Advice on modding a Fender Musicmaster

[bassman1987]

So a shop near me has a '77 Musicmaster for sale, they're only asking $299 for it because it has been not-so-greatly refinished (in a sparkly purple color). I think it has some great mojo though, and with some mods I think it could become a great bass.

So here's where I need some advice from all you modders out there:

1. The stock guitar pickup is really weak. That would probably be the first mod I would do, but I know that on these basses all the electronics were mounted directly to the pickguard. Would putting a P pickup in there require a new 'guard and/or body routing?

2. The original bridge is fairly rusted. Would it be possible to put a Badass or Wilkinson on there? I've never owned a shortscale before, would the narrower spacing create an issue?

3. The original tuners also aren't in great shape. Again since it's a shortscale would standard cloverleafs fit?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[bassman1987]

Anybody out there?

[bamaky1]

Im pretty sure a lot of people put a SD hot rail for a pick up replacement. As for the tuners, im not 100% positive, but on my buddies, they seem to be about average size. again, im not positive, but thats what i recall.

[jeffwo]

I had one years ago that had a cracked and poorly re-glued body, but a great neck. I had a custom body made with Seymour Duncan pickups routed in - a split P bass in front an an old style straight P bass pickup in the rear Jazz position. I also put a Badass on it, along with new tuners (forget which brand). I still can't believe I sold that thing years ago!

To answer your question - yes it can be modded and will sound pretty good, but short scales always seem to lack great low end no matter what you do.

[johnk_10]

on every one that i've owned or worked on (about 25), if you remove the pickup or pickguard, you'd find that it has six magnet pole pieces under the plastic pickup cover (they used their bottom of the line guitar pickup), so it's impossible to get six magnets to align with four strings. a single coil p bass pickup has four poles and it a little larger, but they are spaced wider than a MM's string spacing, and that's why you'll find that alot of people used a 'blade type' magnet pickup for replacement.

2 cents...........

[jeffwo]

Pushing that single coil P bass back to the Jazz position made the pole pieces line up well, and it sounded great. BTW, my custom body was a rear rout, so no pickguard issues there.

[JBuckley]

I had my 78 musicmaster modded about 10 years ago. It now has a Badass II bridge, Schaler tuners and a Barcus-Berry model 2400 pickup. The bridge and tuners are great, and the pickup is better than the stock one, but it's really hot and noisy when the tone knob is too high.

[vroc38]

Might want to think about a Hipshot A Style bridge. I put one on a USA Bullet a while back and it worked like a champ.