Tag Archives: mustang

Fender, mustang, project guitar

AJ’s 1975 Fender Mustang (restored and modified)

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A few years back AJ shared his very cool “Gold Top” jag-stang project with us which we featured on the blog.  Heres the link.

He’s sent in some pics of his restored and modified 1975 Fender Mustang to share with us as well.  And it is also very cool!  His description and photos are below. Enjoy!

It’s a restored 1975, with some obvious modifications (something the purists might not dig…but whatever). The pickups are full-size single coil filtertrons which sound sensational. The tuners are Planet Waves locking. I opted to lose the stock switches and installed a 3-way toggle switch where the jack hole usually is. I moved the jack hole to the side of the body (as seen in the photo…a VERY scary drilling job…but thankfully it turned out quite well). Also, the stock nut was replaced with a brass nut.

This was my first electric guitar that I bought new in 1975 from Charles Music Store in Glendale, California, so there’s a lot of personal sentimental value. It was originally dark brown in color. Plays great and sounds very unique with the ‘trons. Definitely a strong, edgy surf tone. Gotta love it!

AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975
AJ's Mustang 1975

Thanks for sharing with us AJ!

Fender, mustang

HNB’s Modified Mustang

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We often like to feature content from the forums on the blog.  Forum member HNB has been working on some Mustang modifications and recently finished them up.

Mods: Hard tail with 6mm bolts and washers, metal dome knobs, SD JB trembucker, custom pickguardian.com parchment pickguard, and ’85 MIJ strat bridge pickup in the neck.

For more photos and details visit the Forum Thread Here.

HNB's Modified Fender Mustang
HNB's Modified Fender Mustang
Fender, Guitar News, mustang

Pawn Shop Fender Mustang Special

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Another new Mustang variant is now available from Fender!  It’s being labeled as the Pawn Shop Mustang Special with the tagline “guitars that never were but should have been.”

Available in Lake Placid Blue and Candy Apple Red the MSRP for these is $999.99 which comes to a list price around $799.99. Some of the features that jump out are the 9.5″ radius neck, hard tail stratocaster bridge and additional pickup switching options.

Here’s the quote from the Fender series site about the guitar.

The Pawn Shop Mustang Special has a modified offset Mustang® body, ’60s “C”-shaped 24” short-scale maple neck, and dual Fender Enforcer™ humbucking pickups with ’70s-style covers and unique switching. Other features include a rosewood fretboard with modern 9.5” radius and medium jumbo frets, pickup toggle switch, three-way coil selector slide switch for each humbucking pickup (enabling 18 different tonal options), mint green pickguard, ’70s-style hard-tail Stratocaster® bridge, vintage-style tuners and strap buttons, and deluxe gig bag.

Pawn Shop Mustang Special
Pawn Shop Mustang Special

Links to check out for more info:

Check out the Premier Guitar video review below.
url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBBUGn3jO4E

Fender, Guitar News, mustang

Fender Mustang Guitar Article on Fender.com

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Fender Mustang Models
Fender Mustang Models

Fender recently put up a really good article on the history of the Fender Mustang. The article is definitely worth a read.  [The Fender Mustang Guitar @ Fender.com]

Small excerpt from the article below:

Fender was keenly aware in the mid-1950s that there was much to be gained by offering “student” instruments for retailers who offered in-store music instruction. The thinking went that if beginners with beginner guitars stuck with it, dealers who offered lessons were well placed to launch them to the next level by selling them full-size Fender Telecaster® and Stratocaster® guitars. Hence the arrival in 1956 of Fender’s first two student guitars, the single-pickup Musicmaster® and the two-pickup Duo-Sonic™. Both were short-scale guitars (22.5” compared to 25.5” for the Telecaster and Stratocaster) at the low end of the price list ($119.50 and $149.50 respectively). Fender revamped its student guitar line in 1964 by offering both guitars in both short and medium (24”) scales and by introducing an entirely new guitar that August, the Mustang.

[The Fender Mustang Guitar @ Fender.com]

Fender, mustang

Pictures of Your Fender Mustangs!

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I wanted to use this post to highlight a great thread in our forums.  It is a post in the Fender Mustang section titled “Pics of Everyones fender mustangs“. It was started back in summer of 2008 and has over 5500 views at the time of this posting. 

Below is a selection of photos from that forum post.  If you have a Fender Mustang and haven’t jumped in on sharing your photos yet we encourage you to do so!

(Click an image for larger version)

 

Guitar News, mustang

Mr Maxima’s Fender Mustang Story – It’s Back!

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We’ve kept a backup copy of the brillant Mr Maxima’s Fender Mustang Story web site at jag-stang.com for many years since it disappeared. We were recently contacted by Mr Maxima that he has revived the web site.

It’s now located at: http://fendermustangstory.com

We’ll be updating our copy of the page shortly to refer folks to the new site.

The Fender Mustang Story

Article, jag-stang, mustang

Tightening that Dynamic Vibrato tremolo arm

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A common question of new owners of guitars with a Dynamic Vibrato is how to keep the tremolo arm in the tailpiece bar. The tremolo/bridge unit of the Fender jag-stang and most mustangs is a Dynamic Vibrato, so this article applies to both the jag-stang and mustang.

The first thing to know is that the tremolo bar itself does not “snap” or screw into place like the tremolo bar of a stratocaster. The tremolo bar is held in place by pressure from a small allen screw in the tailpiece bar.

The photo below points to the location of this allen screw. Note the location indicated by the blue arrow pointing into the end of the tailpiece bar.

dynamic vibrato tremolo screw

So to hold your tremolo bar in place get the bar in a position you are comfortable with and then snug the screw in the end of the tailpiece using a 4mm (or 5/32″) allen wrench. Don’t over tighten this screw. (see below)

dynamic vibrato tremolo screw

So another very common problem is that the screw in the end of the tailpiece bar will be missing. They fall out very easily.

There are not a lot of options for finding a replacement screw. You may have to buy an entire dynamic vibrato tailpiece that includes the screw. Or another option would be to pull the tailpiece bar off the guitar and take it into your local hardware store looking for a screw that will fit.

[If anyone has found an exact replacement for this screw please let us know the details and we’ll add it to this article.]