JMJ Road Worn Mustang Bass - detailed photos

[ThingsAbove]

New bass day!

Before plugging it in and messing with it I took some detailed photos of the JMJ Mustang Road Worn Bass...

There's more finish crazing on the neck than I expected. My RW Jazz only had crazing on the headstock and body.

Factory long scale flat-wounds don't like being wound on their full width

One key difference in road worn's is that they do a good job radius'ing the fretboard. My other RW has the same treatment. However this fretboard seems kinda dried out to me.

The RW treatment is a bit heavy handed/hammered in places...

The truss rod adjustment is theoretically accessible without removing the neck... YMMV

Nicotine baked into the pickguard

Play much with jewelry on your right wrist?

Ouch!

No RW treatment to the bridge, action came setup quite high at nut and bridge

Shadow of old placement of tug bar... nice touch

Bit of stain on the nut, which is surprisingly sharp. My other RW had smooth edges on the nut

Maybe they use one bass to beat up the next one in line

Hmmm...

Hipshot tuners

Finish cracking abounds, although it's hard to photograph

 

[sPiKi]

Fantastic photos sir, thanks for posting.

 

[Crusher47]

Awesome pics! That bass looks like it has a lot of mojo. Congrats!

 

[123Nil]

Got my JMJ Mustang last week.. Can't put it down!!! Really enjoying mine.. Great pic's (lol @ ""Maybe they use one bass"" to beat the next in line""" I agree, my JMJ has some heavy deep marks/scars .. My 50's p road worn has nowhere near the marks / scars that jmj has

 

[ThingsAbove]

Awesome pics! That bass looks like it has a lot of mojo. Congrats!

Im not sure you can beat mojo into an instrument but it does have character.

 

[MrLenny1]

Nice PIX ThingsAbove.
Looks like a mouse chewed on the headstock.
Enjoy the Mojo.

 

[Pilgrim]

Love the color, and by reputation the roadworn basses are very good instruments. I hope it's a great player for you!

However, I confess that I still don't "get it"....looks like a candidate for a refinish to me.

 

[felis]

Keeping it?

I'd send it back and say there's something wrong with it. Maybe they'd send you one that's not all beat up.

I kid - I kid

 

[ThingsAbove]

I've spent a few days noodling around with the JMJ in the evenings.

I've had the neck off 4 times to adjust the truss rod to adjust it to taste. I tried initially adjusting using a philips screwdriver and while it worked, it felt like it was chewing up the truss rod star due to working working at an angle. So I started taking the neck off for adjustments. I see that Stew-Mac has a tool that fits down in that pick-guard cut-out so I may invest in that when I order more shielding material. It has a really noisy pickup in my environment, but so did my last Mustang before I shielded it.

The JMJ neck is much thicker and wider than my Jazz and waay more brutish than my MIJ Mustang. I like it !

Tonewise, the fundamentals are fantastic, meaty and thick. That tone control is really useful in multiple positions. It's never super bright but the low pass is very linear as it goes from articulate to absolute "mud thud".

After adjusting PUP height I get a very good volume balance across all the strings and the flats really fatten up the D/G strings making them equal partners in the low-end department with the E/A. While the D/G strings sound great all the way up the neck, above the 10th fret the E/A strings have some warble weirdness going. I need to put it on my oscilloscope but to my ear I'm hearing discordant frequencies at the 12th fret on the E. So any soloing will need to stay off the E string at the 12th fret and above. I've tried witnessing the E at the nut and bridge so that's not it and there's no fret buzz causing it. This may be a temporary condition as the strings settle in, as the first couple of hours and neck removals really helped reduce the warbly nature of all the strings. Now it's just the E string that sounds awful towards the top-end.

Most happily, it balances perfectly on both a strap and when sitting. I really hate neck heavy basses and although my Jazz balances on the strap I fight it when sitting. It's nice to have a bass now that allows my fretting hand to move freely without supporting the neck.

It's a keeper. Thank you @jmjbassplayer for working with Fender to bring us such a great instrument to the short scale world.

 

[jmjbassplayer]

I've spent a few days noodling around with the JMJ in the evenings.

I've had the neck off 4 times to adjust the truss rod to adjust it to taste. I tried initially adjusting using a philips screwdriver and while it worked, it felt like it was chewing up the truss rod star due to working working at an angle. So I started taking the neck off for adjustments. I see that Stew-Mac has a tool that fits down in that pick-guard cut-out so I may invest in that when I order more shielding material. It has a really noisy pickup in my environment, but so did my last Mustang before I shielded it.

