Alright, I'm new with a Musicmaster, got this 78', and I'm loving it!
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Th Official Fender Musicmaster Bass Club
- Thread starter HosMan
- Start date
Greetings. Recently acquired a couple of these basses with some minor needs to get up and running. Input would be most welcome to get them done sooner than later!
Are there any recommended bridge replacements that would not require any new holes to be drilled for the 3 screws on top, 4 on bottom style? Or would it be better to just do saddle replacements? If so, where would one look?
What screws are recommended for the pickup into the pickguard? Length? Style?
Thanks!
Are there any recommended bridge replacements that would not require any new holes to be drilled for the 3 screws on top, 4 on bottom style? Or would it be better to just do saddle replacements? If so, where would one look?
What screws are recommended for the pickup into the pickguard? Length? Style?
Thanks!
You can replace the saddles with Hosco compensated saddles, to preserve the look of the bass.
Here’s a link to a Wilkinson Gotoh one I used. You can not remove the bass plate and just replace the saddles and adjustment screws. NEW Wilkinson GOTOH Bass Bridge WB2V-NS Compensated Brass Saddles 1950s P-Bass | Reverb
There's a photo of my bass with the Hosco saddles on p14 of this thread. They look the same as the Wilkinson GOTOH in the link above.
Hi Musicmaster family.
Hope you won't mind a few quick questions re: bridge upgrades. There were some recent posts on this topic, and I find myself tempted to do something along these lines (e.g., Hipshot vintage replacement, Hosco saddle replacements on the stock bridge, Albridge bridge, etc.).
But I wonder how worthwhile these types of upgrades really are.
And now the questions part...
1) How "off" do people find the intonation on the Musicmaster? My 78 is not perfect, but never seemed to pose a serious problem for me. Would the move to 4 adjustable saddles provide dramatic improvements?
2) Are the replacement bridges lighter than the original? I can't find any weight info online for the original, although I see that the Hipshot and Albridge reportedly weigh around 4ish ounces. Weight savings would be an attractive benefit for me.
3) Which string spread (.669 vs. .708) is correct? Hipshot offers both, Albridge is .708 (18mm) - very confusing.
Thanks in advance for any helpful comments you may have to offer - greatly appreciate it!
Best,
Dango
Hope you won't mind a few quick questions re: bridge upgrades. There were some recent posts on this topic, and I find myself tempted to do something along these lines (e.g., Hipshot vintage replacement, Hosco saddle replacements on the stock bridge, Albridge bridge, etc.).
But I wonder how worthwhile these types of upgrades really are.
And now the questions part...
1) How "off" do people find the intonation on the Musicmaster? My 78 is not perfect, but never seemed to pose a serious problem for me. Would the move to 4 adjustable saddles provide dramatic improvements?
2) Are the replacement bridges lighter than the original? I can't find any weight info online for the original, although I see that the Hipshot and Albridge reportedly weigh around 4ish ounces. Weight savings would be an attractive benefit for me.
3) Which string spread (.669 vs. .708) is correct? Hipshot offers both, Albridge is .708 (18mm) - very confusing.
Thanks in advance for any helpful comments you may have to offer - greatly appreciate it!
Best,
Dango
Hi,
re 1: my experience now as well, depending on the strings and the action you are getting acceptable intonation with the 2 saddle bridge. If I am not pressing the string exactly perpendicular, I am detuning it and intonation as well. So it depends a lot on your playing style, if it is worth to change the bridge. Of course you are getting better controllable precision with the 4-saddle bridge.
re2: I am not at home currently, so I cannot give you exact numbers, but I do not remember a significant weight difference with both bridges. The tuners are more important weight wasters, because they influence neck dive as well. Especially the later musicmaster basses with the bigger tuners allow for roughly 180gr weight reduction if you change for ultralight (hipshot) tuners.
re3: I have the hipshot vintage bridge with .669 spacing on my basses. This was matching my original 2-saddle bridge.
Have fun with your musicmaster bass!
With Thomastik short scale flats, my intonation is perfect with the original bridge and saddles. It not, I would have considered replacing it.
I love short scales basses, but this music master version is definitely not my cup of tea. With a 6 pole pickup (for 4 strings?) - a stratocaster pickup -
To me, the split pickup version is much better.
But, that's only my opinion ...
To me, the split pickup version is much better.
But, that's only my opinion ...
I bet there is a Mustang bass club you could enjoy…
Here's my 1973 Fender 'Wednesday' Musicmaster Bass
With a few mods (Al-bridge, Novak pickup + custom ring, pickguard, and wiring components; the tuners are probably the next in line), re-fretted and set up properly.
I just love this little beast.
A diamond in the rough.
With a few mods (Al-bridge, Novak pickup + custom ring, pickguard, and wiring components; the tuners are probably the next in line), re-fretted and set up properly.
I just love this little beast.
A diamond in the rough.
