Mustang bass body source?

[dren68]

I have a Mustang bass and it's great. I just wish the body had contours, so I've been thinking about a way to remedy that. Does anyone know where I might be able to get a body with contours? I emailed Warmoth yesterday, and they don't make them. I find that really strange since they make Mustang guitar bodies AND short scale bass bodies. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

[Con-Tiki!]

i'm going to reply without doing any investigation into the accuracy of what i suggest.
I'm currently working on my '75 Mustang guitar. Looking around, the 70's Mustangs had contours, and the bodies that turn up on ebay are pretty cheap.
If the basses also got the contour treatment during the same period, I'd check ebay for one of those.
(i hope that turns out to be a helpful suggestion)

plan 'b' , would be to buy whatever you can, unfinished, and add contours. It's not that difficult if you have 1 good rasp, a sander, and a good eye.

[dren68]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've actually thought about both those options. I checked eBay and Reverb, and the only bodies that were currently for sale were slab. I'm guessing I'll have to just to be patient if I go that route. I've also considered just adding contours to my current body, but I'm not sure if I want to do that. My thinking is that if I could find a replacement body, I could just use that and keep the original in tact if I ever decide to sell it.

I've also seen a few reissues that have contours, but they seem pretty rare. The only ones listed on eBay are these: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Fender-Ja ... rk:13:pf:0

*Edit* I can't tell if that bass has contours or not. I just assumed it did since it had the competition stripes, but now I'm not so sure.

[Fiddy]

No contours on that body.

[dren68]

No contours on that body.

Yeah, I think there was a shadow or something on the photo of the back that made me think that it had contours.

[astro]

Unfortunately none of the reissue Mustang basses have contoured bodies. Not even the Japanese RI competition models had contours, which is weird because the contours were introduced to the Mustang basses with the release of the original Competition models in the late 60's.

I have been looking for a long time for an aftermarket maker of mustang bass bodies because I also wish I had contours on mine (I have a reissue). I have had no luck, right now it appears that nobody makes them.

On rare occasions vintage contoured bodies will pop up on ebay/reverb. However, if you have a Japanese reissue or a Squier VM model, note that the mustang bass pickup on these has longer coils than the original vintage pickup, so you might have to enlarge the pickup cavity on a vintage body to make the newer pickup fit.

[dren68]

Unfortunately none of the reissue Mustang basses have contoured bodies. Not even the Japanese RI competition models had contours, which is weird because the contours were introduced to the Mustang basses with the release of the original Competition models in the late 60's.

I have been looking for a long time for an aftermarket maker of mustang bass bodies because I also wish I had contours on mine (I have a reissue). I have had no luck, right now it appears that nobody makes them.

On rare occasions vintage contoured bodies will pop up on ebay/reverb. However, if you have a Japanese reissue or a Squier VM model, note that the mustang bass pickup on these has longer coils than the original vintage pickup, so you might have to enlarge the pickup cavity on a vintage body to make the newer pickup fit.

Yeah, I've discovered this since I started looking. The only contoured bodies I've seen are vintage 70's models. That's so weird that the RI competition models don't have contours. That doesn't make any sense. Is it just a cost-saving thing? And I still don't understand why Warmoth doesn't make bass bodies. They're the same size/shape as the guitar bodies, are they not?

Anyway, I think I may just contour the body I currently own. I've been wanting to refinish it in Daphne Blue for a while anyway, so I might just do both at the same time.