The JMJ neck is much thicker and wider than my Jazz and waay more brutish than my MIJ Mustang. I like it !

Tonewise, the fundamentals are fantastic, meaty and thick. That tone control is really useful in multiple positions. It's never super bright but the low pass is very linear as it goes from articulate to absolute "mud thud".

After adjusting PUP height I get a very good volume balance across all the strings and the flats really fatten up the D/G strings making them equal partners in the low-end department with the E/A. While the D/G strings sound great all the way up the neck, above the 10th fret the E/A strings have some warble weirdness going. I need to put it on my oscilloscope but to my ear I'm hearing discordant frequencies at the 12th fret on the E. So any soloing will need to stay off the E string at the 12th fret and above. I've tried witnessing the E at the nut and bridge so that's not it and there's no fret buzz causing it. This may be a temporary condition as the strings settle in, as the first couple of hours and neck removals really helped reduce the warbly nature of all the strings. Now it's just the E string that sounds awful towards the top-end.

Most happily, it balances perfectly on both a strap and when sitting. I really hate neck heavy basses and although my Jazz balances on the strap I fight it when sitting. It's nice to have a bass now that allows my fretting hand to move freely without supporting the neck.

It's a keeper. Thank you @jmjbassplayer for working with Fender to bring us such a great instrument to the short scale world.

Super stoked you dig it overall. It's possible the bass needs some TLC in both the nut slot and the saddle of the E and the A. And/or just try different strings. The stock ones aren't my personal fave. For me it's either LaBella's, Chromes, or even the heaviest medium-scale rounds I can get (which is what I have my JMJ Mustang set up with, since I have the luxury of my original also nearby with LaBella 760F-MUS flats on it). Anyway, enjoy it!

 

[Philibuster]

I've spent a few days noodling around with the JMJ in the evenings.

I've had the neck off 4 times to adjust the truss rod to adjust it to taste. I tried initially adjusting using a philips screwdriver and while it worked, it felt like it was chewing up the truss rod star due to working working at an angle. So I started taking the neck off for adjustments. I see that Stew-Mac has a tool that fits down in that pick-guard cut-out so I may invest in that when I order more shielding material. It has a really noisy pickup in my environment, but so did my last Mustang before I shielded it.

The JMJ neck is much thicker and wider than my Jazz and waay more brutish than my MIJ Mustang. I like it !

Tonewise, the fundamentals are fantastic, meaty and thick. That tone control is really useful in multiple positions. It's never super bright but the low pass is very linear as it goes from articulate to absolute "mud thud".

After adjusting PUP height I get a very good volume balance across all the strings and the flats really fatten up the D/G strings making them equal partners in the low-end department with the E/A. While the D/G strings sound great all the way up the neck, above the 10th fret the E/A strings have some warble weirdness going. I need to put it on my oscilloscope but to my ear I'm hearing discordant frequencies at the 12th fret on the E. So any soloing will need to stay off the E string at the 12th fret and above. I've tried witnessing the E at the nut and bridge so that's not it and there's no fret buzz causing it. This may be a temporary condition as the strings settle in, as the first couple of hours and neck removals really helped reduce the warbly nature of all the strings. Now it's just the E string that sounds awful towards the top-end.

Most happily, it balances perfectly on both a strap and when sitting. I really hate neck heavy basses and although my Jazz balances on the strap I fight it when sitting. It's nice to have a bass now that allows my fretting hand to move freely without supporting the neck.

It's a keeper. Thank you @jmjbassplayer for working with Fender to bring us such a great instrument to the short scale world.

@ThingsAbove Your reviews and pictures are superb! I was eyeballing these from afar but now I may have to more seriously consider one...

Oh and you got the man himself to respond! Way cool.

 

[ThingsAbove]

Nice PIX ThingsAbove.
Looks like a mouse chewed on the headstock.

Indeed it does, but since they copied Justin's bass a mouse must have chewed his first. I haven't read if Justin has mentioned what damage he received his bass with versus what he inflicted on his vintage instrument used for the copy.

Love the color, and by reputation the roadworn basses are very good instruments. I hope it's a great player for you! However, I confess that I still don't "get it"....looks like a candidate for a refinish to me.

Pilgrim, some things you get with the RW series from Fender that you don't get with a standard MiM model are a great feeling nitro finish and a neck that has been shown extra love with serious fretboard edge smoothing (see pic). It's worth the extra money to me and I don't mind the beat up look, since I'm kinda beat-up myself at this point in my life. The RW basses also receive different pickups than the standard MiM models so they really are different instruments.

