 21 frets, a lot of examples on G-Base had a hotter neck pickup than bridge pickups, and I wanted a Jaguar more, so that became my focus.

Somehow, in the mid 2000's though, The Cars really had a revival in their fanbase despite no longer being together. I think Rooney was part of that reason. I hung out a lot at the Daily events Book and MovinginStereo.org, and the guitar became a point of discussion because Rooney's guitarist had a similiar guitar (tuned out to be the same one). Also, indie rock/Hipster rock was in it's infancy and just starting to take off, so Jazzmaster's were becoming somewhat en-vogue again musically. Funny enough, I started seeing OTHER people posting about this guitar without me being a part of it.

As the 2000's went to the 2010's, I started to notice an uptick in Offset parts and that's what lead to my Jazzmaster Build. See, I went to Guitarville in Seattle, looked at a 64' Olympic White Jazzmaster there, they wanted $4,260 for it - I'm not paying that for any guitar, even a Vintage Fender. And this was 2008-2009 when I saw that.

The funny thing is, this Jazzmaster build ALMOST Turned into a Ric Ocasek tribute build of sorts. If the body wood had been ugly or something, I would likely have painted it pink and spent awhile sourcing a 22 fret CBS Strat Blocks and Binding neck from China for it with a rosewood board since I do crazy high bends, isntead of the maple one I got. But when the Swamp Ash looked gorgeous, I decided to nix on the pink, and do a manor oak stain instead. This kind of gave vibes like this guitar was a kid of Ric's JM and Elliot's 77' Tele - which was tonally what I was going for. So I put in a hot wound bridge pickup (8.9K), and a 22 Fret Neck.What I wanted was something that could pull off that whole "Clickety 8th's" thing on my own stuff (which I use occasionally), but still go full shred when I needed it to, and not lose the unique Jazzmaster character in the process. I definatley succeeded. In a way, it's the original prototype for the "Panther LS" (Long Scale) as I call those guitars now. While I did put a CBS Fender Jazzmaster waterslide on the headstock like Ric's guitar would have, I've toyed periodically in recent years to make my own waterslide...but I kind of like it being like an "honorary Fender" - it definatley hits the mark hard.

Basically put, I built a Jazzmaster that allowed me to run through an entire Cars record without swapping and it can hit the thick leads as well as click and jangle like the next JM. What's funny is hipsters adore this thing, but it's actually an adept shred machine as well with a flatter radius neck, jumbo frets, and 22 of em' where I can bend to a high F# - it's just working those lead circuit 1MEG pots to your advantage. Probably the coolest thing to come out of it was finding out a "Cars-y" axe I built inspired by their rhythm guitarist's would turn out to be quite a Gibson contender. I remember playing "Headed out to the Highway" by Judas Priest on this thing through a JCM800 cranked at open jam night...I was in literal Glenn Tipton territory with it, also did some Michael Shenker with it (UFO - Rock Bottom to be exact). That's become the pedigree for how I'm building any future Jazzmaster builds. Who knows, I may still do the Ocasek build someday.