Absolutely not. It's a refin that has been hacked for a new pickup, without the original pickup included. A super clean, all original one might have hit $1,000 on a good day, before the current "bubble." These basses were made by the bajillions, and have never been collectible...and the bubble is bursting something fierce right now.
If I did get the bass, I would restore it to stock specifications. Strip the finish. Remove the new pickup. Find a vintage-correct pickup and guard, and sell the Bisonic to fund them. Fill, level, and re-rout the pickup area. Refinish. I can do all that stuff myself, without having to pay someone. If I was having someone else do the work, I wouldn't even touch the bass.
Bottom line: I would not buy the bass unless it was $250 out the door. Any more, and it's just not worth the labor to get it back to as-stock.
A few notes, regardless:
1. It's an early model, based on the location of the plastic rest. '71 or '72, most likely. These are slightly more desirable than the later top-rest models.
2. Someone above said the knobs are Mustang knobs, as if it was a sign that they weren't original. But those are indeed the type of knobs that came on these basses.
3. They are good basses, when bone stock. They're built solidly, and sound great, IMO.
4. The comments about it not being a real Fender Musicmaster are nonsense. There are zero signs that it is not, plus there is very little incentive to fake one.
5. It is in every way a better quality bass than the Squier Vista version. Not sure what all the hoopla is about those...but it's dumb. The Vistas are fine, but for not much more, you could get a real Musicmaster from the '70s, which is built better, wears its age more gracefully, and will almost certainly appreciate more.
6. It's REALLY worth nothing if the neck isn't straight and/or the frets need replacement.
7. A refin in Daphne Blue nitrocellulose with clear coat would make it more desirable in a future sale. This is the rarest (and most would say coolest) Musicmaster Bass color. And yes, they did come in blue with a white pickguard (not just pearloid, which would be very hard to track down).
P.S. I have been playing a '75 Musicmaster for 33 years. It has been the most gigged bass of my entire time as a bassist; I have played [literally] hundreds of gigs with it, without a hitch aside from a faulty original volume pot, and a broken original E string (which had lasted 34 years before breaking). Great basses, IMO, even though they are ugly as sin. I would put my ugly, beat one up against my most expensive basses any time, in terms of usefulness as a musical tool. I have also restored several, FWIW, including a blue one of the same vintage as the one in this thread (with original white guard). That one, I kept, as I love the blue with white guard, and it was super clean when I got it, except for the body having been partially stripped.
