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Nut replacement fender musicmaster guitar12/16/2023 ![]() Looking for a proper headstock decal I found your post and was amazed it was a Musicmaker Bass. That was the part I did before a saw your post. For player reasons I put on a chromeplated Jazzbass pickupcover. I put on a 50ies Fender decal with nothing else. As a top layer I used again the transparent gloss. The third layer I used a kind of color found on the old 50ies alarm clock of my grandfather. ![]() Then I build the the laquer in different layers of transparent gloss paint. I used a flex tool to remove all the original. So I glossed the neck and tried to sand the body, no way, the red laquer was hard to remove. I was not happy on the laquer on the neck and the body. The bass sounded terrific, just the way you described. I came out on a $ 150,- Squier Bronco Bass in red. I was looking for a cheap Fender scortscale bass. No case is included, though I believe I have a gig bag for it somewhere. Total weight on this bass is roughly 7 1/2 lbs. The bass sounds and feels great - sometimes I think these little basses are louder than my P-bass - but without of the sorta out-of-control loudness of a Mustang Bass. the screws holding on the neck are replacements as the originals were stripped and one was bentĮverything else - bridge, pickup, neckplate, guard, strap buttons, etc. The only replaced parts on the instrument are: ![]() That being said, the neck is in excellent condition with the original frets and what appears to be the original nut. The bass also had one non-original tuner - from a Rickenbacker 4001 apparently ? - I found a proper replacement tuner in my parts drawer, but had to dowel and redrill the hole for the A-string tuner, which unfortunately is visible since there are no tuner ferrules on this instrument. A little bit of a mystery since the original pickup was in the bass when I got it. The body had some foolishness around the pickup route - its visible in the picture below. The color will yellow and darken slightly over the years, but it won't turn green like on a 1960's Daphne Blue P-bass or Strat. ![]() I refinished the body using Daphne Blue nitrocellulose, without any clearcoat, as the Musicmasters I have had skipped this step (they were entry-level instruments). The body was in rough shape when I got it - poorly done spray can finish in medium blue, but after careful sanding, I got most of the multitude of refins off the wood and found traces of the original Daphne Blue finish in the neck pocket. ![]() The neckplate is original, with the serial number being #311340, which is correct for 1971. I have seen pictures of two other Musicmaster Basses with the pearlguards, and from the way its shaped, aged and the markings on the back, its obvious this is the original guard. By late 1971, all the Musicmaster Basses had switched to a 3-ply white guard. This is a very early example of a Musicmaster Bass - probably one of the first handful produced, with a June 1971 neck date - and a VERY RARE pearl pickguard. I purchased this one as a project about a year and a half ago, intending to use it with round-wounds for a more snarly sound. I love the Fender Musicmaster Bass and actually use a red 1974 example with flatwounds live with my band. I just finished putting this gorgeous little bass together. ![]()
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