Fender Mustang Bass

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Mustang Bass
Manufacturer	Fender
Period	1964 — present
Construction
Body type	Solid
Neck joint	Bolt-on
Woods
Body	Alder
Neck	Maple, “C” Shape,(Gloss Polyurethane Finish)
Fretboard	rosewood (9.5” Radius/241 mm)
Hardware
Bridge	Strings-Thru-Body with 4 Individually Adjustable Saddles
Pickup(s)	1 Special Design Split Single-Coil Mustang Bass Pickup
Colors available
Currently Fiesta Red and Vintage White, previous colours in the past.

The Fender Mustang Bass is an electric bass guitar model produced by Fender. Two variants, the Musicmaster Bass and the Bronco Bass, have also been produced from time to time using the same body and neck shape.

Introduced in 1966 as a companion to Fender's shorter-scaled, 2-pickup Fender Mustang guitars, the Mustang Bass was the last original bass designed by Leo Fender before his departure from the company in 1970. The Mustang Bass has a short 30" scale and a single split pickup (similar to the P-bass), one volume and one tone control, with strings-through-body routing. Like the early Precision and Jazz basses, the Mustang Bass was fitted with string mutes (although most players removed these).

The standard finishes were red and white. Mustang basses, like all Fender guitars, were finished in nitrocellulose laquer up until 1968, thereafter in thick polyester finish. In 1969, both the Mustang guitar and bass were issued with 'Competition' finishes, i.e. red with three white stripes, a thick one between two thinner ones, Lake Placid Blue with lighter blue stripes, etc. and were later available in various plain finishes including black and sunburst. (The yellowing of the lacquer on some early models has also resulted in "rare" colours like Surf Green, in reality a yellowed Competition Blue).

In production almost continuously to 1981, the Mustang Bass was recently reissued by Fender as a made-in-Japan model.

The Musicmaster Bass variant was also introduced in the mid-60's and was originally marketed as a student model. Rather than the split-coil design of the Mustang Bass, it featured a single-coil pickup, which was actually a 6-pole Stratocaster guitar pickup under a solid plastic cover. Production ceased around the same time as the Mustang Bass. The Musicmaster Bass was reissued briefly in 1997 under the Squier brand name, however it was discontinued after only one year of production and was ultimately replaced by the Bronco Bass.

[edit] Players

Trevor Bolder of David Bowie and The Spiders from Mars used a Mustang Bass among many other basses.
Denny Laine occasionally used one during his time with Wings, when lead singer Paul McCartney would switch from bass to piano or guitar.
Chris Murphy of Sloan frequently uses a Mustang bass.
Dee Dee Ramone played many shows with a Mustang bass.
Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads used a Mustang bass in the early days of the band.
Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones used Mustang basses in the late-1960s and early-1970s.