Duo-Sonic reissue

korey-craft

Hey guys. I recently accuired this Duo reissue. It's undergone a full refinish with a great paint job and color. I like the color and it would be a real shamer to lose it but I may still strip it down again tho. The person who did the work did a pretty rough job smoothing down the edges. Body Filler, or wood filler, help? I also want to get a Black gaurd with a mustang control plate. new white pickup covers and white mustang style switches installed on the lower side maybe, and new compensated tele-style saddles. The bigsby style tremolo isn't installed, but I'm thinking about it. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas they'd like to offer? Thanks

with bigsby.

more like the actual color

harrison

interesting ideas,

for starters i think a bigsby is always a good idea, but as for the mustang switches i find them to be such a big hassle and i always always always hit them while i play. So i would stick with the toggle if i was in your position. Good luck on your project!

korey-craft

harrison said: interesting ideas,
for starters i think a bigsby is always a good idea, but as for the mustang switches i find them to be such a big hassle and i always always always hit them while i play. So i would stick with the toggle if i was in your position. Good luck on your project!

There is a mod here somewheres maybe? that lowers the switches into the body. Using pickup springs! Apparently pretty useful. I think I'd move the switches down to the lower horn of the gaurd tho, and maybe a "recessed" one handy to the bridge pickup as a kill switch. not sure yet, all very undecided. Any ideas on the chrome control plate?

korey-craft

ok so someone asked the difference between duos and mustangs in another thread. I guess I kinda submitted a question too hastily, almost hijacking that thread. so I will continue on with this one. There is a control plate on the offset duos and mustangs I was wondering if they would fit the reissue duo-sonics? with some modding of course.

imadrid

korey-craft said: ok so someone asked the difference between duos and mustangs in another thread. I guess I kinda submitted a question too hastily, almost hijacking that thread. so I will continue on with this one. There is a control plate on the offset duos and mustangs I was wondering if they would fit the reissue duo-sonics? with some modding of course.

The best way to check is to unscrew your pickguard and see if there is some space to place in the mustang style pickup switches. If there is none then you would have to route the wood on the body.

Later on the redesigned Fender Duo-Sonic II shared the same body, switches, pickguard, control plate and routing as the Mustang. With the exception of the extra routing for the Mustang Tremolo. So it was sort of a universal body to streamline production.

The Squire 50's Classic Vibe Duo-Sonic on the outside looks like the original Duo-Sonic. But it isn't entirely accurate reissue. Just think of it as an updated Duo-Sonic. Its the reason they call "classic vibe."

It takes a lot of work to turn a Duo-Sonic reissue into a Duo-Sonic II or Mustang. I have considered and it but changed my mind. Buy a cheap Duo-Sonic II body on eBay and chop it into a Mustang. Aside from routing the guitar body to make space for a Tremolo. The Mustang scratch plate and pickguard may not fit. It may not be an issue to drill some extra holes. But if you live outside the USA and ordering it online. Its not economical for me to ship back a part for return.

If you can walk into a store and compare a Mustang pickguard and scratch plate. Go ahead and try to see if fits.

korey-craft

I meant in terms of just the chrome control plate. I've yet to see someone do it, so the answer is most likely "no they won't fit"

illy

Hi, I just purchased a '96 DuoSonic MIM Reissue in Torino (or Dakota?) Red, and I thought to update her this way:

first, the crappy bridge is on the way to be dumped - I got a brand new Toronado string-through-body that has the same size, shape and screw-holes, and it has single saddles like a Strat one; I guess I'm improving the tuning...

then, I'm gonna get a new W/B/W pickguard and black J-Bass-like knobs, and a black knob switch.

about pickups, I'm honestly undecided: I'm thinking about P90s but I don't know... I have yet a Tele TexMex bridge PU, so I was considering about that... but: what in the neck position? I should get some RWRP single pickup, and it's not easy to me.

as I've seen in some pictures, the pickup routing suits some P90s or mini-humbucker, so I guess I'll finally choose P90s, but I must search for a custom made p-guard.

I read that there are P90s single coil sized, but they are way too expensive as replacement on a 200 bucks guitar - they cost almost half the DuoSonic!

so... I'm still undecided!

any tips? 😉

PS about the pics I've seen: I'm talking about MIM Reissue, the old Duos should have single slanted hollows

Doug

Korey, you asked about smoothing the edges and use of wood filler. I just refinished my Mustang (it had been refinished when I bought it). It had some deep scratches and dings, and a deep cut on the upper bout. I found that careful sanding got almost every scratch and ding out. I experimented with gradually rougher grains of sand paper, always sanded along the grain, and for the edges and curves I used a sponge sanding block which molds to the curves as you press. I used long sweeps when I was sanding the edges so I wouldn't flatten a small section of any edge.

For the deeper dings I used an electric block sander. You just have to be very careful with your pressure because you can really dig in too deeply and create dips before you even realize it. I thought about filling that deep cut on the upper bout but then began to see it as her proud battle scar. So I left it. Finishing it all off with 0000 Steel Wool leaves a smooth, even surface for staining or paint.

By the way, my Mustang is Poplar...so my experience may not apply exactly to your guitar.

Good luck, keep us posted.