Fender Musicmaster Bass 1971 USA £975 Lancaster

[ash]

Fender Musicmaster Bass 1971

 

This is the rarer first issue of the Musicmaster bass. This is the baby of the Fender range of this era and has a 30” scale. 

This early version has the smaller logo and model name with the distinctive hooked R. The tuners are original with the tulip shaped keys, later models had Schaller types. 

The neck is nice and easy to play, it has a lovely dark rosewood board and 19 frets. Truss rod works as it ought to and the action is low and comfortable. It also intonates very well for a two saddle bridge shorty. 

The bass had been modded years before I bought it and had been routed for a reversed Precision bass pickup rather than the original rather weedy sounding Strat pickup. I swapped the pickup for a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder as the fitted pickup was in poor condition. I also removed the ‘choke’ from the original wiring circuit as this was probably used to make the original Strat pickup sound darker. I will include the choke with the bass.

The pots and Bakelite knobs are all original.

The scratchplate is one I made. It’s rather rough but does the job. I have the original one but it has been modded to accommodate the P pickup and the original pickup cavity patched. I’ll include this of course.

The finish is original with lots of dings, touch ups, crazing and darker patches where stickers have been removed. It has had a long life as a gigged bass. It looks great because it’s been played and loved.

I’ve personally used this for all my gigs over the last year. It sounds punchy and has a surprising tonal range. It’s light at around 3.7kgs and very easy to play.  I’m selling because I’m getting back to playing long scales. I don’t want trades sorry and it’s UK only. I can post at the buyer’s expense and/or arrangement. 
I’ve included pictures of the original scratchplate and a template I made, plus the choke and wiring before I removed the choke. All are included. 
It came with a quirky home made padded bag as pictured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 11:44 by ash
Pics rearranged

[petecarlton]

Pickguard looks great!
 

GLWTS.

[ash]

38 minutes ago, petecarlton said:

Pickguard looks great!
 

GLWTS.

Thanks - it does the job! I did it with basic hand tools so the screw holes aren’t countersunk correctly. The drill bit I bought for the job just chewed up the plastic I tried it on so I had to improvise and they aren’t as deep as I would’ve liked.