#Fender musicmaster bass value serial number#
#Fender musicmaster bass value mod#
#Fender musicmaster bass value upgrade#
#Fender musicmaster bass value code#

An aftermarket pick-guard was added to accept the Tele Humbucker pickup. I could tell the carving was not factory done, but decent none the less. The modification to add the Telecaster Bass pickup seems decent with regard to the augmentation of the wood cavity, the pickup itself is placed perfectly for sound relative to string placement. If it sounded that good with ancient strings it must sound even better with newer ones. I was not going to purchase new short scale strings for it and figured I would leave that up to the new owner. I was quite surprised how well the bass still sounded and this was one reason that leads me to keeping the pickup and bass together as a unit. The strings on the bass are old and have oxidation.

#Fender musicmaster bass value mod#

The bass guitar being a couple years older than the pickup also makes pretty good sense in terms of provenance and when the mod was made. But there is no doubt that the pickup is an original 1975 item and brings quite a few dollars just by itself. There is no way for me to know if the pickup was taken off of an original Telecaster Bass or somehow purchased from Fender at that time back in the 70s. Also given the fact that the mod was vintage in its own right…….

#Fender musicmaster bass value upgrade#

I had already had it apart intending to sell the pickup but after testing/playing it, it seems to be a very good marriage and an upgrade to the Musicmaster. Having played the bass, and hearing how nice it sounded, I just decided to give the electronics a basic cleanup and to auction/sell it with this ‘period’ modification. Here is one of those pickups that was recently in auction on Ebay just to show you what I mean. After I acquired the instrument a little country auction in WV, I had to decide if I should sell the bass without the pickup, since these original pickups by themselves sell for a few hundred bucks. The bass you are looking at was fitted with a 1975 (date stamped on rear of pickup housing) Telecaster Bass Humbucker Pickup, apparently done by the original owner.

The Musicmaster bass was normally fitted with a fairly modest lone single coil pickup. Consider that the short scale Musicmaster Bass comes to no where near the vintage price ranges of Fender J or P basses. This one however bridges a bit of an unusual gap (and not just because its mine, I’ve sold some of my old stock Fenders in the past and understand the subtleties). As a matter of fact, the farther from stock a vintage bass is, generally the less value is assigned. I have a good deal of experience with older Fender Basses, and I would normally not consider owner-customized basses to be anything special. The color was Fender’s Olympic White (now aged to a Banana Crème color).

#Fender musicmaster bass value code#

The ‘B’ in the code stands for the nut width of 1 5/8 inches which it correctly is measured to be.

#Fender musicmaster bass value serial number#

Serial Number on neck Plate #388974 and Neck Stamp (photos shown) of 8 MAR 73 B, confirm date to be correctly dated to 1973. Onto the 73' MusicMaster.ġ973 Fender Musicmaster Bass Guitar with Vintage Telecaster Bass Pickup (a rather very special customization (read below). Pretty much willing to work with prospective buyer on shipping or anyway I can.

Shipping will be agreed upon and I will not ship without insurance. I always ship with care and good packing. Maybe after I think about a little more I will give a price to aim at or around. If you are interested throw me a number, I don't get easily insulted so go ahead and take a shot. Most likely will be a dollar amount but I can be tempted with trades. I am still trying to figure out what I want for it. Might be putting it on Ebay soon, but thought I would try here first considering this is my preferred community over ebay in many ways.

I am selling an original 1973 Fender Musicmaster Bass (short scale, 30').