Old Fender Mustang?

Mr-M

A mate of mine that stayed with me a while back (hey he had no place to go, so I took him in for a couple of months until I couldn't take it anymore! :P) was given a banged up old guitar that looked like a Fender Mustang to repair (it was and is still in pieces), which he never did anything with. Thing is I found it lying in the deepest darkest reaches of my spare room cupboard on Sunday! Sorry, don't have pics yet (no camera - gonna have to try my phone camera), but it looks like this pic I've attached, except for a few differences: -The tuners are open-geared, instead of the sealed units on this re-issue. -Same colour but it looks to have been re-painted with a brush and it's awful! -The pickguard seems to have been pearl originally but has been repainted black. -The Fender logo is missing and there is no serial number on the neck or in the neck pocket, but it does seem to have been re-finished more than once so that might be why. -The bridge is slightly different. Instead of having individual saddles it seems to have some kind of roller bridge without intonation adjustment. Basically a round bar with string slots. Plus the trem arm attaches further forward than the pic. I've compared it to pics of the original and re-issue and it isn't exactly the same as either. It seems to have had a tough life with several re-finishes, so perhaps the hardware has been changed along the way? Do you guys think it's the real deal or is it a knock-off?

Martyr

couldn't you check with the serial number?(sorry,i'm not a Fender guy)

Mr-M

Unfortunately the serial numbers are missing! :'(

Martyr

were they painted over?

AlanRatcliffe

Difficult to say without pics, but it sounds wrong. Even if the serial is off the neck, there should be an F neck plate with a stamped serial number.

Take a look at this eBay auction of the real deal - some good detail pics there.

Heath

i had a similar problem with an explorer once ....... had been painted more times then most ppl change there underwear had the frets ripped out no pots and one bucker connected to the jack . but after stripping to down back to the wood and verifying the serial number is was found to be a '76 gibson explorer . shes a loverly guitar today after many hours work and some TLC

Mr-M

Wezz wrote were they painted over?

Maybe at some point. Right now it's just bare wood in the neck pocket.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote Difficult to say without pics, but it sounds wrong. Even if the serial is off the neck, there should be an F neck plate with a stamped serial number.

Can't rightly remember. The neck plate is either blank or missing - I'll have to check again, but there is definitely no F Logo.

Yeah, my initial thought was that it must be some kind of knock-off. From what I can find the Mustang was very popular in Japan in the 80's so many companies made knock-offs. Maybe this one was made before the parent company, whoever they were, was sued by Fender for the headstock design (as happened to several Japanese guitar makers)?

Explorerlover

Tailon wrote i had a similar problem with an explorer once ....... had been painted more times then most ppl change there underwear had the frets ripped out no pots and one bucker connected to the jack . but after stripping to down back to the wood and verifying the serial number is was found to be a '76 gibson explorer . shes a loverly guitar today after many hours work and some TLC

@ Tailon, do you still have the Explorer?..Please post pics if you do..

Heath

i good friend of mine uses it in his metal band , i'll ask him to send some photos ..... it came out good , but uncomfortable to play . he loves it

Explorerlover

Thanks...to me...that is the ultimate shape in a guitar...Hence the name.

Bob-Dubery

Mr M wrote
-The tuners are open-geared, instead of the sealed units on this re-issue.
-Same colour but it looks to have been re-painted with a brush and it's awful!
-The pickguard seems to have been pearl originally but has been repainted black.
-The Fender logo is missing and there is no serial number on the neck or in the neck pocket, but it does seem to have been re-finished more than once so that might be why.
-The bridge is slightly different. Instead of having individual saddles it seems to have some kind of roller bridge without intonation adjustment. Basically a round bar with string slots. Plus the trem arm attaches further forward than the pic.

I've compared it to pics of the original and re-issue and it isn't exactly the same as either. It seems to have had a tough life with several re-finishes, so perhaps the hardware has been changed along the way?

Do you guys think it's the real deal or is it a knock-off?

Hard to say. I'd expect to find a serial number somewhere if it where the real deal. It's possible that it's just had a hard life with people doing their own thing as regards the finish and replacing bits of the hardware.

People do wierd things to guitars sometimes. Recently I have seen a really nice hollow-body Gibson (an ES125 I think) that somebody took a paint brush to and changed some bits on. And a really lovely sunburst Les Paul that has a homemade fingerboard on it - looks like somebody tried to make their own (or savaged the original) in order to get different fret markers on it. And it's a really bad job with filler and gaps all over the place - so there's nothing for it but to get a new fingerboard.

In a way this kind of gives you more license to respray and replace, and if it is the real deal then there will be some residual value.

AlanRatcliffe

People do wierd things to guitars sometimes.

Remind me to tell you about the old D-28 I once got to fix (maybe not if horror stories aren't your bag).

FatBoy

Please do tell Alan!!

Sean

I agree with Fritz, we want the horror story ?

AlanRatcliffe

A guy I knew found a 60's Martin D-28 being used by the guitarist in an African band who had bought it cheaply from someone - a "no questions asked" kind of thing. The thing was that the guitarist in question was actually looking for an electric guitar. So, necessity being the mother of invention, he found some humongous old Framus pickups and wiring from somewhere and proceeded to "mod" his Martin D-28 with them.

* His tool of choice seemed to have been a chisel
* He hacked away part of the fingerboard to mount the neck pickup
* He put the bridge pickup right in front of the bridge, cutting a 10cm X 5cm hole in the top to fit it
* Two volume controls, two tone controls, three way selector were all fitted directly to the top - more or less where they would be if the guitar had been a Les Paul
* The output jack was also on the top and had punched through the top ...so he put two large metal washers on either side of the jack and put it back - these had also punched through
* Where struts and braces got in the way he cut through them or removed them completely
* The nut had broken, so he put matches in front of it on the fingerboard (I've seen that particular one dozens of times)

All told the top had lost all will to live, was pulling away from the sides and so badly warped that the neck was pulling up and the bridge was leaning forwards at an angle so bad that the strings were not touching the saddle.

Explorerlover

HOW?????.....did you manage do fix it...if at all?

Sean

...good grief... ☹

Mr-M

The horror! The pure, undiluted horror!!!! >☹ ☹ ? ???

BTW, the neck plate is indeed missing. Also ,on closer inspection, the pickguard hasn't been painted - it is actually black with white sides - the colour is too uniform to have been painted IMO. The bridge is also a lot more different in design to the real thing than I thought. I'm defintely leaning towards it being a copy now.

Going to have to try taking pics in daylight (phone camera not too great) so might only get a chance later in the week.

AlanRatcliffe

Explorerlover wrote HOW?????.....did you manage do fix it...if at all?

Wasn't worth it for my friend - It wasn't his guitar (he was thinking he could swop it for a cheap electric and have it fixed). The whole top would need to be replaced as would the fingerboard and then the guitar completely rebuilt from scratch. Basically any vintage mojo (and collectability) would be gone and it would have cost as much to fix as a new D-28. Anyway, not a job I would want to tackle - I've done some real jigsaw puzzle repairs (including a Larivee "braai guitar" that was nearly as bad), but that one was painful to look at, let alone work on.

Mr M wrote The bridge is also a lot more different in design to the real thing than I thought. I'm defintely leaning towards it being a copy now.

The bridge was mostly what made me suspicious it's a copy - they didn't vary the design AFAIK.

Anyway, when you get the pics posted, PM Gareth (Vintage Vibe) - he knows his Mustangs very well. He still has one which was his original electric guitar.

Explorerlover

What a waste of a gem of a guitar