Single Musicmaster Bass Pickup– NZ$165 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$143.48
Alnico V – 6.8 kOhms – ’51 Telecaster Bass spec
Or Alnico V – 5.7 kOhms – Original ‘70’s Strat spec
From its humble beginnings the Musicmaster Bass has become a classic. Beloved of Indie bands, studio engineers and offset fans. The Musicmaster Bass has begun to make its way in the world and leave its mark on music.
Table of Contents
The Problem with the Musicmaster Bass Pickup
Designed originally to be a ‘student model’ short scale, Fender cut quite a few corners to reduce the cost. This was the 1970’s and the accountants had a big say at Fender. This was an instrument made down to a price not up to a standard. But despite the obvious cost cutting I still have a soft spot for the Musicmaster. They were cheap but that doesn’t mean they weren’t good.
The basic bones of the Musicmaster are good. Short scale bass with a small body makes a lot of sense. But there was a problem with the pickup.
Rather than design a pickup specifically for this guitar Fender instead used a Stratocaster. Then they hid it inside a blank cover.
Here is the problem with using a Stratocaster pickup with a 4 string bass. The red lines are the strings and the black dots are the pickup magnets.
It’s pretty obvious that the magnetic pole pieces just don’t line up with the middle strings.
The pickup wasn’t visible under that blank cover and they decided it didn’t matter on a budget bass anyway. So that’s how it was.
The Solution
In July 2024 I was contacted by my Neville Claughton from Nelson. He had an original ‘73 in need of a new pickup.
Nev is a legend in NZ, he’s been well known in the music business for ever and I have huge respect for him.
His request got me thinking so I decided to make my own version of the Musicmaster pickup but with 4 poles that line up with the strings.
I got on the computer and designed this pickup flatwork to be laser cut. As you can see it’s simply a 4 pole Strat pickup.
The only difference is those pole pieces.
And here is the spacing of the poles on the Mr Glyn’s Pickup. You can see how the magnets line up with the strings.
I’m happy with that.
Winding the Musicmaster Bass Pickup
So how was I going to wind this pickup?
There’s nothing wrong with the windings of a ‘70’s Strat pickup. With the reduced string tension of a 30inch scale bass there is a tendency for it to get boomy, so having a pickup with less inherent bottom end can help with clarity. It really isn’t a bad sound. My personal preference for these instruments is to have the Strat pickup specifications but with, of course, the correct string spacing.
But there is scope for having different winding options.
If you want more fatness in your tone I also offer this pickup with my ‘51 Telecaster Bass wind. This gives a bit more power but also more bass. This option still has the same Strat footprint and fits inside the same cover.
So if you want a fatter tone for your Musicmaster then this is your best option. Here’s a demo of that pickup.
Both winding options have the same footprint and the same alnico V magnets, it’s just the amount of windings that’s the difference.
This pickup is available with 3 cover options: black, white or cream.
Updated May 2025
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