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Musicmaster Pickguard


cgg199
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I'm about to start work on getting my 1978 Musicmaster bass back up to a gigging standard. It needs a new pick guard amongst other things, however having seen the price of these online, I'm looking for a cheaper alternative. I was wondering if anyone else with a Musicmaster would be able to trace and scan their pick guard for me.

My bass appears to have the pick guard design that hugs the bottom of the neck, similar to the photo below,  as I know two pickguard designs were used.

yu07fel774yjxzuzhpco.jpg

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

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The bass pictured isn't mine, that was just an example of the pickguard shape, as musicmaster basses came with two subtly different designs. A previous owner cut it down to just a small control plate unfortunately!

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14 hours ago, tony_m said:

I'm away at the mo, but will do you a copy of my S8 serial Musicmaster p/g when I get home in a couple of days. Give me a nudge at the weekend in case I forget! 👍

That's perfect thankyou! Mine's an S8 aswell so it should be spot on!

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Okey-dokey @cgg199, here you go. I've done a trace and a scan of the actual thing in case that's useful, in both pdf and jpg form. Hopefully you can download them from here, if not PM me your email and I'll send them to you.

 

As an aside, while I had the thing apart, I had a look at the pickup. After Bassist mag did an article about restoring / upgrading a Musicmaster and mentioned installing a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails pup, I decided to do the same. In fact, I can remember exactly when I did it - it was during the Euro '96 match between England and Holland! Fast forward to today and at some point between then and now, I obviously must have had a change of heart and replaced the Hot Rails with the original Strat pickup - how odd, I don't remember doing that!!! Sounds remarkably good all the same... 🤣

 

Right, files...

Musicmaster pickguard actual jpg.jpg

Musicmaster pickguard jpg.jpg

Musicmaster pickguard actual pdf.pdf Musicmaster pickguard pdf.pdf

Edited by tony_m
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That's brilliant thanks Tony, a massive help! I believe mine still has all the original electronics, however what with uni I've only been able to look over it very briefly. A previous owner (who also stripped the finish) thought it would be a good idea to the pickup and control knobs navy blue so that's another job for summer. It appears they even tried to paint the bridge!

Here's a picture of it for reference.

 

Fender Musicmaster.jpg

Edited by cgg199
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9 hours ago, cgg199 said:

That's brilliant thanks Tony, a massive help! I believe mine still has all the original electronics, however what with uni I've only been able to look over it very briefly. A previous owner (who also stripped the finish) thought it would be a good idea to the pickup and control knobs navy blue so that's another job for summer. It appears they even tried to paint the bridge!

Here's a picture of it for reference.

 

 

You're very welcome! That looks quite cool stripped / natural like that - mine's white, or at least I presume it was when it was new. It's now gone a rather manky creamy colour, which for some reason the camera simply refuses to capture, and insists on making it look a lot better than it really is! 😂

Musicmaster.jpg

Edited by tony_m
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Ha ha, photos can be deceptive! To be honest, it probably isn't as bad as I've made out, it's just that the finish hasn't gone that lovely rich creamy yellow that might be considered "vintage cool", but is a bit nondescript. That said, I guess it's in reasonable condition overall, and I'm intending to take it out for a blast at our next rehearsal (if we ever have one, given our apparent inability to attract or retain guitarists... 🙄 ).

 

Good luck with your restoration, look forward to seeing how it goes. 👍

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Nice selection of pickguards, though it looks like they've opted for the earlier "straight across the neck heel + extra screw" style rather than the later "shaped around the neck heel + truss road access" version which would be correct for an S8 serial bass.

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Got a few more questions as I dig deeper into this rebuild. Should the pickup have foam underneath, as they do on other fender basses? And are the pickup screws standard pickup screws as found on a P or J bass?

It seems one of the things that was done to the bass was attach the pickup to the body using two of the left over pick guard screws!

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48 minutes ago, cgg199 said:

Got a few more questions as I dig deeper into this rebuild. Should the pickup have foam underneath, as they do on other fender basses? And are the pickup screws standard pickup screws as found on a P or J bass?

It seems one of the things that was done to the bass was attach the pickup to the body using two of the left over pick guard screws!

Re Foam - nope

B2275FA4-41B7-4643-85C6-CD624D154764.jpeg

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1 minute ago, cgg199 said:

Perfect thank you Andy! Just one more quick question, how is the pickup attached to the pick guard, do the screws go all the way into the body?

I can’t remember, I know I need a musicmaster back in my life.

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1 hour ago, cgg199 said:

Perfect thank you Andy! Just one more quick question, how is the pickup attached to the pick guard, do the screws go all the way into the body?

The pickup is attached to the pickguard using two machine screws which screw into the flatwork of the pup with a spring in between (like a Strat). The screws are not the same as regular P or J screws which tap into the bodywork. Here's a pic of my old Musicmaster which had the later pickguard shape, same as yours.

IMG_2274.thumb.jpg.423d8a6ad028e88e4b79ac64be13293f.jpg

Edited by ikay
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yup, the pick up on mine fits the same as Ikay's. No foam. all held by the pickguard.

When I replaced the original pickguard which was broken around the jack socket,  I added a couple of extra screws around the socket - heresy I know, but it gives the pickguard better support and doesn't look out of place.

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Just to add my twopenn'orth, my S8 doesn't have springs between the pickup and the pickguard, it has a couple of rubber grommets which go from squished to not-squished depending on how you have the pup adjusted...

MM pup1.jpg

MM pup2.jpg

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