Bionic_Dude wrote:
Hi All
Does anyone here own or play a fender/Squire mustang, I have never seen any in the music stores nor anyone is selling them on local websites. There a reason why they don't sell in SA?
I bought the 1969 Competition Mustang that The Gear Junkie had, and now that it's set up it's a beaut. I bought it because I previously had an early 70s Mustang as my main guitar which went walkabout after 20 years use (it never arrived at the other end of an intercontinental house move...). And I've played loads of other Mustangs over the last 30-odd years.
I like Fender Mustangs, as you might guess! I like the 1969-on models, as they have the contoured bodies (early ones may have pre-CBS kudos, but the slab bodies aren't so nice to play). They make great rhythm guitars, as the poplar bodies and short scale combine with fairly low-output pickups to deliver a very
defined sound. They're light and that makes them great stage guitars—you can leap about the pace without the sense that you're about to dislocate a shoulder. (Some 70s Mustangs have ash bodies that are slightly heavier but don't alter the tone too much).
However, they can be perfectly respectable lead instruments too (although you may want a boost somewhere in the signal chain—I use a modified Rangemaster circuit). The short scale isn't a problem (it's essentially the same as a Strat or a Tele with a capo on the first fret), the intonation is good and the build quality as good as any other Fender from the period.
Like the Strat, the volume knob is well positioned for violining and similar effects. The Floating Tremolo works pretty well and, while some dislike the bridge (it can be replaced with the Mastery bridge), it's a helluva lot better than the Jazzmaster bridge. It's at its worst when the guitar is poorly set up with the bridge too high (see below), which gives it too much space to rock—a design feature of the tremolo—and that can affect intonation if you use the goodie bar too vigorously.
They
can be tricky to set up—they're designed with a shim in the neck pocket to give the neck more angle for more string-break over the Floating Tremolo bridge. However, if you remove the shim you enhance the body/neck tone. But... this reduces the push-down on the bridge, arguably taking away tone at the same time—all resolved, in my view, by using quite heavy strings, .011s as minimum (the tension of .011s is equivalent to .010s on a full-scale Fender neck) and .012s as my first choice.
The pickup switching is idiosyncratic, but you get used to it. I modded my old Mustang (long before it had become "vintage") with a three-way toggle, but I'm not doing that with the '69!.
However, I don't rate the reissues I've played that highly—unlike the reissue Teles and Strats, which can be wonderful. Something's not quite
right about them, to my ears (and hands). But, then, I'm comparing them with the originals—if I was going in with fresh ears and hands I might feel very differently!
Also, Mustangs have a definite
image, which may or may not suit you—by playing a "student" guitar rather than a "professional" guitar such as a Tele (even if that Tele may be a ludicrously cheap Squier) you are communicating a certain attitude. For example, it's probably not an optimal guitar for most Death Metal bands...
