It is currently Mon Mar 16, 2020 7:55 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 10 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:12 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:48 pm
Posts: 2315
It looked that way--even if it's a Squier & my guitar is a Fender & my guitar has a rosewood board & the bass has a maple one.

Tempting?
Yes.

But I don't really need another bass right now--but it would be cool.

Image
Image

_________________
It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:52 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:12 pm
Posts: 6355
Location: Albemarle, NC
Why not? Mustang basses are good choice for guitarists who are accustomed to a shorter scale instrument or for young players with less reach and fretting finger strength. They play fast and easy plus they sound nice. Love the bridge on them.

It is sort of a lost fact that the Mustang Bass was the LAST Leo Fender designed Fender instrument. He must have liked the bridge design too because he used a strikingly similar bridge on his next designs at Music Man.

To me the original vintage Mustangs are the best short scale bass Fender ever produced. The competition stripe vintage ones that came along about 1969 are very appealing to me. The other Fender short scale bass offerings never measured up quality wise to the Mustang Bass. I don't have any experience with the current production models though, but they do get good reviews.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 2:24 am
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:34 pm
Posts: 10760
Location: Athens, Greece
@brotherdave

The Wide Range humbucker on the Modern Player Mustang Bass was never offered in the 1970s AFAIK though I suspect CBS did a very small batch of those basses. Can you confirm this?


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:14 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:07 am
Posts: 1747
Location: Central WI
Played one at a GC not long ago and it was quite nice. Wish my Musicmaster project had a maple neck like that.

It sure would make a great looking set. 8)


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 4:15 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:12 pm
Posts: 6355
Location: Albemarle, NC
chromeface wrote:
@brotherdave

The Wide Range humbucker on the Modern Player Mustang Bass was never offered in the 1970s AFAIK though I suspect CBS did a very small batch of those basses. Can you confirm this?


I've never seen one if they did. So no I can't confirm it. CBS wasn't much into small batches, which is why they were stuck with several hundred Bass V bodies which they trimmed down and made into Swingers.

Fender Bass V:
Image

Fender Swinger (sometimes called an "Arrow" in absence of the Swinger Decal because of the pointy headstock like this one which is an excellent early one):
Image

Here's the Swinger decal that arrived closer to the end of the model's run than the beginning. Ones with the "Swinger" decal are actually scarcer:
Image

The USA Mustang bass pickups sound better to me than the Seth Lover designed chrome mudbucker on the second generation Telecaster Bass. But honestly I've not played the Squier version with the modernized version of Mr. Lover's mudbucker.

My feeling about the Mudbucker in general is that if I wanted a bass that sounded like a Gibson, I would have bought a Gibson. But if you look at the bottom of the Mudbucker it looks a lot like a Mustang Bass pickup mounted to a one piece chrome cover. Freaky that it sounds so different!


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 8:43 am
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2007 6:07 am
Posts: 1747
Location: Central WI
Image

That Fender bass V, if I'm looking at the photo right and based on the 12th fret so close to the bass body, is that a short scale? Awesome, would love a 5 string short scale but I imagine even if it is the price would be "cumbersome."

The swinger? God awful shaped body and headstock I'd say.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2014 5:17 pm
Offline
Professional Musician
Professional Musician
User avatar

Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2007 9:48 pm
Posts: 2315
brotherdave wrote:
Why not? Mustang basses are good choice for guitarists who are accustomed to a shorter scale instrument or for young players with less reach and fretting finger strength. They play fast and easy plus they sound nice. Love the bridge on them.

Well if I do buy another fretted bass it would most likely be 34" scale--but it would also be cool to have the one I pictured just to match my Mustang--but that doesn't make sense financially at this time, but as an early Christmas present?
If anyone feels so inclined...

_________________
It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:55 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2014 9:43 am
Posts: 1
I've been trying to get my 68 Mustang back in good shape. It was really trashed when I got it. Everything is original except the pick guard and the head stock decal is a replacement. Since this picture I have installed the original mute strip with new foam. Oh, and by the way, I do gig this bass as well as my 76 Musicmaster bass.

Image


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 9:16 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:12 pm
Posts: 6355
Location: Albemarle, NC
hsech wrote:
I've been trying to get my 68 Mustang back in good shape. It was really trashed when I got it. Everything is original except the pick guard and the head stock decal is a replacement. Since this picture I have installed the original mute strip with new foam. Oh, and by the way, I do gig this bass as well as my 76 Musicmaster bass.

Image


Nice Mustang. What strings are you using?


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: A Mustang Bass to match my Mustang guitar?
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 10:33 am
Offline
Rock Star
Rock Star
User avatar

Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 3:12 pm
Posts: 6355
Location: Albemarle, NC
WI KISSfan wrote:
Image

That Fender bass V, if I'm looking at the photo right and based on the 12th fret so close to the bass body, is that a short scale? Awesome, would love a 5 string short scale but I imagine even if it is the price would be "cumbersome."

The swinger? God awful shaped body and headstock I'd say.


No it is a 34" standard long scale, just the fret board is short. The 5th string is not a Low B at string 5 but a High C at string 1. Leo Fender's logic was that it would be easier to play higher notes on the C string instead of going way up the neck. This concept was a rare miss for Mr. Fender and the first Fender bass model to ever be discontinued! The Mustang which was his next Fender design was far more successful and so was the Bass VI which preceded the Bass V.

The Bass V is actually longer than a Jazz Bass because of the slightly longer headstock.

The Bass V was vital to the development of the modern 5 string B-E-A-D-G bass because it showed designers that players didn't want to go in the direction of E-A-D-G-C, so they all went the other way after the Bass V.

The Bass V was a very slow seller and several sources say only about 200 of them were produced during the entire 5 year run combined. While the first 5 string bass it was very different from 5 string basses of today in several ways. It only had 15 frets! It was long, the longest bass Fender ever made! The strings were very close together on the fretboard too.

The Swinger (sometimes also called the "Musiclander" as a temporary working title when first offered to dealers by phone) was on the other hand a relatively brisk seller no matter what name you call it by. Swingers/Swinger Customs/Musiclanders/Arrows were merely a short run to use up a few hundred body blanks already cut to be Bass V's that were cut down further for the Swinger. The Swinger was a very interesting model to me because they played well, stayed in tune, sounded a lot like a Duo-Sonic making them a good student model and of course they looked extremely un-Fender. They sold dirt cheap and they were all gone in no time, at least compared to the slow selling Bass V. I mostly play bass, but I have always had a thing for Duo-Sonics and Swingers because they are so easy to play and sound pretty good. I do agree the Swinger is very unconventional looking, but it was a way to use up all those Bass V bodies, Musicmaster necks which had the headstocks cut down and other parts CBS wanted to shed from inventory. In the end they sold more Swingers in a few months than Bass V's in the entire Bass V five year run!


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 10 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: