NGD: jawnshop musicmaster

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:38 am

it's finally here, and i couldn't be happier... except for an extremely low-output neck pickup. it's barely there. any ideas? anyway, this blasphemous sucker rules on all counts. questionable, yet awesome surf green refin? check. botched strat trem holes? check. weird former string tree (?) holes? check. humbuckers?! check. the neck is tiny and awesome. the slab body is killer. the bridge pickup sounds great. the three-barrel bridge holds tune and feels real nice. the string height is a little wonky due to the nut, but it's not nearly wonky enough for me to worry about. i have no clue how to date the neck other than the "music master" part... but there isn't a neck stamp date that i can easily decipher. and the slab body threw me for a loop. did they make those in the early 70s? anyway, it's the best $315 i've spent in a long time, and i can't wait to play it live and record with it. it killed at practice. soooo, do you short scale geniuses care to help me figure out what i have here?

gut/neck/etc pics:

► Show Spoiler

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:40 am

oh, and i hope you all enjoy my old bedspread and the funknasty practice space.

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:02 am

i'm so glad that i got sniped by someone here on the scale for this

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:07 am

haha. at least i didn't use a sniping tool. i just sat around for a bit, ye olde ebay style. but if for some crazy reason i ever decide to get rid of it, you're my first contact. i can't even imagine such a thing at this point, though.

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:12 am

no worries.

yeah i think you out bid me with a couple days to go, but i never bothered to re bid as i figured i'd be fighting with someone on shortscale

Viljami · Post by **Viljami** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:45 am

And as a happy surprise the routing for the hb's is quite clean. Cool guitar!

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:53 am

musicmasters never had contours, and at some point in the early 70s they stopped using the old date stamps and switched to a (much smaller) serial number style.

othomas2 · Post by **othomas2** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:14 pm

What the porn shop stang should have been like !! Nice !!

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:54 pm

Damn that is so cool looking.

I was in Guitar Center last night trying out modulation pedals and spotted a 1966 Musicmaster they had for sale. I snapped some pics, it's just awesome how they made those back then. The fretboard had some really interesting natural designs going on too. The finish was checked all to hell, though. That one looks like it still has a pretty decent finish on it.

I'd love to hear/see a demo of your guitar here, dude.

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 2:55 pm

stewart wrote:musicmasters never had contours, and at some point in the early 70s they stopped using the old date stamps and switched to a (much smaller) serial number style.

good to know. thanks, stewart!

also, does anybody know what those pickups are? or perhaps why the neck pickup is 1/10 of the volume of the bridge?

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 5:35 pm

My old late 70s MM (77/78) had the serial on a sticker on the back of the pickguard and on the headstock. I dunno when they started that.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:45 pm

Thomas wrote:My old late 70s MM (77/78) had the serial on a sticker on the back of the pickguard and on the headstock. I dunno when they started that.

the started in 77, I'm pretty sure. so, it is older than that.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:17 pm

my '76 mustang had the serial on the headstock, as well as a very faint number on the neck heel in green ink (which was indecipherable without the 'code'), and was the '70s equivalent of the traditional date stamp.

there's an explanation here:

http://www.vintagerocker.com/fender/neck_dates.html

From 1972 to 1980 Fender used a dating and identification system similar to the 1969 to 1971 system. A Stratocaster with a neck code of 09032185. The first 6 digits are paired codes for instrument type, fretboard type, and week. The last two digits year and day of the week, are read individually.

09 = model code (Stratocaster)
03 = neck code (maple neck)
21 = week code (week 21)
8 = year code (1980)
5 = day of the week code (Thursday)

and this page also has a lot of information:

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html#serial

going by various bits of info online and my own experience with '70s fenders, i'd guess the neck dates from 1973-75 or thereabouts. it's fairly likely the body is original to the neck, but obviously there's no way of being sure.

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:31 pm

hmmm. this has no identifiers on the headstock, but that's all really good info to have.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:45 pm

yeah, that's why it's pre-'76. it'd have a serial on the headstock otherwise. if it was '72/3 or earlier it'd have the date stamp on the heel.

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:06 pm

ohh, i see. cool!

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:10 pm

rich wrote: also, does anybody know what those pickups are? or perhaps why the neck pickup is 1/10 of the volume of the bridge?

What is the resistance measurement for that neck pup, compared to the bridge pup?

rich · Post by **rich** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 10:15 pm

i don't have any tools to measure.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:49 am

try raising the pickup higher?

rich · Post by **rich** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:48 pm

no dice. bummer.