Fender musicmaster bass how to#

I’m a gear nut and I love cool and unusual basses, particularly lesser-known and lesser-used Fender and Fender-style models.

What else do you want to share about your gear? 1978 Fender Musicmaster Bass Photo Gallery: It can be a bit cranky at times and somewhat unforgiving, but the effort is always worth it. I own a wide range of basses, but there’s something about my Musicmaster Bass that keeps me coming back for more. Yes, I use it every gig for at least a third of the set. The only downside was that Fender installed a six-pole Stratocaster pickup, which won’t give the correct string-to-string balance as a four-pole bass pickup. The Musicmaster was originally introduced as a student model, but it is a very capable bass.

Fender musicmaster bass how to#

The previous owner who dismantled it wasn’t able to figure out how to put it all back together again!!Īny notable bassists (other than yourself, of course) play the same instrument/use the same gear?Ĭolin Moulding of XTC, Jim O’Rourke and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Dee Dee Ramone of The Ramones, Alan Lancaster of Status Quo.Īny special history or story behind this instrument or the company who made it?

What’s your favorite story about the gear? The replacement pickup by Wizard Pickups is made specifically for these basses, and it makes this bass sound absolutely amazing. I obtained a new pickguard from a seller on eBay, the pickup is a custom handmade replacement made by Wizard Pickups in the UK, and the all-new electronics are two CTS 250k pots, a Switchcraft jack, vintage style cloth wire and a Sprague orange drop capacitor. Stock or customized? Give us all the specs!Īll stock, with the exception of the pickguard and electronics. The bass came to me as a box of parts which had to be reassembled. It was given to me by a friend who ran a studio in Orlando, Florida. Guitar technician and custom instrument builder Graham Drew shares his 1978 Fender Musicmaster Bass in this installment of Old School, and the story that goes with it. Squier reintroduced the Musicmaster briefly in 1997, replacing it a year later with the Bronco bass. Fender later offered many of the finishes offered on their other instruments as well.įender’s line of budget instruments was discontinued in 1981, when the company introduced the Squier brand. The bass was introduced with three finishes: black, white and red, with a few early issues painted in daphne blue and sporting pearl pickguards. This was also a 30″ short-scale bass, the shortest production scale of any Fender bass. All of the electronics were mounted on a single piece of plastic. The bodies were from the Mustang production line, and 6-pole guitar pickups were used instead of the standard 4-pole pickups used in basses. Having said this, there are a lot worse guitars out there, and as well as being historically important, the 1820 bass can certainly provide the goods when required.The Musicmaster was Fender’s budget-priced bass at the time, made from surplus parts from other Fender models. Over the course of the 70s, the Japanese output improved dramatically, and in many ways these early 70s models are a low point for the brand. These new Epiphones were based on existing Matsumoku guitars, sharing body shapes, and hardware, but the Epiphone line was somewhat upgraded, with inlaid logos and a 2x2 peghead configuration. The Matsumoku factory had been producing guitars for export for some time, but the 1820 bass (alongside a number of guitar models and the 5120 electric acoustic bass) were the first Epiphone models to be made there. By the end of the 1960s, a decision had been made to move Epiphone guitar production from the USA (at the Kalamazoo plant where Gibson guitars were made), to Matsumoto in Japan, creating a line of guitars and basses significantly less expensive than the USA-built models (actually less than half the price).