Went and looked at this git tonight, then bought it. I am VERY happy with this guitar. This is one heck of a guitar. Wait until you see the price below I knew very little about the Master Series until I found this for sale. Many of you probably know more about it than I do/found. So if some of it's wrong, pleas post a correction. From the serial number it was made in 2005 in the Korean Cort factory. From my research they were made for Fender/Squier by Cort. Explains the headstock shape (spot on Cort). It's a Squier Master Series M-80. The Master Series was designed by Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Todd Krause. Master Series were Squiers Top of the line back then. THey apparently never took off (I'm guessing because of their price tag back then, near bottom Fender prices). Basswood body Set mahogany neck 2 Duncan Designed humbuckers Platinum hardware 2 volume and 2 tone controls Adjustable bridge with stop tailpiece 3-way switching This is a very well-built guitar. The platinum hardware is a satin, anodized finish. Very unusual. The body is very nice and comfortable, like a Strat. Its a light guitar as well. Without weighing it, it's around the weight of my VM JM and my strat. The neck is a slimmer, wider neck than a C shape, and feels very good. There was some fine scratches on the finish, but Guitar Scratch Remover took care of them. The frets are perfect. One of the pots needed the nut tightened. And, it looks like the previous owner hasn't changed strings in an eon. Action is nice, and there is no buzz issues anywhere on the board. The Duncan designed pickups or okay. I have heard stock pickups that are much worse. New strings might help their tone. The bridge is better than the neck, imho. But, since I plan on replacing them with HB sized P90s thats not a problem. I also think some new caps would really help. All this for $75 (talked down from $95). He wanted to include this tiny Silvertone practice amp as well. I suggested he sell it seperately. I didn't have the heart, nor a need for it, to take it. Now the p0rn View attachment 8013
I like the Red and Amber satin finishes better, but hey, you takes em where ya finds em. And for the $75 I paid, well...... I found a post you made on another thread with the full specs. Among them was "Pearloid Block Position Inlays with Abalone Inserts". I'll have to look when I get back home, but which part of the inlay is the abalone insert? Is it that part with the slash?
What a bargain. Looks lovely in the black too. It looks like its been really well looked after or not played much. How does it sound?
I'll post back tonight, maybe with some clips. It was over an hour 1 way to meet the seller, so I didn't get back until late. First thing was to tighten the loose pot nut, adjust the pups to a proper height (seller had them badly adjusted), and use Guitar Scratch remover to get the fine, strum scratches out. At his place, he only had the crappy little silvertone amp with a 4 or 6 inch speaker and my Vox Amplug I brought with. I used only the Amplug to make sure there were no major tron issues (weren't). The pots moved smooth without a bit of scratchiness, pops or sound. It resonates, unplugged very well. Better than my mohagany maple/capped LPs, on par with my VM JM, slightly less than my Alder bodied Strat. On my VCXD, I only had 10-15 minutes before I had to get my youngest son to bed, then it was my turn. I only ran it through a couple of clean voices so far. I hope to really get to know her tonight, all evening. But, the Duncan designed Alnico 5's are not too bad so far. They sound better than stock Epiphone humbuckers, better than stock Ibanez ACH1/2 and ACH1s/2S HBs I've had. They definately sound a bit like the SD 59s they appear to be 'designed' after. Cursory opinion is they are on par with GFS Vintage 59s. This is also the first HB guitar I've played with a basswood body. First impressions is its bit brighter than mohagony because of that. The strings are fairly old. Thats the first thing I do this evening, replace those. The neck pup by itself seemed a tiny bit 'muddy' by itself on chords. We'll see how fresh strings help. I haven't pulled the back to look at the trons yet (again, limited time last night). But, tone, clarity, frequency range can all be tweeked imho. I look for the physical feel, neck feel, resonancy and sustain, and so far, appears to have all that. The rest is just pups, caps and pot change away. Will also check on how well she stays in tune tonight as well. Run some tests. Expect a fuller report later tonight or tommorrow (depends on how much fun I have lol)
i remember those guitars...they are well built ones. i also remember having to do a pickup/pot swap on one as it sounded strangely muted...like the signal wasn't coming thru all the way. we put regular SD pickups in it,redid the pots,reused the old pickup covers...and it made a huge difference. it was a LOUD guitar...lol thom
Yea, thats one of the things I'm going to do tonight, crack open the back covers and see whats in there. From what I can tell they were made with, nominally, 500K pots (who knows what tolerance). But, typically, on HB guitars, they come stock with .047 caps, which usually just muddy up the pups too much. Single best tone upgrade, for cheap, on most HB guitars is swap out the pots and caps. So, depending on what I find, I might just switch the caps until I determine what I want to do overall with this axe. I'm leaning towards a complete P90tone, but may do a P90/PAF mix. Just seems wrong, somehow to not have a single coil sound on a Squier. I MAY finally do a Jimmy Page mod on this finally. I do like the look of the platinum, satin pup covers, Will definately try to keep those (sans the duncan designed if possible) if/when I switch them out.
