Upgrading a CIJ Mustang: some issues

zjokka

hi all,

a friend asked me to look into his 'Stang because it was so noisy and didn't sustain well, didn't sound good in all.

Here are the issues, feel very free to comment if you recognize anything:

(a) grounding: the ground tab on the input jack was unused because supposedly it's ground through the control plate over the jack casings. I think grounding it properly will improve the noise.

(😎 pickups: it was believe that this one had us strat pickups in it, but according to the view these seem to me to be jap pickups. will try some real ones or custom shops, but... I I'm not mistaken the Mustang is routed to have a strat pickup put upside down! Is that why Stangs cannot have staggered pole piece pu's? maybe I do have a staggered lefty lying around.

© owner said he always he played with tone and volume on 10. Classic problem: will be installing a treble bleed and lower the stock 0,047uF cap for a 22nF standard. Also will go for the alternative switch wiring scheme which concentrated pickup selection in one switch and kicks out the vol and tone control with the second one.

(d) very peculair acoustic problem: I noticed that the strings seem to rest on the screws that adjus the saddles. Intuitively I would say this would kill your tone dead on the spot. But seems inevitable with this setup... Are these the correct screws? Is the bidge on right? This cannot be how it should be. Pic says all

thanks for reading, feel free to comment any experience, will sure help me sort this baby out:

zjokka

It's done now,

-shielded and stargrounded

-new tone cap 0,022uF

-treble bleed on the volume control (0,001uF in parallel with 150k)

-new pickups: righty and lefty staggered strat pickups. One is a 68 reissue the other a 70s reissue. Try finding the lefty staggered neck pickup

-alternate switching scheme

-wrapped the bridge legs with duck tape to secure them from rocking to and fro. This was a killer intonation and sustain wise.

After all this, this Stang sounded much more solid and Fenderish then before, apart from being dead quiet. The two pickups on at the same time loses some volume, which leaves room for improvement.

One is reverse wound, I'm sorta sure, anyway, probably the difference in the nature of the magnets is too big hence much is cancelling out. That, at least is my temporary conclusion.

The pickups alone sound very very very good, especially the bridge (often a prob in my experience) with a nice almost but not really strat ring. The neck is very jazzy and mild.

Really thinking about putting the original Mustang pickups in again.

suggestions and hints still welcome.

will_s

I never heard of people putting tape around the legs of the bridge, seems like a good idea, but what did it improve exactly other than keeping the bridge in one place?

and did you find a solotion to the strings resting on the screws? because i think that's the normal way for a mustang bridge to be...

iCEByTes

can try this pickups

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/sd_ant2mustang.htm

zjokka

will_s said: and did you find a solotion to the strings resting on the screws? because i think that's the normal way for a mustang bridge to be...

I read about it here: http://www.jag-stang.com/techTips.htm after searching for "mustang bridge setup" I found it under "jagstang" -- it's the same bridge, of course. Unstable bridges make it impossible to set the guitar's intonation right. So I think there is a point in securing it.

but, yes, it really does not do anything but keep the bridge from rocking to and fro

I thought securing the bridge might fix this, as nobody said it's supposed to be like that before. If that is the case, how do you set intonation on a Mustang? No room for the screwdriver and additionally the screws bear string pressure?

will_s

zjokka said:
I thought securing the bridge might fix this, as nobody said it's supposed to be like that before. If that is the case, how do you set intonation on a Mustang? No room for the screwdriver and additionally the screws bear string pressure?
zj

looking at my bridge i see that the thinner strings touch the screws, so i assumed this was just one of the flaws in the mustang bridge design. and as you say, it is very difficult to reach the screws...

grandaddy

re: strings resting on bridge/screws

correct me if i'm wrong, but doesnt the traditional/correct way of stringing a mustang involve threading the strings from the neck side of the tailpiece and then up and over the top? this would then give the strings less of an angle over the bridge and perhaps sit on the saddles without touching the bridge itself.

nirvana23freak

no there wouldnt be enough of an angle to even stay in the saddles then

JamesJ

putting tape around the bridge post locks it in, so the guitar stays in tune better, with the bridge moving, or "floating", you bend a string and it would fall off in tone, i wrap mine with electrical tape, and make sure you leave the bottom uncovered, so the it touches the ground.

AnotherTool

I'm sure the strings didn't rest on the screws of my mustang, but even if they do, it won't hurt the sustain, because the saddles are the "dead spot" anyway. Aslong as you don't have any string breakages at the screws, it's fine.

Maybe the screws are replacements and are too big, but the only real fix without changing the screws for ones with smaller heads would be to raise the tailpiece. I'd say it's fine as it is.

hella231

Did the new ground wire help? Also thinking of replacing the stock wire in my mustang with cloth wire. would that help with the noise?

antoha

kinda offtopic-how good is all foil shielding comparing to the stock one?

coldwaraudio

Ok you can still get intonation without putting tape on those posts. The screwdriver can get in there its just kind of a pain set the trem to a zero point if he uses it that will help keep him in tune. Grounding was the right thing to do it always helps. The sd antiquities are what i have in my stang and they sound awesome. Main thing is mustangs are never completely silent there gunna have some 60 cycle hum no matter what unless you put in humbuckers (please dont do that ruins the mustang tone.) The strings sitting on the screws really doesn't bother a whole lot of stuff my stang stays intonated and my strings sit on the screws. Oh and if you have the tape on the posts the trem will not work as well the bridge is designed to float with the trem so the strings don't stretch as much and throw the guitar out of tune if you set the zero point to the trem it will be fine.

Ok sorry that was so lengthy if you have any more questions just ask.