Hello, not so long ago I bought a 1978 fender musicmaster bass. I love the bass and I put some jazz knobs in it, new strings & gave it some maintenance. I also bought him straploks and a nice strap.
(Don't worry, I will post pictures in the future!)
The problem I'm having is that it seems to fret in open A string and it's bugging me so much (plus it's fretting in all strings from the 12th fret onward).
I tried fixing it by adjusting the saddles but it's never good enough and I'm picky with this sort of thing. I'm stuck with the neck right now.. my long scale p bass brought a tool to be used under the strings (right where the neck begins) to bend the neck backwards and create tension in the headstock but it doesn't fit in the musicmasters neck and I'm not going to force it in.
Arching the neck a little backwards could stop this fretting problem and lower the action of this very comfortable and lovely sounding musicmaster bass.
Which tool do I need to use in the necks opening to bend it a little back and stop this annoying fretting? Where do I buy this tool? :/
Be careful when adjusting that truss rod. It it gets hard to turn, STOP. And you should never have to turn it more than 1/4 turn. Turn it too far and you'll snap it, which basically ruins the neck. When in doubt, take it to a good guitar tech for a setup job.
Phil, exactly about that I came to talk about. I took the neck off and took a look at it.. the truss rod is broken. That is really a problem. What are my options now?
Can a bass/guitar tech set the bass and stop the fretting even with the truss rod broken? I'm a little worried.
Are you certain its broken? It might just be completely slack.
It can be replaced by removing the fretboard (it can be glued back on after), though really when you consider the value of Musicmaster basses you're approaching the sort of repair price where you may be better off buying a replacement neck.
Well ... this is going to be hard to explain in English but here it goes. It's supposed to have 4 pieces for the screwdriver to make it turn, and it has only 3. I guess this means that it's broken and not slack, right?
How much is a new neck going to cost? It sucks if I have to buy a new neck.
So you mean that the part that should be X shaped is actually more like T with one part of the 4 missing? That doesn't sound broken. You could still use a flat screwdriver to turn it.
I'm sure it's what James said and one corner is broken. That's not the truss rod, just the adjuster nut. You can easily get a new one.
However James is right in that there must be one way you can insert a big flat screwdriver and be able to turn it. You'd have to put it in different ways to go clockwise and anti-clockwise of course, due to the missing corner and needing leverage from the center of the nut.
Aug wrote:which one of you bastards sent me an ebay question asking if you can get teh kurdtz with that 64 mustang?
robertOG wrote:fran & paul are some of the original gangstas of the JS days when you'd have to say "phuck"
You're right rob, i'll take a picture so you guys can see exactly what happened. However, the picture that was posted by James is exactly the problem, one of the four metal corner pieces is broken.
So paul, I don't have to buy a new neck and that's awesome. I understand after seeing the picture you posted. I guess I'm lucky, though I will have to mess a lot with the neck. Is there a step by step guide in this forums that can help me through this?
Thanks to everyone who replied to help. As you can see I'm new to this but I've learned a couple of things. Maybe after doing a setup for the MM I'll consider myself a lvl 1 bass tech.
P.S: i'll try again with the flat screwdriver. I did move it a little but it wasn't enough to stop the fretting and the action is STILL super high.
Do all truss rod nuts work on the musicmaster? Does it affect the fact that it is a shot scale bass or is there a standard that all fender instruments use the same one?
I don't know anything about changing the adjustment . . .
But I wouldn't think you could, or it would be smart, to put a bullet style adjustment on there. And the other doesn't show good enough pictures. Get something that looks EXACTLY like the one you have.
