72 Musicmaster Fretless Project

[Joe Nation]

15 hours ago, ped said:

do we have a good UK source for transfers?

Try https://www.croxguitars.com/products.html.

 

And yes, bushing is probably a better term than ferrule.

[ped]

Musicmaster arrived today (amazing service from Rich Tone Music, Sheffield).

 

Plugged it in, and it’s a blast! The weird electronics mean I get both pickups only but at least I know they both work. It has a really rich growly sound and it feels great. Neck is straight, possibly one or two high frets but no major issues. I can get the action very low and even the janky bridge allows near enough intonation. 
 

It’s a bit heavier than the Mustang but still light. The finish is really very yellow indeed which is lovely in person, more yellow than I expected but quite faithful to the pictures on the listing. The cream pickups look lovely against the body and I can see why the dimarzios are so well regarded. 
 

The finish seems to be a polyester coat although it must be quite thin as it’s worn away in places. It definitely fees and looks more like poly. Being ‘72 I think that checks out. 
 

It’s clear that the bass has been loved and thoughtfully modified thus far. It’s definitely been played and loved, and even though I’ll be making a few changes I don’t feel like I’m rescuing a basket case. 
 

Looking forward to the next step - fretless neck comes tomorrow, so I’ll put that on and give it a go although without pickup pan it won’t be ideal, but enough to give me an idea of the final sound. I have the new bridge on the way from the USA and still thinking about the wiring. Early Sept I’ll pass it on to my luthier and get cracking. 
 

In short, I’m relieved that the bass is ok. Much better than expected and I’m super excited to see how this ends up!!

Not sure what sort of strap to get for it, as I have a wide RightOn strap for the mustang which matches perfectly. Maybe the same in black with a yellow stripe. I’ll also need a spare clip for the Backbeat. Then another pedalboard. Yellow stage clothes. The list goes on…

 

 

 

[ped]

I’m not 100% sure but I might be right in thinking these dimarzio pickups are hum cancelling? I can’t solo either pickup to check but I think I read somewhere that this is the case - a happy accident if so, particularly as I’ll likely favour the bridge pickup for fretless. Can anyone confirm?

[ped]

Fretless neck is here. Bolted on (first time I’ve done that) and tuned up. It’ll need time to settle but it sounds brilliant! I’ll leave it for a day or two as currently there’s a bit of back bow so once the strings add some force the other way it’ll either be right or need some truss rod adjustment. 
 

The fit and finish of the ebony board replacement is great, I think it’ll come up really nicely with some epoxy. 
 

 

[ped]

The original neck. It sounds like I should leave the truss rod alone when storing this, correct?

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

4 hours ago, ped said:

The original neck. It sounds like I should leave the truss rod alone when storing this, correct?

 

 

The new neck looks the business, @ped .

Ref the old neck, personally, I would take the tension off the trussrod to avoid the possibility of a permanent back bow setting in over storage time...

[Stub Mandrel]

6 hours ago, ped said:

The original neck. It sounds like I should leave the truss rod alone when storing this, correct?

 

 

 

Finally sanded by Xavier Armenta.

[Beneath It All]

On 13/08/2025 at 20:21, ped said:

I’m not 100% sure but I might be right in thinking these dimarzio pickups are hum cancelling? I can’t solo either pickup to check but I think I read somewhere that this is the case - a happy accident if so, particularly as I’ll likely favour the bridge pickup for fretless. Can anyone confirm?

DMZ pups are usually 4 conductor wiring to eliminate hum [asfaik], but if both pups are always on, shouldn't that eliminate any hum????

[ped]

10 minutes ago, Beneath It All said:

DMZ pups are usually 4 conductor wiring to eliminate hum [asfaik], but if both pups are always on, shouldn't that eliminate any hum????

Precisely, so I can’t solo a pickup to check if just one cancels the hum. But from looking online it seems as though they definitely do. 

[Beneath It All]

1 hour ago, ped said:

Precisely, so I can’t solo a pickup to check if just one cancels the hum. But from looking online it seems as though they definitely do. 

oOps,  just realised where you're coming from😔

[ped]

5 minutes ago, Beneath It All said:

oOps,  just realised where you're coming from😔

 

I sometimes wonder myself!

[ped]

OK - the fretless neck is adjusted and the action/intonation is set. It plays beautifully - amazingly the intonation is pretty spot on - I can't get it exact because of the shared saddle arrangement, but the new Albridge will sort that. However, I will install that last, if I need to - I quite like the original bridge, so given the inaccuracy of my fretting, it might not need to be perfect. We'll wait and see.

 

 

Along with the wiring harness, one other job is to correct the slight slant of the neck pickup.

 

There's room under the pickguard to move the pickup by a few degrees, but doing so will necessitate cutting the scratchplate a little to make it fit. What I'd like to do is fit a bezel around the neck pickup, using w/b/w pickguard material in a rectangle, to go around the J pickup and hide the gaps left by the old position.

