Hey, Carthage, good questions. I'm a beginner of 15 months but I'm discovering for myself what Robbmaster and Mad-Mike in particular said. That is, a Mustang is a versatile guitar, even though it's gotten associated with some specific musical styles...I think those associations are kinda fun rock mythology.
My old 1965 pickups are fine as is. As Mad-Mike demonstrates in his video...(thanks for the hot licks, MM)...the tones and power are more in the relationship between my guitar settings and my amp settings...assuming a decent amp. Which Mike's obviously got, and maybe he's using pedals too. My amp's good, a Peavey Classic 30, but it's no hi-tech monster. I'm learning how to get lots of different tones, sustain, and feedback, and there's more volume potential than I can use. My travel amp, which I use about 75% of the time, is a little Fender Frontman 10 and I'm even happy with how it works with my pickups.
I set my guitar volume all the way up and attack soft and easy; when I want serious volume, I attack more aggressively. Though the in-phase, out-of-phase switches are positioned a bit awkwardly, I really like what they do...hum-cancelling and unusual tones...and as you can see by watching Mad-Mike play, you get used to using them up there.
The only Mustang feature that's inherent to the design and which could limit my development is that the fret spacing up near the body cramps my medium-sized fingers. I've been adapting to that but when I play other guitars I really notice the difference. If you have smaller fingers than average and, as Robbmaster points out, if your style is fairly clean, I don't think there's a single disadvantage to an old Mustang.
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