NBD 1978 Musicmaster Bass

[eddiditfirst]

Educate me please. A short scale single coil P bass? What is special about it?

You’re really not far off. Mustang body with a single coil Mustang guitar pickup to cut down production costs. 30” scale and a narrower neck/ string spacing than typical of Fender. They were intended for the student/ beginner market. They’re fairly common while being less desirable to other models on the vintage market, so you can easily find one for a third to half the price you’ll pay for an equivalent Mustang or precision bass.
Given a setup and some tlc, they’re as good as any bass Fender was making at the time.

 

[Dabndug]

Much to my surprise - my '71 Musicmasters' necks are wider at the nut than my '71 P by about 2mm. At the body end of the neck, the P is a good 8mm wider. The Musicmaster necks are about 4mm shallower than the P, which I expected.

 

[eddiditfirst]

Congrats! My first ever bass was a Musicmaster that I bought for $100 in the mid 90's. Sadly, it took me a few years to figure out why all the strings I bought for it were too "short" haha. I was so disappointed that there was no silk wrapping left once I trimmed them to length. Anyway, I still have it thankfully. Did the earlier models feature phenolic bridge saddles? Mine has metal ones, but the ones on your bass almost look like rubberized plastic.

I’m not aware of Musicmasters ever having phenolic saddles, but i did wonder when i first saw it- but no, they’re metal. It appears someone painted them black at some point for some reason??

 

[eddiditfirst]

Much to my surprise - my '71 Musicmasters' necks are wider at the nut than my '71 P by about 2mm. At the body end of the neck, the P is a good 8mm wider. The Musicmaster necks are about 4mm shallower than the P, which I expected.

That’s nuts! (if you’ll forgive the pun)
The Musicmaster’s nut width is 41mm, which feels appropriately tiny compared to the 66P’s 44mm. It’s wild how variable the specs can be when it’s all being finished by hand

 

[SC Bassboy]

I’m not aware of Musicmasters ever having phenolic saddles, but i did wonder when i first saw it- but no, they’re metal. It appears someone painted them black at some point for some reason??

Yeah, same. I've never seen phenolic saddles on that model, so it was curious. Thanks for clearing that up.