 

I wondered if anyone on BC has the skills/time to make this, otherwise I could try a pickguard website (I have used tinyTone before with great results)

 

It just wants to be like this, around a dimarzio J pickup

 

[Beedster]

24 minutes ago, ped said:

I can't get it exact because of the shared saddle arrangement

 

I wish I was so adept at fretless intonation that it mattered  

[Beedster]

On 12/08/2025 at 18:15, ped said:

I’m talking to Steve at Chapel Guitars http://www.chapelguitars.com (found via the recommended luthiers thread here). He’s made the potentially fatal error of accepting the challenge! 

 

Watching that with interest, Martin Sims did one for me about 10 years back and it was sublime, I'm thinking of having another done but Martin isn't doing that stuff any more so looking at alternatives 

[ped]

5 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

I wish I was so adept at fretless intonation that it mattered  

 

Yeah me too, at least this way I can use the bridge as an excuse

[Beedster]

3 minutes ago, ped said:

 

Yeah me too, at least this way I can use the bridge as an excuse

It’s why I can’t play lined fretless 😂

[ped]

Just now, Beedster said:

It’s why I can’t play lined fretless 😂

 

I think the lines are in the wrong place on mine

[Beedster]

4 minutes ago, ped said:

 

I think the lines are in the wrong place on mine

😂

[ezbass]

[Stub Mandrel]

Intonation on a fretless. The average joe can hear a difference of 5-10 cents.

 

In a musical piece you don't hear most notes long enough to detect (or correct) small pitch errors. 

 

Being within 10 cents is ample. For a 30" short scale that's about 1.5mm at the 19th fret.

 

So a two string saddle splitting the difference between two strings where the ideal positions are 3mm apart should be fine. That's many basses.

 

For playing fretless this would suggest aiming to get your fingers within 2mm of the ideal (or in a 4mm wide band) around the 12th fret.

 

Now think about those kids having violin lessons who have to be twice as accurate!

[ped]

47 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Intonation on a fretless. The average joe can hear a difference of 5-10 cents.

 

In a musical piece you don't hear most notes long enough to detect (or correct) small pitch errors. 

 

Being within 10 cents is ample. For a 30" short scale that's about 1.5mm at the 19th fret.

 

So a two string saddle splitting the difference between two strings where the ideal positions are 3mm apart should be fine. That's many basses.

 

For playing fretless this would suggest aiming to get your fingers within 2mm of the ideal (or in a 4mm wide band) around the 12th fret.

 

Now think about those kids having violin lessons who have to be twice as accurate!

 

Maybe I need an angry parent to make me learn properly!

 

RE the pickup surround - I talked to Tim at Gig.Ink https://gig.ink - despite offering a super cool range of designs, he was more than happy to do me a simple boring white rectangle. He sent 1:1 templates to test and we're all set. The bass looks quite cool with a surround around the bridge, too - so at a later date I might do that, or get surround(s) in other colours, maybe. 

 

 

[ped]

Updated pic with fretless neck attached

[ped]

22 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Intonation on a fretless. The average joe can hear a difference of 5-10 cents.

 

In a musical piece you don't hear most notes long enough to detect (or correct) small pitch errors. 

 

Being within 10 cents is ample. For a 30" short scale that's about 1.5mm at the 19th fret.

 

So a two string saddle splitting the difference between two strings where the ideal positions are 3mm apart should be fine. That's many basses.

 

For playing fretless this would suggest aiming to get your fingers within 2mm of the ideal (or in a 4mm wide band) around the 12th fret.

 

Now think about those kids having violin lessons who have to be twice as accurate!

 

Care to test that theory? 😄

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Very nice 😎

 

Are you really going to encapsulate that lovely ebony in plastic?

[ped]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Very nice 😎

 

Are you really going to encapsulate that lovely ebony in plastic?

 

Yeah I think it'll really show off the wood nicely - but will see what the luthier says. I'm only interested in it because it looks so nice but the more I read about it the more I'm leaning towards leaving it alone - if it needed some work anyway then I'd be leaning towards it but as it is - I'm not 100% sure. The material varies so much so I'll see what Steve says, what he has experience using, and go from there. 

 

Currently the relief is about right but I'll wait until it's finished to put my favourite and slightly heavier strings on it, and the new bridge. These strings are OK but I've forgotten how 'grabby' non coasted strings can be.

 

All in all I'm really glad that the main parts function so well before the modifications/corrections take place. It also needs shielding, badly. Lots of hum when not touching anything but silent when you do.

 

So:

 

- Bridge is on the way

- Neck needs coating

- Musicmaster decal to be applied

- Pickup surround on the way

- New wiring loom being discussed (likely pan/tone with series/parallel option and possibly second capacitor mode

- Shielding

- investigate using original tuners (maybe)

 

- Learn to play