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Musser M45 One-Niter

Range: 3.0 octaves

Number of Reviews: 1

Average Scores:

Sound and Tone:	10
Design and Construction:	5
Appearance:	8
Customer Support:	n/a
Overall Rating:	7

Reviewer: Diego Urbano e-mail: not publicly available Date submitted: Jan. 10, 2003 Purchase Price: n/a (school instrument)

Sound & Tone Rating: 10 Comments: The instrument is excelently tuned, it has stood up in tune for more than twenty years of "public" use, and the intonation is perfect and consistent throughout the whole range. The bars are uniform 1 1/2" in width and are 1/2" thick, And they respond well to all kind of mallets. The sound is great, and i think one can't ask for more in a non-graduated set of bars.

Design & Construction Rating: 5 Comments: The frame is identical to the one used in the M55, but a little smaller (due to uniform bars, instead of graduated). This vibe is from the early 80's so it comes with "Stanley" folding diagonal braces, wich haven't worked well. There are rattles that are produced by the tension when pressing the pedal, and are a real problem, that is dificult to fix for more than a few hours of playing. The frame isn't height adjustable. The height is the standard height used by musser. The casters are really bad, the brakes don't brake, and the casters fall off the legs when lifting the instrument up for disassembly and transport. I hadn't the oportunity to play the instrument in the times it had the original cord, wich has now been replaced several times. The motor works great, it's silent and runs acurately. The pedal is a little hard and it doesn't swivel smoothly. Also, the screw that holds the pedal in the crossbar gets loose very frecuently, and the pedal swings very smoothly, too much, even to the point in wich the pedal goes off the crossbar, if you don't re-tight the screw well (and frecuently). The instrument is really easy to disasemble: just remove the bars, resonators and pedal crossbar, and then fold the legs, it's a really fast process, and it is also a very portable vibe. The instrument hasn't stood up well over the time (20+ yrs). The bars are like new, but the frame hasn't stood up. I can atribute this to the fact that this is a school instrument, and gets extra abuse.

Appearance Rating: 8 Comments: The instrument is beautiful. I'd loved a gold version, but it's fine.

Customer Support Rating: no opinion Comments: I've not dealt with musser, and don't know if it came with owners manual. This is a discontinued model, so i think it wouldn't be easy to deal with musser regarding spare parts.

Overall Rating Rating: 7 Comments: I'm happy with the instrument, and i'd buy it again (obviously second hand), but i think it's not a school-use vibe. But it is in fact a great Jazz Vibe! and it'd be very useful to a student, and also for one-night gigs, as it's name (One-Niter) says.