“Miss September” dates back to 1960. The Musicmaster was Fender’s entry-level model, just like the AC10 from VOX.
At $119, it cost less than half the price of a Stratocaster.
The Musicmaster was introduced in 1956 as the “Student” model, featuring a shorter scale length (22.5”) and only one pickup. The guitar was available almost exclusively in Desert Sand; there were a few in Sunburst. It wasn’t until 1964, with the introduction of the Musicmaster II, that Dakota Red and Daphne Blue became available.
The guitar is really very compact; the neck is only 38.5 mm wide at the nut. Even so, you can manage just fine with your bare hands. Thanks to its short scale length, it plays incredibly smoothly, and bends of more than 5 semitones are no problem.
The guitar is in excellent condition for a 66-year-old instrument. The thin nitro paint has worn through in the high-wear areas, and it has picked up a few small dings—exactly the way we want it. These days, it’s called “Light Aged.”
A Musicmaster like this is the most affordable way to get started in the pre-CBS world, with its spaghetti logo and Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. A 1960 Strat in similarly good condition costs just under €30,000 today, whereas this one is well under €5,000.
VOX’s entry-level model was the AC 10, and it, too, was half the price of the flagship model, the AC30.
As the name suggests, it produces 10 watts using a pair of EL84 power tubes, and the power supply uses an EZ81 instead of a GZ34.
The biggest difference, however, lies in the preliminary stage. The AC10 uses an EF86 pentode tube. This tube has an extremely high amount of gain and a very dense, harmonic sound that distorts early and smoothly.
The small 10-inch Elac speaker is somewhat of a drawback, as it doesn’t match the rich sound of a Celestion Blue Alnico and, of course, can’t produce the bass foundation of an AC30.
The amp has two channels, VIBRATO and NORMAL, each with two input jacks. The AMPLITUDE and SPEED controls regulate the vibrato, which can be turned off using the original VOX footswitch. The TONE control applies to both channels.
Still, this little rocker is a blast to play and is the better choice for home use, since an AC30 is way too loud for that.
This copy is in excellent condition. The fawn-colored covering is as thin as wallpaper, and on the vast majority of amplifiers from that era, it remains only in fragments and/or has been painted over.
You can try out these two rare items here in the lounge and purchase them