Fender musicmaster bass upgrade#
Fender musicmaster bass series#

My brother have an old Musicmaster, so I'm familiar with them but I don't like the tone as much as the Mustang. The guy from Air is using one as his main bass so if you want to have an idea of out it sound check any Air album. the sound is not dissimilar to a P bass (similar pickup design) but the combination of short scale + through body strings make the tone quite special. I have the complete opposite feeling about the mustang bass. At this stage in my life I don't rule anything out. I've had musicians play on tracks with stuff I'd have never dreamed would work, only to find out that the strangeness of that track is what really made the recording 'pop'. It's funny sometimes what will 'sit in the mix' well. It sounded beautiful, and fit the song perfectly. Recently, my bass player brought over his Ibanez 505 5 string, and did a 'slap' bass track on one of our recordings on the 80-8. I bought and used a solid ash american P bass for about 15 years which always sounded nice on tape as well. I found that in certain cases short scale basses can be very effective when recording.

The bass track sat in the mix beautifully, and to this day stands up as one of the nicer sounding bass tracks I've recorded. This made it sustain very well and gave it a brighter tone. He had installed a solid brass bridge and nut as I recall. Many years ago when I bought my Tascam 80-8, I borrowed my drummers music master bass, as I did not have a bass of my own to use. (which are also pigs imho, but that's for another thread)īut enough nostalgia: a Mustang and/or a Musicmaster sound NOTHING like a Precision or Jazz Bass.

Fender musicmaster bass series#

I guess the nicest thing I could say about them is that they're cleaner than an EB-x series Gibson.but they have none of the character of those basses No punch, no twang, just a false sense of deep that's only seems like it's low because it's got a really disproportionate balance of upper partials. But those Fenders just kinda go 'blah' when you pluck their strings. And not necessarily because they're short-scale there are a few 30' scale basses I've played that are cool for a variety of idiosyncratic reasons. If I never play another entry-level Fender bass in my life, it'll be too soon. Four years later I got a Musicmaster bass, used that for another six months or so. Used that bass in my band for about 6 months when I was 13 years old.

Currently, the coil tap (middle position) of the switch isn't working (it's still parallel in that mode) and I think it's likely due to the switch being a #2 variant of an on-on-on switch rather than the kind that I thought it was.Very first bass guitar I ever played, way back in 1974, was a Mustang. With the switch in 'parallel' mode, I get a bit more of the original single coil flavor or something approximating a short scale J-bass vibe. While the original pickups have a cool tone (as they're Mustang pickups), I like the tone of Mustang basses more (with their mini-P-bass pickups) and so the pickup switch to 'series' mode gives me that almost-P-bass thump. The original parts I don't care for on a bass - the pickup, wiring harness, and 2-saddle bridge design - got replaced, however, with a Strat-sized double-blade Alnico-magnet humbucker, volume control, and series/parallel/coil tap switch. It did come to me, however, with completely original bits.

Fender musicmaster bass upgrade#

Suffice to say - my 'lunch break' was spent readying this for service as I'd already ordered the parts I needed to upgrade it.Ĭlearly, this bass has seen a lot of abuse - there's moisture damage, tons of nicks and dings, heat damage, and the original Daphne Blue finish has turned into a splotchy, avocado green with a matchingly-faded 'white' pickguard that's now a dusty vanilla-tan. A week later, and it was delivered this afternoon. I spied this one on fleaBay in Florida and its absolutely beat, tired, faded, and holy guacamole character grabbed my attention. After trading my 'upgraded' Musicmaster bass to a friend of mine, I was on the hunt for another short scale bass and - after destroying my mind trying to figure out what to get - I decided to get another Musicmaster! I can't help it.