School me on Mustangs

GavRichList

Na I just meant a vintage trem unit

ThePrettyDamned

GavHaus said:

Na I just meant a vintage trem unit

OH! That could be cool, I could look into doing my first relic type job while I'm at it. 

Hmm. 

GavRichList

Crash magnetic transducers do some nice mustang pickups IIRC.

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

Nah, I'd rather put it together myself.  I've only played three mustangs, two japanese (which were okay guitars, but tuning stability non existant) and one vintage model which felt like a boat anchor.  Honestly, it was like a les paul! And I don't mind heavy...

I assume you mean mid-late 1970s, ie not really vintage .

The '77 I had was like that - ash body, and must have weighed at least 9lbs, which for something so thin was ridiculous. Totally toneless too - plink plink plink. Mint condition though, so I sold it for a good price…

Actual vintage Mustangs - early 70s or earlier - aren't heavy.

The trem units work fine if you adjust them so the bar is as low as possible above the plate - the problem is more to do with the bridge, there's not enough travel in it to stop the strings having to slide over the saddles at least a bit, which causes trouble. Some of them seem to work OK, some don't no matter how you fiddle with them. I really have no idea why.

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Nah, I'd rather put it together myself.  I've only played three mustangs, two japanese (which were okay guitars, but tuning stability non existant) and one vintage model which felt like a boat anchor.  Honestly, it was like a les paul! And I don't mind heavy...

I assume you mean mid-late 1970s, ie not really vintage .

The '77 I had was like that - ash body, and must have weighed at least 9lbs, which for something so thin was ridiculous. Totally toneless too - plink plink plink. Mint condition though, so I sold it for a good price…

Actual vintage Mustangs - early 70s or earlier - aren't heavy.

The trem units work fine if you adjust them so the bar is as low as possible above the plate - the problem is more to do with the bridge, there's not enough travel in it to stop the strings having to slide over the saddles at least a bit, which causes trouble. Some of them seem to work OK, some don't no matter how you fiddle with them. I really have no idea why.

Does a mastery or staytrem go on a mustang and fix these issues? 

Maybe I'll do more research.  I'm still tempted, mind.  They look great, even with trem locked down. 

GavRichList

Yeah they'd both drop in. That said, mine was absolutely fine - never had any issues at all. Maybe I was lucky. Any excuse to buy a Mastery mind you...

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

Does a mastery or staytrem go on a mustang and fix these issues?

Yes, and don't know - never tried one.

I'm one of the few people who doesn't think the Mustang bridge is a good replacement for the Jazzmaster/Jag bridge though… or that any replacement is necessary at all, so maybe not the right person to answer .

ThePrettyDamned

Cheers lads.  I'll maybe keep this thread propped up.  I really fancy one, and actually I could probably (asides from the neck) source parts quite cheaply, even without going to the budget end of things.  Genuine fender units are around.  

@ICBM I'd fit it with a 3 way probably.  Or maybe even (in keeping with the original theme) a couple of switches which are just on/off switches. 

Gets me stuttery effects too, right?

HAL9000

You want Mustangs...?

albanov

Sounds like you might get on with a squier supersonic? Short scale, strat trem, bit mustang-ish... Nice guitars (the vista series) although a bit little for me. Have seen a few online fitted with single coils replacing the (fairly uninteresting) humbuckers they came with, which I imagine would work well.

underdog

I like a duo sonic, lovely to play

gusman2x

I love my mustang. Easily my number one.

It's a Japanese cobain sig, but I've replaced the pickups, and gone with two single coils from Mojo pickups. I can't recommend Mojo enough, really great service, and magic sounds.

My guitar still has the TOM bridge on it, which I like, but it does make the trem pretty useless from a tuning point of view. I think with a normal or staytrem bridge, tuning stability should be fine with the trem.

Love the sounds, and especially the feel. Only negative sentiment on here that I will concur with is the switching. I should probably have put a 3 toggle in (a la duo sonic), as I never really use the out of phase sounds anyway.

You should do one for sure. To many jags and jazzmasters kicking about!

juansolo

ICBM said:

The stock electronics are a pain the the backside - three switches with nine positions in total but only four sounds, and you need to move both switches to make most changes. A pickup selector and a phase (or some other type) of switch makes far more sense.

The stock trem is a pain too - it *can* work well, but is rather crude and not very adjustable... some combinations of string gauge, bridge height and bar height seem to be OK, others just don't ever seem to settle properly. And the arm falls out unless you modify the fitting. You're probably better off with a Jazzmaster/Jaguar trem and bridge - or a hardtail (which essentially makes it a Duo-Sonic). I would use a Toronado-type bridge if you're going to do that.

I picked up a Pawn Shop one recently. The switching is not difficult to re-wire to make useful. Mine is now parallel/split/series on each.  Funnily enough I have a Toronado bridge sat in front of me that I'll fit to it in the new year also.

I will say though that I absolutely adore it. The stock pickups were shite, but that's easy to deal with and expected with cheap Fender hums.

ICBM

juansolo said:

I picked up a Pawn Shop one recently. The switching is not difficult to re-wire to make useful. Mine is now parallel/split/series on each.

The Pawn Shop actually has a proper pickup selector already though - original Mustangs just have the two slide switches that go on/off/reverse phase for each of the two pickups.

I quite like the Pawn Shop but the position of the selector would drive me nuts, it's even easier to hit than the slide switches on the Jaguar. If it was closer to the tip of the horn I could maybe live with it...

juansolo

Yeah I'd fit a 3 way toggle to that and re-purpose the sliders for something else. It's a Fender, customise to taste

dindude

I want a Fender Swinger, hard tail, 22.5" scale length. Cool as the coolest custard.

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n505/dindude/4ca2dff46c1944b736016e0a791898b7_zps74fbf6c7.jpg

ThePrettyDamned

dindude;459568" said:

I want a Fender Swinger, hard tail, 22.5" scale length. Cool as the coolest custard.





http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n505/dindude/4ca2dff46c1944b736016e0a791898b7_zps74fbf6c7.jpg

Wow, that is cool!

dindude

Make one, make one. We know you can do it.........

ICBM

dindude said:

I want a Fender Swinger, hard tail, 22.5" scale length. Cool as the coolest custard.

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n505/dindude/4ca2dff46c1944b736016e0a791898b7_zps74fbf6c7.jpg

I owned two of those. Sadly both had been butchered, apparently by John Birch. Roughly P90-sized hole in the bridge position (turns out that's the size of a Birch pickup), switch on the lower horn in the Pawn Shop Mustang position. I've seen another with identical damage as well :x .

The first one had been terribly refretted as well and was barely playable, so I put a humbucker in the bridge position and used it as a feedback generator, at which it was fantastic - one of the only guitars I've ever come across which didn't sound good unplugged but great plugged in. The other was playable conventionally but didn't sound as good .

The second one was particularly interesting because the finish was stripped, which made it possible to see how and why that shape was derived from the left-over Bass V bodies they were built from.

grungebob

I've only played an mij mustang,a Kurtt cobain mustang and a mustang special so can't say for vintage examples but the best was the special closely followed by the KC. The special was just all shades of awesome and I will buy one some day. The KC model was very lively and really rang acoustically but was let down by the pickups. I love the short scale and light weight of mustangs plus they are just really comfortable standing or seated. The American special mustang is on my to try list