Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a Fender Musicmaster bass and I am not too sure I like it. I find the fretboard a little too wide and the neck too thick, not too bad though.

The body is made out of poplar and makes it really unbalanced standing up. It also needs a contour for the arm playing standing up. The so-called tummy contour would be totally useless though, it's fine for sitting down how it is. I guess as a beginner's instrument they did not worry about people playing it standing up, and they simply stuck a bass neck on the Mustang/Musicmaster body. They could have made it out of a heavier wood like maple or mahagony for better balance, but I guess they didn't stock those woods for bodies anyways.

Don't get me wrong, I like Fender guitars, especially Mustangs, Jaguars and Performers, but I do not think they put too much thought into this one.

I was wondering if someone who has tried one could compare the neck with a Rickenbacker 3000. The Rick should be better balanced anyways, it has a maple body. I was also wondering what the Kalamazoo "copy" of the Musicmaster is like, if anyone has one.

Maybe I should buy an old Musicmaster neck, shave the back of it to make it thinner, and make a body out of mahagony (maple is usually not sold in body blanks). What do you think

I guess it's kind of a monologue because no one has an opinion on this, but I researched the matter and I doubt a mahogany body would help, it would need at least a maple body (the body is quite small and thin), and even then it might not be heavy enough, especially with an arm contour.

Maybe the best would be a chipboard/particleboard body. That stuff is very heavy, cheap, environmental and has a fairly good sound. I guess Gibson/Kalamazoo had the right idea, I don't know if their basses were properly balanced though, never tried one. I also realize there are different types of chipboard, the chips coming from different woods and occasionally with impurities like pieces of rubber.

So you have a bass which is both uncomfortable to play and you don't like the feel of the neck?
Why did you buy it in the first place?
I think your best bet is to get rid of it and start over.

I don't think the neck is that bad, I guess if I shaved some wood from the back it would be even better. I got it to sound pretty cool by changing the electronics, still it is very badly balanced and quite uncomfortable to play standing up. I don't have another bass that sounds like this, and it's the only one I have that I could do funky stuff on.

I have other basses:
a Guild M85: this is even more unbalanced, the neck is kind of warped and even harder to play. I guess I will shave the back of the neck on this for sure, this bass will not be worth much anyways, the bridge broke off and I replaced it with a bridge and tailpiece. I need to put better and lighter tuners on it too. It has the best sound I ever heard in a bass.

a Vox Apollo: the best neck ever. The body is sort of flimsy, kind of scared to take it to practice. The pickup is good for blues, jazz, perhaps some reggae, but not for harder music. Maybe I should put a 2nd pickup in.

an Ovation Korean acoustic: great neck, unfortunately it's glued in. Body is very uncomfortable standing up or sitting down. With flatwounds it has a great sound for recording acoustically with a microphone though.