Fender Sonic Youth Guitars

By the time Sonic Youth was formed, Fender had stopped manufacturing the Jazzmaster altogether. Jazzmasters, along with Jaguars and their imitators, fell out of fashion among players during the 1970s largely due to their "old-fashioned" appearance and sonic characteristics. Due to the unwanted, pawn-shop status of the guitars, Sonic Youth were able to purchase the instruments very cheaply, hoarding the guitars for little money. With all the cheap Jazzmasters Sonic Youth was able to purchase, they experimented with countless tunings and especially liked the Jazzmaster's tendency to produce feedback.

Fender introduced in 2009 a special Lee Ranaldo signature edition of a Sapphire Blue Transparent version featuring two Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups together with a Forest Green Transparent one for Moore equipped with a pair of Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Jazzmaster single-coil pickups