Squire CV 60s Competition Mustang Bass
I bought this bass last fall, I won’t go into my ailments here but I find myself playing short scale these days, and this (and my EHB1005SMS) is what I reach for.
Bad things
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The neck is high gloss urethane. Eww. I play with a glove these days so it doesn’t bother me, but I don’t like glossy necks. I had a Squier P with the same finish, judicious application of a green 3m pad fixed it right up and made it super smooth. Would work here too.
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The bridge is string through body only. Inexpensive bass, some corners cut, this is one.
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Ugly classic Fender boat paddle, er, I mean headstock
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No good place to rest your thumb
Upgrades:
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Curtis Novak Vintage Mustang Pickup. Before @Al1885 yells at me, it’s not my fault! I intended to get the Novak FAT Mustang pickup and somehow clicked on the wrong one.
That’s okay, this is a nice pickup. -
Stellartone Tonestyler. This is a unique tone control. It has 10 settings, 9 different caps with differing values and one bypass. It sounds great with the Novak pickup and is easy to dial into a tone. I’ll play this song at 8, that song at 4. It’s notched so you can feel when you change.
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LaBella 760F-MUS flatwound Mustang strings. Any medium scale strings should do, but the classic string for a 'stang. Being string through body, some shortscale strings may not be long enough.
Good Things:
- Lightweight
- Nice fret job, no pointy places
- Neck dive. With the Fender headstock, it’s a worry but if it has neck dive I don’t notice it.
- Laurel fretboard is nice
- Tuners keep it in tune surprisingly well
- Fit and finish is very good
Overall:
This is my go to bass. Super easy to play, comfortable, with the Novak has that classic bass sound, really thumps, when you play that riff from The Chain and you hit that open E, heaven. It’s a little baby P( p is for punchy).
The Novak pickups have really good clarity, the downside is the pickups are small and do not give a comfortable thumb rest when chugging on the E. Little space from the thumb to the string. I have a Zero Mod thumb rest on order which I hope fixes it.
Quality wise, it’s an 8. Playability, it’s an 11. Sound, a 10,
Fender makes a Player Mustang (which I also have one) and for the money, the Player is not worth it. This Squier is a good value. Even with my upgrades this is less than a Fender and sounds better.
My dream bass is an old Fender Pawn Shop Mustang, which is a mustang with a wide range humbucker. You can hear one on The Warnings Enter Sandman cover from when they were kids. Hard to find the bass, I am thinking of buying a second CV Mustang, and routing a hole for the big humbucker, and making my own PS Mustang. I like this bass that much. And it would be cheaper. CV basses are good quality, great mod platforms. Definitely consider them over the lower end Fenders.