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Used by Lee/Thurston/Kim:
1983-1999
1983 -- ? (She's in a Bad Mood, Burning Spear, Inhuman - LEE)
1984 -- ?
1985 -- F#F#F#F#EB (Brave Men Run, Death Valley '69, I'm Insane - Lee) (I Love Her All The Time, Death Valley '69, Ghost Bitch - THURSTON)
1986 -- F#F#GGAA (White Kross, Tom Violence - THURSTON) (Shaking Hell - KIM)
Thurston:
1989 -- CCEBGD (The Sprawl, Cross the Breeze, World Looks Red)
1990 -- F#F#F#F#EB (Catholic Block, Mary Christ, Kool Thing)
1991 -- F#F#F#F#EB (Kool Thing)
1992 -- F#F#F#F#EB (Kool Thing, Shoot, 100%)
1993 -- F#F#F#F#EB (Kool Thing, 100%)
1995 -- F#F#F#F#EB (100%, Becuz, Saucer-Like, Panty Lies)
1996 -- F#F#F#F#EB (100%, Becuz, Saucer-Like, Panty Lies)
1998 -- F#F#F#F#EB (Death Valley '69, Shadow of a Doubt)
1999 -- F#F#F#F#EB (Death Valley '69, Shadow of a Doubt, World Looks Red, She Is Not Alone)
NOTES:
This was probably one of the band's highest quality guitars in the early 80s, an interesting Jazzmaster copy played by everybody in the band at various times. Eventually it became Thurston's F#EB guitar for the 90s until it was stolen in '99.
Like the Old Jaguar, this is another early guitar that I mistakenly allowed to masquerade as two guitars for many years. This ubiquitous blue Jazzmaster copy(?) was played by everyone in the band during the early 80s, and while I'd previously thought they'd retired it after 1986, it turns out that the guitar I'd formerly listed as "Fender Jazzmaster (Blue)" is actually this same guitar, just prettied up a bit, and was in fact Thurston's main F#F#EB guitar throughout the 90s and was stolen in 1999. It's interesting to think that three of the band's earliest guitars (the Drifter, Lee's F-hole Tele, and this one) were still being used on tour over 15 years later, when the theft occurred.
I say "copy(?)" because I'm really not sure what this guitar is. If you look at the pictures from 1985, you can tell it's a genuine Jazzmaster shape and the vibrato tailpiece is a Fender. However, it appears to have four knobs and two non-Jazzmaster pickups, and I don't think the neck is a Fender, so it may have been somebody's experiment. If you compare pix from the Gila Monster Jamboree in January '85 and Brighton Beach November '85, you'll see the four knobs have all been removed (and so have the pots, except for the volume) and only one exposed pick-up remains. Switches are gone too.
By the time the Daydream Nation tour rolled around, the guitar had 2 Jazzmaster soapbar pickups, a new pickguard, and probably a new neck (the picture here is from 1996, so I'm not sure when it got this neck).
Gauges for F#F#F#F#EB: .042 .042 .024 .024 .017 .014
Blue body
2 gold pickups originally, then one neck pickup (late '85), then 2 soapbars ('88 onwards).
White pickguard originally, then a dark tortoise ('88).
Rosewood fretboard, at least 2 (probably more) different necks
1 toggle switch, removed, reinstalled '88
4 knobs, eventually just volume
Trem bar
Yellow circular sticker
White "Gremlins" sticker
Backwards "NECROS" stickers on headstock in '85.
Yellow rectangular sticker (later)
"deep" sticker (later)
Serial # -- SY006
Used by Thurston in "Death Valley '69" and "Disappearer" videos
Listed as "BLUE" on '95/'98/'99 set lists.
Return to the Sonic Youth Gear Guide.
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