I dipped them in vinegar for a few minutes and then suspended them above a cup of vinegar over night. The straplocks have been changed to Dunlop locking ones which Wez has also nicely aged - I have plans to gig this guitar for sure.Īdded to that i've fitted telecaster brass intonated saddles. The neck selector chooses the phase of the neck pickup. The wiring scheme is a bit of a gwEm special. They really look the part, and have the reliability of a modern switch. The switches are modern Switchcraft switches which I must say Wez has done an excellent job of aging. They don't look quite 100% correct though and I'd like to get original covers at some point. Obviously they didn't match the original, but because I have a set of two, they don't look out of place. Wez sent me two modern covers which he'd aged. The original pickup cover was a sort of translucent mint green material. I did briefly consider some modern pickups, but thought I'd try to be as original as possible. To the bridge pickup I fitted a baseplate.
From these pickups I chose the hottest for the bridge and then fitted a reverse phase pickup to the neck, which gives hum cancelling. I also found a set three original '66/'67 mustang/duo sonic/musicmaster pickups on German eBay. I managed to find an original '66 Mustang pickguard from the US which just needed a hair of material around the bridge removed to fit the musicmaster bridge. I'll write again a bit later about the conversion work I did. Also the pickup was of all things a 1990s mexican strat pickup with the pole pieces pushed flat(!!). I would like original tuners at some stage, but I'm happy enough. I don't mind them, they have a nice patina and fit to the guitar. I found some non-original parts - the tuners, which are very old schallers. I think the seller is right and she left the factory in '66.
FENDER MUSICMASTER PICKUP SERIAL NUMBER
I imagine she was used as rhythm guitar for jazz and/or blues.Īnyway, I pulled her to bits after a week - the neck is dated late '65, the pot codes are '66, and the serial number could be '66 or '67. Theres almost no fingerboard wear at the "dusty end" of the board, its all cowboy chords. He in turn had brought her from a store in New Orleans about 8 years ago. He was an older chap in Sunderland, who brought her off a destitute gigging musician from Newcastle. I asked the eBay seller about her history. When she arrived I was a bit worried because the frets were very low, but after a week of playing, I found there was no real issues - in fact she seemed like a "good 'un". A non-original hard case sweetened the deal even further. Knowing I could convert her to a Duo-Sonic without much effort I picked her up for a reasonable price. Suddenly a '66 Musicmaster appeared on eBay in the UK, and for some reason no one was really bidding.
So I've been looking for a Duo-Sonic for a while, there a few around, but they were always in the US or priced higher than I was prepared to pay. The bass is stylishly finished in Vintage White over old Olympic White, over what is likely either the original blue topcoat, or possibly original blue primer - 45 years later, it's no longer possible to be 100%.Heres the first part of the explanatory story: Cosmetically, a matched set of Tele-style knobs gleam against the black of the custom cut scratchplate. Torres, one of Fender's great neck shapers), and Rosewood board, this phenomenal 1973 model now pumps out the bottomest of bottom notes thanks to a pair of elite Bartolini Jazz Bass pickups, aided by a legendary BadAss II bridge for maximum tone transmission. (For those playing at home, American retail prices at the time were around US$140 for the Musicmaster Bass US$240 for the Mustang Bass US$300 for the Precision and US$375 for the Jazz)īuilding on the original's solid Alder body, Hard Rock Maple neck, (stamped J. The original Musicmaster Bass, in production from 1970 to 1983, was a 30" scale, single pickup model, designed to fit the budget of those players who couldn't manage the price ticket on a Mustang, Jazz or Precision bass. A quick glance at some past and present Musicmaster players includes such luminaries as Jonny Greenwood, Kim Gordon, Colin Moulding of XTC, John Lent, (Mac Demarco), Tina Weymouth, Mike Dirnt, Jim O'Rourke, Eddie Vedder, Lucas Skinner, (King Gizzard), and the legend that was Dee Dee Ramone. Why is the Musicmaster Bass so incredibly popular right now? It's no doubt largely down to the fact that people these days really pay attention to what their heroes played in the past.
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