Super stoked you dig it overall. It's possible the bass needs some TLC in both the nut slot and the saddle of the E and the A. And/or just try different strings. The stock ones aren't my personal fave. For me it's either LaBella's, Chromes, or even the heaviest medium-scale rounds I can get (which is what I have my JMJ Mustang set up with, since I have the luxury of my original also nearby with LaBella 760F-MUS flats on it). Anyway, enjoy it!

Thanks JMJ, I appreciate the response. I'll take your advice and order a set of the LaBella 760F-MUS flats to correct that warbly E string when I find a set in stock somewhere.

@ThingsAbove Your reviews and pictures are superb! I was eyeballing these from afar but now I may have to more seriously consider one...
Oh and you got the man himself to respond! Way cool.

Thanks Philibuster, glad you liked the photos as I enjoy photography almost as much as I do music (some of my photos here). Keep in mind those closeups make the RW treatment look heavier than it looks from a normal viewing distance.

 

[KenB]

Indeed it does, but since they copied Justin's bass a mouse must have chewed his first. I haven't read if Justin has mentioned what damage he received his bass with versus what he inflicted on his vintage instrument used for the copy.

I've noticed that the relicking on the body of your JMJ is much more heavy-handed than on mine:

The "wounds" on mine don't really get into the wood.

There is some crackle in the nitro on mine, but nothing like yours:

The crackle on my neck is mainly on the back of the headstock. None on the front. There is some on the back of the neck, mainly near the nut area. Feels very smooth.

My nut is very well finished (but does have the stain on it):

It also looks like the rosewood on my fretboard is redder in color, and maybe a bit finer grain?
(I did give my board a polish with Stewart MacDonald ColorTone Fretboard Finishing Oil when I first got it).

Maybe the differences between my bass and yours has to do with mine being earlier production? Mine has a 2017 "MX1797XXXX" serial number. The factory box label says "Lot 003" and "Week # 497", If anyone can decipher the meaning of that.

 

[ThingsAbove]

@KenB Since the "Road Worn" treatment is not CNC controlled there's going to be a lot of variability, especially across lots as the workers inflicting the damage come and go, have good days and not-so-good days etc.

I really prefer your fingerboard. Beautiful rosewood. You got a really nice one.

 

[BassJuju]

Thanks JMJ, I appreciate the response. I'll take your advice and order a set of the LaBella 760F-MUS flats to correct that warbly E string when I find a set in stock somewhere.

I think you will like those strings much better. I replaced mine almost immediately with the La Bella's and they are excellent. The stock ones, while I know they are Fender's, seemed very Chrome like and they have never been my favorite strings. I know, they have fans and I am willing to bet someone will tell me why I am wrong in the near future. (Full disclosure-- my Gretsch came with Chromes and they have none of the weird warbly intonation high end ugliness that I have experienced on other basses with chromes. That doesn't mean they won't get changed, they just weren't immediately ripped off.) I also found that the setup was about as far out as it could be, but I also suspect you've addressed that. After replacing the strings, doing a full set up-- with the StewMac tool you reference, and just fine tuning a few things, I have to say it is one of my favorite basses to play. I'd buy another in a heartbeat.

Enjoy!

 

[KenB]

It's a keeper. Thank you @jmjbassplayer for working with Fender to bring us such a great instrument to the short scale world.

I found the thread "JMJ Signature Road Worn Mustang!" in the Ask Justin Medal-Johnsen forum to be really interesting:

JMJ Signature Road Worn Mustang!

That thread traces the history of the JMJ Mustang model from the announcement of the model at Summer NAMM July 2017, though first basses shipped in November 2017, and after. Lots of comments and info from JMJ regarding the development process and decisions that were made.

Thanks to JMJ and Fender for bringing us the closest thing to a stellar example of a vintage Mustang at a phenomenal price!

 

[jd56hawk]

Eventually, I'll find a nice relic'd bass.
Looks like you've found yours!

 

[rockinrayduke]

That looks gorgeous and fun to play. Congrats!

 

[ThingsAbove]

View attachment 3286162

The Fingerborard edge position markers from the factory has a layer of tinted laquer that makes the dots hard to see. with some careful scraping the laquer can be removed from the markers making them much more visible.

 

[Eon Sky]

That discoloration of the pickguard to mimic where the old tugbar would be placed is a really sweet detail!