Hello everyone! Digging through the local used market, I found this one. She was born in 77, quite well reserved. After work I went to try her, and wow, after closer inspection and 2 notes I bought her. I’m a die hard Musicmaster fan, bought the rascal 2 months ago (gave up finding a vintage musicmaster, but needed a short scale), and bamm, the musicmaster ad came from nowhere.
Decades-long guitar/bass forum lurker here (yes, I read all 41 pages of this amazing thread). I was finally motivated to post on a forum for the first time ever because of the astounding results I got from 30 minutes or so of work on my 1977 Musicmaster bass (see pics). I got this bass about 6 months ago and love the feel, look, and vibe, but the tone was definitely a bit dull, and it was (and is) a bit noisy. I'm a guitarist/vocalist mainly but I play bass on all my recordings. (Look up Brian Bond on Spotify etc.). So I'm not really that concerned about noise in live playing, and noise is something I can usually deal with on a recording with angling my body and with EQ if needed. Anyway, because of these issues I've been doing that thing where I read every forum thread ever on which replacement pickup to get for the old MM basses, and had decided first on Cool Rails, then on Novak, then on blah blah.
But then I thought I'd try clipping the extra .02 tone cap and shielding the cavity before spending any more money. (A couple people on here have mentioned that the stock pickup sounds good with the cap clipped.) Took about a half hour this morning, and boy am I glad I did. The bass is still a bit noisy, but seems ever so slightly better. (The noise is actually a different frequency now I think. I also recorded in front of my computer which probably doesn't help.) But the difference in tone is quite shocking. SOO much more treble. Which I won't always want, but backing off the tone knob to like 3 gets me basically back to where I was before, with that extra cap. So the stock guitar pickup is staying for now, until I change my mind. I might still need to run a ground wire from the cavity shielding to the back of the volume pot, but I do sense less RF noise for now.
I've attached recordings of the stock bass and then of the clipped cap with shielding. Playing with my thumb for the first half and a pick for the second. The bass is going through my GAP Pre-73 Jr (Neve clone) into a Klark-Teknik 1176 clone with some compression. Then I put some limiting on it Logic to get them up to a good volume. So you can really hear the noise being brought up with the compression, which is how it would typically be in a track.
For those of you talking about neck dive, this bass definitely has that, but I honestly never even noticed because I just record with it and then it goes back on the rack.
Oh, and can I be part of the club? 100% stock '77 MM. For those of you who are interested in nerdy Fender finish history things like I am, the finish on the neck is definitely all nitro, not just nitro on the headstock front like a lot of 70s Fenders. The back of the neck is pretty worn, which would never happen with poly from that era. Just before I had this MM, I had a 78 MM in the translucent wine red which had a poly neck and a nitro headstock front. Felt and looked totally different. I read somewhere that Fender may have continued using nitro on the cheaper instruments like this for part of the 70s because poly was considered an "upgrade" on the instruments higher up in the line. Not sure of that's true, but this bass would suggest it could be.
Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge. Hopefully these recordings help people decide if they want a new pickup or just want to take out some pliers and clip that "tone sucker" instead.
But then I thought I'd try clipping the extra .02 tone cap and shielding the cavity before spending any more money. (A couple people on here have mentioned that the stock pickup sounds good with the cap clipped.) Took about a half hour this morning, and boy am I glad I did. The bass is still a bit noisy, but seems ever so slightly better. (The noise is actually a different frequency now I think. I also recorded in front of my computer which probably doesn't help.) But the difference in tone is quite shocking. SOO much more treble. Which I won't always want, but backing off the tone knob to like 3 gets me basically back to where I was before, with that extra cap. So the stock guitar pickup is staying for now, until I change my mind. I might still need to run a ground wire from the cavity shielding to the back of the volume pot, but I do sense less RF noise for now.
I've attached recordings of the stock bass and then of the clipped cap with shielding. Playing with my thumb for the first half and a pick for the second. The bass is going through my GAP Pre-73 Jr (Neve clone) into a Klark-Teknik 1176 clone with some compression. Then I put some limiting on it Logic to get them up to a good volume. So you can really hear the noise being brought up with the compression, which is how it would typically be in a track.
For those of you talking about neck dive, this bass definitely has that, but I honestly never even noticed because I just record with it and then it goes back on the rack.
Oh, and can I be part of the club? 100% stock '77 MM. For those of you who are interested in nerdy Fender finish history things like I am, the finish on the neck is definitely all nitro, not just nitro on the headstock front like a lot of 70s Fenders. The back of the neck is pretty worn, which would never happen with poly from that era. Just before I had this MM, I had a 78 MM in the translucent wine red which had a poly neck and a nitro headstock front. Felt and looked totally different. I read somewhere that Fender may have continued using nitro on the cheaper instruments like this for part of the 70s because poly was considered an "upgrade" on the instruments higher up in the line. Not sure of that's true, but this bass would suggest it could be.
Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge. Hopefully these recordings help people decide if they want a new pickup or just want to take out some pliers and clip that "tone sucker" instead.
Attachments
Welcome "Doctor Music"! You are Th Official Fender Musicmaster Bass Club member #44.
Congratulation to your Musicmaster Bass - have fun with it!
