Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster

Jim Root discusses his Fender Signature Jazzmaster electric guitar (in Satin Black finish): “I've been infatuated with guitars, with Stratocasters, with Telecasters, with Fender guitars, Charvel guitars, I mean that whole thing since I was a child. My earliest memories are of rock bands and influential guitar players. I mean from the time I was like 14 when I got my first one, until I got into my first bands when I was like 15-16 years old, all the way up until now it's been the the constant in my life that has never changed. I was totally stoked to even just have the Strat because we came up with the compound fretboard radius and the different contour on the body and all that stuff, and it’s killer. I love my Strats, they’re amazing and they're a different animal from the Tele, which makes valid… variety to me is the spice of life. So Alex [Perez] sent me, just out of the blue, he sent me this white Jazzmaster with a flame maple fretboard on it. And it had my signature specs. I was like hmmm this is interesting. I kinda blew it off because I was so into the Strats at the time, and I was in Iowa and I didn't have all my guitars with me. My guitars tend to get spread out sometimes because the two bands. Some will be at the [Slipknot](http://equipboard.com/band/slipknot) warehouse, some will be shipped to Australia or whatever. But I didn't have enough guitars with me to do all the tunings that we had for [Stone Sour](http://equipboard.com/band/stone-sour), so I grabbed that white Jazzmaster and took it to rehearsal. I did the entire rehearsal with that guitar and it felt so comfortable. It completely changed my opinion of that guitar, like all of a sudden that instantly became my absolute favorite guitar. I started blowing em up, “This guitar’s awesome, you need to make me a black one or a red one, I wanna do this and I wanna do that,” I had all these ideas and we just started throwing ideas around for months and months.” Jim Root continues to talk about the aesthetic characteristics of his signature guitar: “I am in [Slipknot](http://equipboard.com/band/slipknot), ok, and we tour a lot and there's a lot of things getting thrown around on stage. If I had a really shiny beautiful custom paint job the that was just really amazing, it would get destroyed within a matter of months on the road. What I like about these finishes is they’re very simple, very roadworthy, it’s classic, to me. They lend themselves to taking on the characteristics of the player. It'll very quickly start to show you where you like to rest your arm, how you grab your volume knob, how often you're down here messing with the pickup selector, if you're up in here a lot it'll start wearing in right there nice and good. You know it just it really starts taking on the personality of the player. It's a big giant heavy Jazzmaster because it’s mahogany. I love mahogany, it's just a really great tone wood for recording and for live. For the heavier music that we're doing I don't need all that brightness and brilliance, and that's part of the reason I’ve shied away from the maple boards a little bit, they'd add a little bit of a snapiness to the top end that - for engineers and producers, they tend to wanna die all that stuff out a little bit because everything has to sit in the mix a certain way. So we did mahogany, just as we did. And it's got a weird contour, it’s not as contoured as a regular Jazzmaster, it’s very thick and boxy kinda, but it still has like the belly cut and the arm cut so it’s still comfortable while it’s hanging off of you on stage.” Root goes on to talk about the electronics and detailed specs: “We did the EMG's too and I went with the brushed aluminum on the black guitar because it looks killer, kinda pops. One volume knob, of course 3-way selector like I like, keep it simple. It is really just a stripped-down modern guitar. Compound fretboard radius like the Strat, so you can get the action right down on top of the frets if you want. Jumbo frets, ebony board, rock maple neck, locking tuners, it’s got the contour in the neck heel so you can reach. And that’s the other thing too is you can really reach that 21st fret easy on this guitar. Sometimes with the Teles and the Strat it’s kinda hard to get up there and grab 22 and bend it up into happiness… easy, easy fret board access, and it’s a tone monster. I love these guitars, they’re just amazing.”

Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster

Neil uses a Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster refitted with Bare Knuckle Aftermath humbuckers as his backup guitar.