Fender Jazzmaster Formerly Owned by J. Mascis

When Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis (b. 1965) was a teenager, he saved up money from a summer painting job to buy a Fender Stratocaster, but it was too expensive. Instead, he purchased this more affordable, used 1965 Fender Jazzmaster. In a 1998 MoPOP oral history, Mascis described his initial thoughts on the guitar: “They had a [Fender] Jaguar which looked cooler, but I liked the neck on the Jazzmaster better. It was longer and it had all the finish worn off, and it had Grovers [tuning machines] on it which I always thought were cool, like Peter Frampton in Humble Pie or something.” In opposition to Dinosaur Jr.'s often glum and aggressive sound, Mascis decorated his new instrument with bright happy-faces and animal stickers and played it with the band from 1984 – 1993. 

Originally conceived as a vehicle for “ear-bleeding Country,” Dinosaur Jr.'s co-founder and guitarist J. Mascis won over audiences with his melancholic, distorted, Classic Rock-influenced Post-Hardcore Punk. New York tastemakers Sonic Youth became early fans in the mid-1980s and asked Dinosaur Jr. to tour with them, broadening the band's profile. With songs such as “Freak Scene,” “Little Fury Things,” and “The Wagon,” Dinosaur Jr.’s loud-soft dynamics, virtuosic solos, feedback and distortion, along with their ability to merge pop structures and rhythms with layers of distorted guitar and vocals, helped to set the stage for the mainstream success of bands like Nirvana.