Design Mustang basses utilize, for economic reasons, the same body as the Fender MusicMaster, Bronco, and DuoSonic guitars. They featured a split coil pickup with plastic covering, as opposed to the Precision style pickup with exposed pole pieces. Relatively unique elements of the Mustang bass were the string-through body design, and the 7-bolt bridge. Mustang basses came with the standard "Pull-bar" of the early Fender era, but many beginners moved theirs to the left side of the neck to become a thumbrest for finger playing. History Introduced in 1966 as a companion to Fender's shorter-scaled, two-pickup Fender Mustang guitars, the Mustang Bass was the last original bass designed by Leo Fender before his departure from the company in 1965. The Mustang Bass has a short 30" scale and a single split pickup (similar to the Precision Bass), one volume and one tone control, with strings-through-body routing. Like the early Precision and Jazz basses, the Mustang Bass was fitted with string mutes (although most players removed these). The standard finishes were red and white. Mustang Basses, like all Fender guitars, were finished in nitrocellulose lacquer up until 1968, thereafter in thick polyester finish. In 1969, both the Mustang guitar and bass were issued with 'Competition' finishes—i.e., red with three white stripes, a thick one between two thinner ones, Lake Placid Blue with lighter blue stripes, etc. and were later available in various plain finishes including black and sunburst. (The yellowing of the lacquer on some early models has also resulted in "rare" colours like Surf Green, in reality a yellowed Competition Blue). In production almost continuously to 1981, the Mustang Bass was reissued by Fender Japan in 1998,.[1]