i think it's possible to coil tap the pickups...if there's 4 wires coming out from the bottoms,it's possible...you could theoretically make each one coil tappable by changing two pots to push/pull configurations. and also series parallel too,but that's a bit more involved... good luck,and sweet guitar too...! thom
I;ve generally not liked a coil split HBs as much as a true single coil (usually sounds weak). That said, the "Jimmy Page" mod does a combination of coil splits and out of phase combos, for a bunch of tonal possibilites.
Replaced the cap in the neck with a .015, and wow. This axe really singsnow. I'm actually really impressed with these Duncan Designed pups. They are pretty darn good. They actually remind me of a P90 in everything but tone (pick responsiveness, expression, etc. Not sure if its the basswood body or what, but, sounds more single coilish than HB. Somewhere between a P90 and HB, more twards P90. I'm also really liking the 12" radius, a lot. THis becoming one of my favorite guitars (top 3 are now: this M80, Jazzmaster and my Al3K LP, with my Tele a very close 4th).
Here's some added info on the M80 & the Master Series guitars. Pretty confusing info out three. Todd Krauss designed the M80, as described earlier & is the only original design of the series. It was his brainchild & with the help of the CS tweaked the other models. Dan Smith, a Fender R & D person, was the original designer of the Esprit model. All of these guitars are unique in their own ways & other than Todd's M80 design, are special versions of Fender guitars. Based on them, but not copies. Each of the Teles & the Esprit are a joint effort of the Fender CS, led by Todd Krauss. I guess my point is that the Master Series was a joint effort by the CS, with Todd's M80 starting it all. So, the series wasn't designed by Todd, but guided & inspired by his "working man's guitar", the M80. I have an '05 Amber model, one great guitar. As many say, more like a Gibson than a Fender. But has it's own unique voice & smooth-playing short-scale neck. Do any out there actually have models going into '07, where it says they end? Have only seen '05 ones myself. Mine was ordered in '08 directly from Fender through a chain store. One correction on the Squier specs. They state that the "Thinline Tele HH" (MS) was made in Korea from '05-'07. Are actually Chinese-made & only in '04, appearing in the '05 Fronline as part of the Master Series. We're only made in '04, the Squier Spec book giving Korea as the country of origin. And, again, stating made from '05-'07, which wasn't the case. These Thinline Tele HH guitars are hard to find & getting harder. Not that many made, more in the natural finish (kind of blah?). Mine is the Crimson Transparent with matching painted headstock. All of the Master Series, no matter where made, are higher grade Squier guitars that are just cool. Love my M80! Many say their's aren't heavy, but mine weighs a ton! Is built like a tank & will last for years. Didn't mean to hi-jack the thread at all. cybermjk, what a steal! Literally! One of those stories you hear about but don't find. Thumbs-up! Jeff