Fender Japan Competition Mustang Bass Review

Greetings!

I have only had a few short scale basses over the past 25 years, but each one has been a hoot. This week I picked up a secondhand one from Ishibashi in Nagoya, Japan: a Fender Japan Mustang Bass.

This is model MB98-70 SD CO/OCR, which is a fairly faithful Japanese copy of the 1970 Fender Mustang Bass. These have been available in the US as a limited edition, but not with the competition stripes.

This one has an alder body, sprayed with a lightly metallic candy apple red with cream-colored stripes under the clear coat. It is visually stunning and the finish has no imperfections that I can find.

The 30-inch scale maple neck has a rosewood fretboard and 19 medium-sized nickel frets. The frets are level and are well-finished, and there is no wear, despite this being a used bass. The neck feels tiny with a shallow C- shape profile and a 1 ½-inch nut.

The tuners are a not period correct for a 1970s Fender bass, as they are the smaller ones that come on many of the newer Japanese Fenders. It does use the traditional 4-saddle bridge and through-the-body stringing that the original Mustangs had.

The electronics are a slight upgrade from the original, as this one came from the factory with a Seymour Duncan split single-coil pickup. Remember the “SD” from the model designation? The controls are simple, with a volume and a tone pot.

This Japanese Mustang is a giggle factory to play. The neck is a little small for me, but I got used to it in no time. The tone is (not surprisingly) a little short on low and low-mid tones, but it performs as well as I expected with the minuscule pickups and short scale.

The craftsmanship is first-rate, and this would be a tremendous bass for smaller players or for young folks just getting into the bass guitar. Check one out if you get a chance.

Mahalo!