Fender Justin Meldal-Johnsen Signature Mustang Bass

Description

Cooler Than the Other Side of the Pillow
Justin Meldal-Johnsen may very well be the coolest bassist breathing. Chances are, he’s played a session for your favorite artist and your favorite artist’s favorite artist. Everyone from pop giants like Pink to avant-garde pianists like Brad Mehldau to indie rock giants like Beck have called upon Mr. Meldal-Johnsen’s services, and he has delivered them track after track of innovative, groundbreaking bass work. He’s also produced and co-written albums with electronic juggernaut M83, indie rock luminaries Neon Trees, and R&B diva Macy Gray.
There are very few bassists out there who have the flexibility, creativity, and musical taste to play with such a wide variety of people (I mean, seriously, how many people can successfully play sessions with Drake AND Emmylou Harris?), and his new signature Fender Mustang reflects both his adaptability and his adventurous spirit.
A Musical Chameleon
There are two ways to develop a bass that can handle such a wide variety of musical duties. If you want to get every sound under the sun, you can design it to cover every conceivable tone by outfitting it with an array of pickup-switching options, active EQ, out-of-phase switches, and push-pull coil-splits. Or, you can craft a simple bass with just a couple knobs that does one or two sounds so well that they fit in pretty much any musical context. The Justin Meldal-Johnsen Signature Mustang is a perfect example of the latter, and it proves that simplicity can lead to supreme versatility. Let’s take a closer look at what makes this bass such a musical chameleon!
Short on Scale, Long on Tone
The biggest thing that sets the JMJ Mustang Bass apart is its 30” scale length. It’s about four inches shorter than a typical Fender bass, and this puts less tension on the strings for a glorious, slinky handfeel. The short scale also gives the low-end frequencies a deep, upright-like quality, and it helps the highs remain present despite their warmth and roundness.
But this beautiful bass would just be a hunk of quiet, pretty-looking wood without a killer pickup, so thank goodness for the fine folks at Seymour Duncan! They wound a phenomenal custom single-coil pickup based on the one in JMJ’s original ’66 Mustang, and their meticulous recreation captures all of the most crucial aspects of vintage Fender sounds—especially that hard-to-imitate low-midrange warmth.
Speaking of things that are hard to pull off, let’s talk about how incredible this neck feels. It has the traditional Fender “C” shape, but with a wider 9.5” radius. This flatter feel is quite comfortable in conjunction with the 1.625”-wide nut, because it gives you room to maneuver without being too wide. Essentially, it’s a Goldilocks neck: not too fat, not too skinny.
Nine Inch Nailed It
Fender also knocked the finish out of the park with these basses. The Faded Daphne Blue is eye-catching but not overly ostentatious, and the relic job does a bang-up job capturing the vibe of a veteran player’s most trusted instrument. Aged pearloid pickguards and vintage-style hardware are always cool, and the Hipshot Lollipop tuners complete the package. It’s hard to quantify vintage vibe, but this carefully crafted aesthetic made this bass feel like an old, cherished friend from the first moment I picked it up.
Fender has managed to achieve quite a feat with the Justin Meldal-Johnsen Signature Mustang Bass: they’ve managed to craft an instrument with a singular, unique voice that fits in everywhere. You could feed this bass through a half-dozen pedals in a psychedelic rock band on Monday, use it to lay down some deep grooves on a hip-hop track on Tuesday, and play it during a pop singer-songwriter session on Wednesday. Very few instruments can handle such a diverse workload, and even fewer are this much fun to play!
To paraphrase a great modern poet, the Justin Meldal-Johnsen Mustang Bass is cooler than Freddie Jackson sipping a milkshake in a snowstorm, and we are excited to see what sorts of musical adventures our exceptional customers embark upon with it as their traveling companion.
Specifications:
Brand:
Fender
Model
: Justin Meldal-Johnsen Signature Mustang Bass
Finish Color
: Black
Finish Type
: Road Worn Nitrocellulose Lacquer
Weight
: 7.91 lbs.
Body Wood
: Alder
Neck Wood
: Maple
Neck Shape
: C Shape
Neck Dimensions
: .860 1st - 1.000 12th
Fingerboard
: Rosewood
Fingerboard Radius
: 9.5"
Scale Length
: 30"
Width at Nut
: 1.625"
Nut Material
: Synthetic Bone
Frets
: 19 Medium Jumbo
Pickups
: Custom Seymour Duncan Split Single-Coil Mustang Bass
Controls
: 1 Volume, 1 Tone
Hardware
: Nickel/Chrome
Bridge
: String-Through-Body Mustang 4_saddle
Tuners
: Hipshot Lollipops
Pickguard
: 4-Ply Aged White Pearloid
Case
: Gig Bag