soulrabbi

Pickups sound nice and clear with a decent output. It was brighter than I would usually like but then I would stick flatwounds straight on and I didn't fiddle with the amp settings or even look how he had the amp set. I just wanted to have a quick fiddle around with it on the way home. But yeah I think it would sound amazing with some decent strings on it.

I went and played one of these in GAK on my way home from work today. They only had candy apple red in stock (I prefer the white) but this is a very nice instrument. Quality of fit and finish is incredible for 300 quid. The bloke told me they've sold about four or five out of the shop in the last 2 days. Think I need to sell some gear and buy one quick!

Thanks for the suggestions. I think the 51 pb pickups are longer than the vista tone. Would mean modding the pickguard and the pole pieces would be too far apart for the string spacing in the musicmaster. May have to stick in a hotrails or something.

Hi all, I just bought a Squier Vista Musicmaster bass. When I received it, plugged it in and found the tone control acted more like a volume. When rolled back there was barely any output but when rolled forward it gave a horrible harsh tone. I had already booked it in for a setup at my local guitar shop so I asked the bloke to investigate. He told me that the electronics had been totally botched, volume and tone were wired in series and it was generally a bit of a mess. I left it with him and he figured it out, wired it up correctly and gave it a setup. I collected it today and it sounds and feels loads better but the output, whilst vastly improved, is still low. I think he said he measured about 4/4.5k from the pickup. But I'm sure I've read in other forums people measuring about 8k or something from these Vista Tone pickups. I did ask what else could be the problem but he said it could be all sorts. Possibly the pickup was knackered and someone had tried to rewind it in the past. Although he hadn't investigated any further, he just said that the wiring was such a mess that anything was possible and he just wanted to get it working for me for now without running up a huge bill. Suffice to say, I have taken up the issue with the seller who had described as being in full working order and claimed it had been set up and the electronics professionally checked over! But my question is: any ideas what could be responsible for the low output? Faulty pickup? Something up with volume pot? Have i just misread somewhere about the high output of these basses? Any help greatly appreciated.