*NGD* - Squier Master Series M-80 (lots of pics)

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







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More pics

 

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?

 

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)

 

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;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).