Fender Japan Mustang MG73 CO (OTM)

Ben

I am looking to buy this guitar, but it looks like I can only buy the guitar from Japan.

Does anyone have any advice or had any experience buying direct from Japan?

There is one for sale on ebay, but i've seen cheaper ones for sale on various Japanise sites eg Rakuten

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Japan-73-Reissue-Mustang-guitar-MG73-CO-/251286074492?pt=Guitar&hash=item3a81d1347c#ht_2540wt_821

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/badge/item/10002252/ Japan site

Any help is much appreciated.

HNB

I have purchased guitars from Ishibashi's ebay store. They have been great to deal with.

Ben

I've read that this model of guitar is still being produced, but not in OTM (Matching Headstock) colour.

Is that right?

I would of thought it was the best selling colour in this model.

I've made a few guitar purchases in the last 2 years, so I am going to save up some cash with the intent to buy this guitar.

Do you think this guitar in OTM will be hard to find in a couple of years time?

I live in the UK so I imagine I would have to import... or book a flight to Japan.

HNB - I have heard only positive things about Ishibashi's. When I inquired to them about this guitar, they said they only sell Fender's thought their online store, not ebay.

TheJagmaster1

Ben said:

I've read that this model of guitar is still being produced, but not in OTM (Matching Headstock) colour.

Is that right?

I would of thought it was the best selling colour in this model.

I've made a few guitar purchases in the last 2 years, so I am going to save up some cash with the intent to buy this guitar.

Do you think this guitar in OTM will be hard to find in a couple of years time?

I live in the UK so I imagine I would have to import... or book a flight to Japan.

HNB - I have heard only positive things about Ishibashi's. When I inquired to them about this guitar, they said they only sell Fender's thought their online store, not ebay.

you know OTM is the colour right? the 'CO' part of the serial (MG-73/CO) refers to the matching headstock (or 'competition' model) and no, it wont be hard to find in a few years since its a listing on fender Japan's site is still there (for the Japanese market only) and there have been hundreds of thousands made.

that's my two cents anyway..

There's a bunch around on ebay. In fact, here's one at the moment... not badly priced either.. best grab it before other people here see it 😀

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fender-Japan-69-or-73-MUSTANG-OCEAN-TURQUOISE-METALLIC-COMPETITION-/121134346993?pt=Guitar&hash=item1c342b72f1

Doug

It's withdrawn from eBay (Sun. 28th).

Ben

I am hoping to buy a Fender MG73/CO OTM next month, but it is proving difficult to find one as they are discontinued.

I have contacted Ichibashi and they confirmed out of stock and it's rare to find one in their used section.

I've have waded through other Japanese site to no avail.

Is it rare to find this guitar for sale?

I guess I will only find used?

Surfsonic

I guess I have one of these.

Yes, for me it is also the nicest color combination of all times.

Mine is a CIJ, is this correct?

I bought it used at ebay from a japanese seller. I live in Berlin, grmany. Had no problems. Fast delivery, good communication.

I have a lot of Fender guitars. THIS Mustang is the only Fender which sounds good enough for my ears with the original stock pickups! Neck, perfect. overall feeling very good. I just modified it with a staytrem bridge and a staytrem trem arm.

Get one if you find it! If you find one at ebay don`t think about, just buy it!

jace

I own 1 of these that i bought about 6yrs ago or so. I bought it brand new on ebay from a seller in japan. At the time it was the only 1 listed on there. I have seen used ones pop up from time to time but this does seem to be a bit more rare to find. I think the most i ever saw was 2 listed at the same time that were new. I havent searched recently for them but when i was looking to buy they were few and far between

Ben

I did end up buying a new one a few months ago from Amazon Japan. I set up a Japanese forwarding address to get it delivered to the UK.

I paid around £650 - £700 for the guitar including import tax, forwarding company and shipping. The import tax alone was £130.

I’ve had the guitar modded like Kurt Cobain’s (I will upload a photo below) Hotrail in the bridge, 10-52 strings and flipped the bridge.