1976 Fender Musicmaster Electric Guitar

Overview: This old Musicmaster is mostly all there but has modern saddles and a Bill Lawrence, West German-made, OBL 450 L pickup from the '80s. It's a medium-ouput, dual-rails humbucker but gives this guitar a good, clean, even sound and a tone that lets it lean into variety of genres. Per the usual for this model, playing-wise it's like a stripped-down Mustang with no whammy and only a neck pickup. I always find these compact, short-scale guitars to be perfectly-cozy rhythm machines and, if you like a short scale and are into jazzier lead sounds, the neck-only pickup can be a good fit there, too.

Interesting features: The black-on-black look is slick. It also arrived here with a pair of string trees, though only a single tree was traditional when it was made. The barrel Tele-style saddles I fit have "bent shaft" screws which allow the barrels to "twist" as they're adjusted forward and back, thus allowing for good intonation without having that "ground-down" saddle look. 

Repairs included: Sarah gave it a level/dress of the frets and setup work and I dialed-in a few things as well. It's playing spot-on and ready to go.

• Weight: 7 lbs 1 oz
• Scale length: 24"
• Nut width: 1 5/8"
• Neck shape: slim C
• Board radius: 7 1/4"
• Depth at first fret: 13/16"
• Depth at seventh fret: 7/8"
• Body width: 12"
• Body depth: 1 1/2"
• Body wood: unsure
• Bridge: original base, modern brass saddles
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: maple
• Pickups: 1x OBL (Bill Lawrence-design) humbucker
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 46w-10
• Truss rod: adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: lower/smaller

Condition notes: It's original except for the strap buttons, saddles, pickup, and an extra string tree at the headstock. It's possible that the frets were replaced at some point, too, but I'm not sure. There are two extra holes in the bridge plate and body (hidden under the plate) where someone had installed ABR-style bridge posts. It came in with an ABR-style bridge that we took off in favor of Fender-style saddles. There's light wear and tear throughout the guitar with the usual minor scuffs, scratches, scrapes, etc. here and there. Oh, and, right -- for some genius reason someone installed a strap button into the neckplate. I don't get it but it's there.

It comes with: Sorry, no case.

Consignor tag: ANSL