Squier MusicMaster Vista Club

[the mighty bow]

Don't worry I'm not using it through the blues junior

 

[the mighty bow]

 

[Duder]

View attachment 904795 View attachment 904796

That headstock has seen things, body looks really good though

 

[the mighty bow]

I lied about the blues junior. Sounds awesome with my fuzzes and Jerry Cantrell wah.

 

[MakoMan]

Congratulations the mighty bow! You are member No. 46!

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[the mighty bow]

been playing her for a few days now and I love it. using it through a hughes & kettner basskick 111. sounds great and just like ive read somewhere, the tone pot is very useful, i get alot of nice sounds from that.
I think my charvel fusion is looking for a new home now.

 

[Desuh]

Hello everyone! I just purchased a seafoam green musicmaster vista bass and I love how it looks! Unfortunately, I'm really having problems with the sound. Someone replaced the pickup with a Lindy Fralin 51P Pickup and the E string output is absurdly weak. This may be due to the e-string polepiece being much lower than the a-string polepiece, or the fact that the e string is kinda far off center from the polepiece. The original vista pickup was included, but it looks like the e-polepiece is lower than the rest, too, will I have the same problem? Does anyone have any advice for me, please???

 

[the mighty bow]

Hi Desuh
I suppose the obvious thing to do is try the original. I did have the same problem with my charvel and I eventually pinned that down to a dead E string. How old Are the strings?

 

[Desuh]

I actually have no idea how old the strings are. I just got this bass off of reverb. But these look and sound like new daddario roundwound strings with plenty of life, including the E. I may be used to worn in flatwounds more but this whole set sounds new, even unplugged

 

[burl0029]

Hello everyone! I just purchased a seafoam green musicmaster vista bass and I love how it looks! Unfortunately, I'm really having problems with the sound. Someone replaced the pickup with a Lindy Fralin 51P Pickup and the E string output is absurdly weak. This may be due to the e-string polepiece being much lower than the a-string polepiece, or the fact that the e string is kinda far off center from the polepiece. The original vista pickup was included, but it looks like the e-polepiece is lower than the rest, too, will I have the same problem? Does anyone have any advice for me, please???

If the Fralin is made like the Vista pup you can just push the pole piece up higher from the bottom of the pup. I did that once on one of my Vista pups. The strings are also a good bet as previously mentioned. Also make sure your string height above the pup is not too high. Good luck.

 

[MakoMan]

This may be due to the e-string polepiece being much lower than the a-string polepiece, or the fact that the e string is kinda far off center from the polepiece.

I'm guessing your problem is that the polepiece is not directly below the E string. I put an Seymour Duncan SCPB-3 pickup in my Vista and had the same problem, as the pickup polepieces were wider apart than the string spacing. No matter how I placed it either the E or G string had a lower output than the other 3. With the stock Vista pickup, the polepieces were all lined up with the stings perfectly.

 

[bassbully]

If the Fralin is made like the Vista pup you can just push the pole piece up higher from the bottom of the pup. I did that once on one of my Vista pups. The strings are also a good bet as previously mentioned. Also make sure your string height above the pup is not too high. Good luck.

Go back to the original pup. Those suckers roar.

 

[burl0029]

Go back to the original pup. Those suckers roar.

I can't argue with that. All mine have the original and I have no reason to change them.

 

[bassbully]

I can't argue with that. All mine have the original and I have no reason to change them.

Its amazing how clear and powerful that pup is.

 

[Desuh]

If the Fralin is made like the Vista pup you can just push the pole piece up higher from the bottom of the pup. I did that once on one of my Vista pups. The strings are also a good bet as previously mentioned. Also make sure your string height above the pup is not too high. Good luck.

Pushing the polepiece up doesn't damage the winding? I was always under the assumption that that would break the pickup. Is there a proper way to adjust the polepiece (not just pushing by hand?)

 

[Desuh]

I'm guessing your problem is that the polepiece is not directly below the E string. I put an Seymour Duncan SCPB-3 pickup in my Vista and had the same problem, as the pickup polepieces were wider apart than the string spacing. Not matter how I placed it either the E or G string had a lower output than the other 3. With the stock Vista pickup, the polepieces were all lined up with the stings perfectly.

Yeah, it seems like these '51 P style pickups are way less forgiving with string placement (as opposed to say a jazz or split p pickup, maybe due to the dual magnets?) My a string ROARS with the Fralin but the e pole feels a mile away haha. I guess I'll save it for a project bass.

 

[burl0029]

Pushing the polepiece up doesn't damage the winding? I was always under the assumption that that would break the pickup. Is there a proper way to adjust the polepiece (not just pushing by hand?)

I did it to one of my Vista pups. Three of the pole pieces were where they should have been, but one was too low. I gave it a light push with my fingers and it moved pretty easily. Still works perfectly. I can't make any promises about yours, though. Do you have a photo of the bass and the string alignment?

 

[burl0029]

I did it to one of my Vista pups. Three of the pole pieces were where they should have been, but one was too low. I gave it a light push with my fingers and it moved pretty easily. Still works perfectly. I can't make any promises about yours, though. Do you have a photo of the bass and the string alignment?

I just found the photo from the reverb listing. I don't think it's far enough off center to make that much of a difference. I'd be inclined to believe it's one of the other options previously listed. (Dead string, pickup adjusted too low/string too high, pole piece too low)

 

[burl0029]

Regarding pole piece widths, here's a post I made back on page 32.

Here's an update to this post. I noticed today while doing some cleanup on the basses I'm prepping for sale that the pickup pole pieces were drastically different in terms of placement. So, I decided to measure them all and compare. As referenced previously, the SCPB-3 is 53.5mm from center to center. Here are the measurements of the 7 I have on hand: 47, 48, 48, 52.5, 52.5, 53, and 53. The 48mm spacing gives perfect alignment with the strings, whereas the 53mm spacing is a bit wider, though not unreasonable. They must have switched suppliers during the manufacturing run. I can't imagine one company's quality control could be that consistently off, unless they made a change and stuck with it.

I've tested them thoroughly and I'm pretty sure it doesn't really make a difference in terms of sound. They all pretty much sound like they should. Now I have myself curious; tomorrow I'll have to check them with a multimeter and see if there's a consistent difference between the wider and narrower versions.

AND ANOTHER POST AFTER THAT ONE...

Here's an interesting find. I tested the pickups with a multimeter and the pickups with narrower string spacing are generally lower resistance. They ranged from 7.6-7.9K and the wider ones ranged from 8.0-8.5K. They all have different strings so it's difficult to say anything about perceived volume or tone. FYI: I tested these by simply measuring through a plugged in cable. There's potentially a bit of error introduced this way as a couple of them have had the stock pots replaced, but I wasn't about to tear them all apart for this. Close enough.

 

[Desuh]

I did it to one of my Vista pups. Three of the pole pieces were where they should have been, but one was too low. I gave it a light push with my fingers and it moved pretty easily. Still works perfectly. I can't make any promises about yours, though. Do you have a photo of the bass and the string alignment?

As you can see, the e string is pretty far off center. I just wanted to add the other photos to show the pole height of the '51p pickup and also the pole height of the vista