Dinosaur Jr frontman J Mascis has recently released a new signature model with Fender and it isn’t a Jazzmaster for once. He already had two signature models from Fender and Squier, both offset models, but now he has a Bottle Rocket Blue Sparkle Telecaster model in his stable as well.
J Mascis & Dinosaur Jr
I’ve been an avid fan of Dinosaur Jr ever since I was a teenager in the 1980s and so I was pleased to break the news he had a new signature guitar over on Gearnews.com in July this year, I’m pretty sure I was the first to discover this guitar out of all the major guitar news sites at the time.
1958 top-Loader Telecaster
What I find really interesting is that J Mascis prefers the cutting top-loader Telecaster model for guitar solos and that it also was the guitar he wrote some Dinosaur Jr hit songs with. The original guitar was purchased from the Fort Apache studio which is where the band recorded most of their tracks, and I knew he favored single-coil P90 and Telecaster guitars for recording, so it is great that Fender has chosen to work with him on this Mexican made recreation of an original 1958 top-Loader Telecaster. Of course, he had to make it his own over the years, and so he had it refinished in that sweet Bottle Rocket Blue Sparkle finish, which replaced a non-original Butterscotch refinish, and he also added a mirror pickguard to make it his own.
Start Chopping
I’m just surprised he didn’t cover it in stickers as well, as he has a habit of adding decals to many of his guitars. The video below is a great little introduction to J Mascis and his way of thinking when it comes to songwriting and I would recommend you take a look at it, as the band also goes through some of their tracks throughout the short 21-minute film.
With a 9.5″ radius fretboard and jumbo frets this top-loading Telecaster should be a very smooth ride for anyone wanting a slinky feeling guitar. Having a hard-tail, top-loading Tele-style guitar also makes for a great guitar for lead work, especially when combined with vintage-style single-coil pickups. Of course, you could always build your own and save a fair chunk of money, rather than opting for a ready-made Fender version.
J Mascis Video
