NBD Mustang MIA/MIM content

[HeadlessBassist]

Via a series of trades, I ended up with three Jazz basses. Obviously I only need two - my main American Original 60's and my hand stained 2012 FSR Am.Std as a back-up on the live shows. So the butterscotch blonde Deluxe had to go, as well as an Ibanez SR1400 which I found to be very bland, even with it's Nordstrand Big Singles.

 

So while on the hunt for something a bit different, I came across two Mustang basses - one American Performer and a Mexican Player series PJ, both made in 2023.

 

After setting up the American Performer on 40-95 Elixirs (it came with Labella Flats which completely killed the character of the bass) and with a great deal of finagling with the pickup height later (the Yosemite small split coil is obviously from Fender Japan, as the adjustment screws have reverse threads, whereas the Yosemite jazz pickup has normal US clockwise screws for the height adjustment). These pickups are incredibly sensitive to string height.

 

Many have said that the American Performer Mustang can often seem too 'polite' sounding, and I can see what they mean. The bass has a very clean sound and doesn't have any 'snap' to the sound until you really start to dig in. Obviously, with the short scale length, when heard in isolation the A & E strings can seem a little lacking, but this impression disappears when playing live, which I did this afternoon at a local Jam Session where I'm the regular house bass player. It's a great sounding bass and a pleasure to fly around on.

 

Haven't really had much of a chance to do much with the Mexican bass as yet, but will have more of a go tomorrow. It basically sounds like a MIM P&J Precision with a touch more 'twang' from the short scale length.

 

Anyway, here are some pictures... 

 

 

 

 

[Lozz196]

2 nice basses there, congrats 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Sienna sunburst is the best colour for the player series mustang, and one of the few colours that comes with a maple fingerboard. I'd been wanting one for a long time when I finally managed to acquire one last year. I made a few tasteful changes to mine — including shielding with copper tape, new loom, hipshot HB10 lollipop tuners, thumbrest (in 70s position) and a Hi Mass Bridge.

 

The Pickups sound fantastic to me so I had no reason to upgrade them. I thought about replacing the switch with a blend pot but decided I preferred the simplicity of a switch, however the stock switch was a bit temperamental and I discovered an annoying issue where unless the volume was at 100%, rolling down the tone also affected the volume. To fix these issues I replaced the loom using a more suitable circuit, building the loom using new components — CTS pots, Orange drop cap, puretone socket, and switchcraft switch.

 

 

[Adee]

The Performer is a great well made quality bass and plays very well although the addition of the Jazz pup gives a bit more tonal flexibility just looks odd as I added a solid Jazz pup cover and in my opinion works better aesthetically … cracking bit of kit but sort of do agree it’s a bit polite …

 

[HeadlessBassist]

8 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

Sienna sunburst is the best colour for the player series mustang, and one of the few colours that comes with a maple fingerboard. I'd been wanting one for a long time when I finally managed to acquire one last year. I made a few tasteful changes to mine — including shielding with copper tape, new loom, hipshot HB10 lollipop tuners, thumbrest (in 70s position) and a Hi Mass Bridge.

 

The Pickups sound fantastic to me so I had no reason to upgrade them. I thought about replacing the switch with a blend pot but decided I preferred the simplicity of a switch, however the stock switch was a bit temperamental and I discovered an annoying issue where unless the volume was at 100%, rolling down the tone also affected the volume. To fix these issues I replaced the loom using a more suitable circuit, building the loom using new components — CTS pots, Orange drop cap, puretone socket, and switchcraft switch.

 

 

 

Your mods sound very comprehensive and effective. Love the lollipop tuners too!

[HeadlessBassist]

8 hours ago, Adee said:

The Performer is a great well made quality bass and plays very well although the addition of the Jazz pup gives a bit more tonal flexibility just looks odd as I added a solid Jazz pup cover and in my opinion works better aesthetically … cracking bit of kit but sort of do agree it’s a bit polite …

 

 

I see you have the highly thought of JMJ there as well. Which do you like playing the best?

[HeadlessBassist]

As I said, when you dig in with the Performer...