NAMM 2014: Fender unveils Jim Root Jazzmaster

NAMM 2014: Fender has unveiled the Jim Root Jazzmaster.

The new custom strips almost everything possible from the traditional Jazzmaster, leaving a stark guitar that suits the Slipknot and Stone Sour guitarist down to the ground.

All black, with an EMG 60 at the neck and EMG 81 at the bridge, brushed nickel covers, a three way switch, single volume knob and hard tail Strat bridge, this is about as brutal a Jazzmaster as we've ever seen.

The mahogany body is is finished in flat black, with a maple neck topped with ebony sporting a tasty '70s style headstock. We're impressed and, frankly, a little frightened.

Watch Root talk about the prototype of his new Jazzmaster in the video above...

For more information and full specs visit the official Fender website.

Fender press release

Stark, dark and menacing, the Jim Root Jazzmaster® guitar has got to be the most distinctively minimalist version of the instrument ever devised in the model's entire half-century history. At the behest of the towering Slipknot/Stone Sour guitarist, gone are the dual tone circuits and barrage of controls.

Gone are the fret position markers and enormous chrome bridge. Gone, in fact, is pretty much everything typical of a Jazzmaster guitar, replaced only by fearsome EMG® 60 (neck) and 81 (bridge) humbucking pickups with brushed nickel covers, a single three-way switch, a single volume knob and a hard-tail Stratocaster bridge.

The Jim Root Jazzmaster also features a mahogany body with a comfortable contoured neck heel, satin-finish maple neck with "modern C" profile and large headstock, compound-radius ebony fingerboard (12"-16") with 22 jumbo frets and no position markers, staggered deluxe locking tuners, black hardware and pickup bezels, and an austere Flat Black satin-nitro lacquer finish. Includes black tweed case with red plush interior, strap and strap locks, cable and polishing cloth.