Stock or customized? Give us all the specs!Īll stock, with the exception of the pickguard and electronics. The bass came to me as a box of parts which had to be reassembled. It was given to me by a friend who ran a studio in Orlando, Florida. Guitar technician and custom instrument builder Graham Drew shares his 1978 Fender Musicmaster Bass in this installment of Old School, and the story that goes with it.

Squier reintroduced the Musicmaster briefly in 1997, replacing it a year later with the Bronco bass.

Fender later offered many of the finishes offered on their other instruments as well.įender’s line of budget instruments was discontinued in 1981, when the company introduced the Squier brand.

The bass was introduced with three finishes: black, white and red, with a few early issues painted in daphne blue and sporting pearl pickguards. This was also a 30″ short-scale bass, the shortest production scale of any Fender bass. All of the electronics were mounted on a single piece of plastic. The bodies were from the Mustang production line, and 6-pole guitar pickups were used instead of the standard 4-pole pickups used in basses. Having said this, there are a lot worse guitars out there, and as well as being historically important, the 1820 bass can certainly provide the goods when required.The Musicmaster was Fender’s budget-priced bass at the time, made from surplus parts from other Fender models. Over the course of the 70s, the Japanese output improved dramatically, and in many ways these early 70s models are a low point for the brand. These new Epiphones were based on existing Matsumoku guitars, sharing body shapes, and hardware, but the Epiphone line was somewhat upgraded, with inlaid logos and a 2x2 peghead configuration. The Matsumoku factory had been producing guitars for export for some time, but the 1820 bass (alongside a number of guitar models and the 5120 electric acoustic bass) were the first Epiphone models to be made there. This was scratchplate mounted in a fairly central position, resulting in a pretty gritty midrange sound (listen to soundclips here) with just the usual tone and one volume controls to give a little variation - for the right band how much more would you need?īy the end of the 1960s, a decision had been made to move Epiphone guitar production from the USA (at the Kalamazoo plant where Gibson guitars were made), to Matsumoto in Japan, creating a line of guitars and basses significantly less expensive than the USA-built models (actually less than half the price). Although very simple, it does have some sturdy components, especially the bridge, and was certainly a more substantial instrument than many other 'entry-level' basses.Īlthough a good functioning bass, it could perhaps be considered a little limited tonally, having only one single-coil pickup. It was an easy-playing good quality, solid, reliable bass. The Musicmaster was Fender's least expensive bass model (in 1973, it had a list price of $139.50, compared to $293.50 for the Precision), and with the shorter 30' was scale perfect for student musicians. The only real difference is the position of the thumbrest, but then, this catalogue does re-use the image from the 1970 catalogue - the first appearance of the Fender Musicmaster bass. Have a look at the 1972 Fender catalogue, which has an almost identical guitar pictured. The bass pictured is completely typical example of an early Musicmaster. The Fender Musicmaster bass was a new instrument for the 1970s, being launched in the second half of the first year of the decade.

1977 fender musicmaster