The Fender Musicmaster

The Fender Musicmaster was originally offered as a student guitar as from 1956, and was one of the first 3/4 scale offered by Fender. The guitar quickly caught on with student and professional players alike. Unlikely guitar heroes such as Hendrix, Rory Gallagher and Kurt Cobain have all used this unlikely model, probably due to its easily playability and comfortably sized body.

Designers began work on the Musicmaster and a two-pickup version the Duo-Sonic in late 1955 following a request from the sales department.

Prototypes were built in early 1956, and Musicmaster production began in April, using a twin pickup routed body to be shared withthe Duo-Sonic, which followed a few months later. The early Duo-Sonic and Musicmaster also shared the same maple neck and fingerboard.

In 1959 There was a major reworking of the Musicmaster and Duosonic guitars when the whole of the Fender catalogue was updated.

Both the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic sported a new plastic pickguard instead of the earlier (and more expensive to produce) aluminum one, and a two-piece maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard.

The Musicmaster features a offset body style (a feature introduced in 1964) and it is contoured, unlike the earlier slab-sided versions.

A one-piece plastic guard, unlike the earlier two-piece version, holds all the electronics. These changes were bought around to bring the Musicmaster in-line with the new Mustang, its more “grown-up” stablemate.

Electronics are simple, with one pickup in the bridge position, and two knobs for volume and tone control. The jack socket is also located on the pickguard.

Sounds are straightforward with the one slanted pickup in the neck position. The tone is obviously Fenderish but warmer rather than bright when played on clean settings.

Things hot up though when distortion is added, and the Musicmaster can wail with the best of them.