Fender Musicmaster: Paint, stain, or Let it Be?

[ejaggers]

It's a a replacement pickguard made by WD. I was just on their site and thought this might look cool.
WD® Custom Pickguard For Fender® 1978 Musicmaster Bass®

MM's were made with Mustang bodies and spare parts to my understanding. Those included strat pickups. So this one has been replaced.

In my humble opinion, 99.75% of the time black on black is the worst combination.
I've only seen it work with shiny new bodies, and the white on the 3 ply made red.

Although, I love tort on black, you may want something not so "done to death".
I have a black/tort Axcelerator which is beautiful, but this is what I did to my MM.

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[Playbyear]

I do like the finish but wanted to see what others thought. I'm sort of on lock-down here in so cal from my teaching job, possibly for months, and this thread has been a great distraction.

Regarding the pickup, sorry if I answered this already. I've been viewing this site on my phone and it's a bit cumbersome. The Musicmasters were Fender's first attempt (I think) at a student guitar and bass. To make them on the cheap they used Mustang bodies and whatever else they had on hand which included stratocaster 6 pole pickups. Some players don't like them and 'upgrade' but many prefer to leave original. I have another MM with the original and this one has been replaced. Not sure to what.

The string to pole alignment looks off, so it’s prob an early P type pup. Aero makes a Musicmaster pup that has the correct spacing.

 

[Playbyear]

In my humble opinion, 99.75% of the time black on black is the worst combination.
I've only seen it work with shiny new bodies, and the white on the 3 ply made red.

Although, I love tort on black, you may want something not so "done to death".
I have a black/tort Axcelerator which is beautiful, but this is what I did to my MM.
View attachment 3744894

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What is that finish? Gold woodgrain? I like it!

 

[Audiomicrowave]

This?
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/seymour-duncan-scr-1-cool-rails-pickup

Close...we went with a neck pickup vs. the bridge for a slightly warmer tone/more mids; also got it in black because we had the red bass with black pickguard thing going on. To be fair, the one we replaced was the original pickup, and was really weak. As was pointed out earlier by Matt-0-, this one appears to already be a replacement, so it may be enough for you already. Of course, with the cool rails, you get the humbucking bonus.

 

[Drummerdan]

Close...we went with a neck pickup vs. the bridge for a slightly warmer tone/more mids; also got it in black because we had the red bass with black pickguard thing going on. To be fair, the one we replaced was the original pickup, and was really weak. As was pointed out earlier by Matt-0-, this one appears to already be a replacement, so it may be enough for you already. Of course, with the cool rails, you get the humbucking bonus.

Someone pointed out that my poles to string spacing may misaligned and that Aero made a correct replacement. I'll see how this one sounds when I get it back. My tech is leveling the frets.

 

[Audiomicrowave]

That was the other nice part abut the blade type pup...no poles to line up.

 

[matt-o-]

Honestly, to my mind the alignment of the polepieces is vastly overrated. At least for my perception. I've never noticed it soundwise neither with the original guitar pickup in the Musicmaster Bass or the Bronco Bass nor in a Guitar, where the pickup was wider than the string spacing. I noticed the misalignment in your photo as well, but when I compared it to an advert photogrph of the Squier Musicmaster Bass, it seemed even on that picture misaligned. The '51 PBass single coil pickup is clearly visible bigger in size.
I once did an experiment and mixed string types just for curiosity: d'Addario chrome flatwounds for E and A and Pyramid black tapewounds for D and G. They complemented each other perfectly. Nobody would have noticed this apart from the sight. But everybodys MMV

 

[ejaggers]

What is that finish? Gold woodgrain? I like it!

If you're talking about the PUP,
it's a cream custom MM PG made by Roger at Jeanie PG (rest in peace),
and I had a former TBer, Charles Kang to add the maple veneer on top of it.

If you meant the neck, I used a clear semi-gloss poly from Ace hardware.
This bass is actually a modded to the max Bronco that I converted into a Musicmaster:
Hi, I’m <name goes here>, And I’m A Mod-Aholic

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