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65 Mustang back to life....(more pics!)

Around 1967, a couple of little details changed on the Mustang.
First the "OFFSET Contour Body" decal on the headstock dissapears (this reappears somewhere down the road).
Second, the "Dynamic Fender Vibrato" which used to say "PAT PEND" acquires a patent number.
Third, the headstock patent numbers change again.

 
I wonder what year they offered brushed on house paint as a custom color?  :laughing7:
 
yea, I shook my head when I first saw this guitar back in the '80's.
A brutal rape of the finish, indeed. Why someone would do that, I haven't a clue.
I wish Joe was around to fill in the details - but it could have been that way when he got it too...
 
from your link:

The 22-1/2" scale Mustangs were apparently phased out during the Competition era.
I have yet to see a shortscale Mustang with a non-matching headstock, so I would guess that the shortscale Mustangs were phased out before or during '71.

hmmmmm............... the mystery deepens.

 
Well brother Vic, we got frets and tools in-bound.  We have methylene chloride in house.  And we have some pinky pink pink lacquer arriving any day.

I gotta get an order for Brownells going.  What I wanna do is inventory the parts I'll need for the "spare" 1911 lower, and get the AccraGlass Gel at the same time.  
 
=CB= said:
If anyone can make out that neck stamp... dont be shy in sharing what it says.
Click to expand...

NOV 70? For November, 1970? Does that make sense? Tough to tell.
 
This is awesome! I love mustangs. I hope I can get one someday. Im debating whether I want to wait and find a sweet old one on the 'bay or if I want to build one from W.
 
rapfohl09 said:
This is awesome! I love mustangs. I hope I can get one someday. Im debating whether I want to wait and find a sweet old one on the 'bay or if I want to build one from W.
Click to expand...

They're weird to play. I had a chance to buy a '68 Mustang for next to nothing many, many moons ago but it was just too tiny. Kinda like trying to fit in the seats you sat in for 2nd grade or something. Fond memories, but just not practical. Maybe if you were a 90 pound chick with tiny hands or something, they'd be ok, but otherwise? I don't know. It was a student guitar, not anything special, so they didn't play or sound well, nor did they have any esoteric features or premium components. It's only value today is as a collector's item.
 
Sorry, not my intent at all. But, I'm a practical sort of guy. If someone is building a collection, that would be a necessary instrument to have. There really aren't many decent OEM instruments out there, nor ones with such short scales, so it's a good example of that. But, I'm not sure what attraction they'd have for a someone looking for a guitar to actually play.
 
Cagey said:
They're weird to play. I had a chance to buy a '68 Mustang for next to nothing many, many moons ago but it was just too tiny. Kinda like trying to fit in the seats you sat in for 2nd grade or something. Fond memories, but just not practical. Maybe if you were a 90 pound chick with tiny hands or something, they'd be ok, but otherwise? I don't know. It was a student guitar, not anything special, so they didn't play or sound well, nor did they have any esoteric features or premium components. It's only value today is as a collector's item.
Click to expand...

YMMV - there are lots of folks out there with shorter, slimmer fingers that prefer to play shorter scale instruments. Kurt Cobain famously played (mostly) shorter scale instruments with giant (.56 low E, IIRC) strings - presumably, that would keep the tension close to the "normal" gauge strings on the average 25.5 instrument.  Don't forget that lots of what's popular in guitar building is such because there's so much follow the leader.  It's not unreasonable to think there would be a lot more 24" scale players if they had the option of trying out a well put together instrument that scale; most of the short scale (anything less than 24.75) guitars I've seen were cheap toys.

But enough of my yakkin:

CB, Bring on the refinish pics!
 
Wella... right now I'm in the middle of a bronchitis thing, kicking my butt... so I'm gonna do the neck first, then strip the body down and re-re-re finsih it.  Gimme a week or so to begin the paint strip.
 
Dang! Hope you feel better soon =CB=

The great thing about a 'tang is it sounds completely different than the run-of-the-mill strat or tele.
Sure it's small, but even with my big hands, I can play it.

Also, I get great joy in seeing someone's old "throw-away" student guitar being brought back to life.
It's not just for "me", it's an instrument that could bring alot of happiness to folks 50 years from now.
 
I got Vic's Mustang some .080" wide by .050" tall fretwire.  I think I'd have preferred something a little less tall, but those all had very long tangs.... about .065 to .072 (or so they claim).  The .080x.050 wire has a .048 tang.  What I don't want to do is saw through the thin veneer rosewood.  The long tangs would have made that not only a possibility, but a necessity.

The crown height... .050 is taller than either the "vintage" crown (about .040) or the more modern crowns which are about .046ish.  Can I tell the difference of just .004 inches?  Yah, and so can you.  So these puppies are gonna feel a bit tall.  On the other hand, they can be leveled down a little as needed.  So we'll see how they do, how they feel.  I like the idea of using a more narrow fret on a short scale guitar.  Gives you a bit more room - just a little, but its all in the "feel" right?

The plan is to sand the fretboard to remove minor wear and chips, then set the saw to about .050 and deepen the slots (saving the sawdust!).  Do the repairs to the fretboard using the sawdust and some superglue, then re-saw those spots as needed.  Then I can start the frets in with a mallet, and superglue them just before "pressing" them in place using a caul cut from the fret board leveler.   

As Tonar says.... this is gonna be fun!
 
ihavenothingprofoundtosay said:
Cagey said:
They're weird to play. I had a chance to buy a '68 Mustang for next to nothing many, many moons ago but it was just too tiny. Kinda like trying to fit in the seats you sat in for 2nd grade or something. Fond memories, but just not practical. Maybe if you were a 90 pound chick with tiny hands or something, they'd be ok, but otherwise? I don't know. It was a student guitar, not anything special, so they didn't play or sound well, nor did they have any esoteric features or premium components. It's only value today is as a collector's item.
Click to expand...

YMMV - there are lots of folks out there with shorter, slimmer fingers that prefer to play shorter scale instruments. Kurt Cobain famously played (mostly) shorter scale instruments with giant (.56 low E, IIRC) strings - presumably, that would keep the tension close to the "normal" gauge strings on the average 25.5 instrument.  Don't forget that lots of what's popular in guitar building is such because there's so much follow the leader.  It's not unreasonable to think there would be a lot more 24" scale players if they had the option of trying out a well put together instrument that scale; most of the short scale (anything less than 24.75) guitars I've seen were cheap toys.

But enough of my yakkin:

CB, Bring on the refinish pics!
Click to expand...

I still have 'issues' with Mustangs being favoured by the likes of the Bay City Rollers and similar bubblegum pop acts in the 70s...... :laughing7: Til I get around that, I'll forever be asking myself whether it should be something I own, when I contemplate them as a project or purchase!
 
=CB= said:
Wella... right now I'm in the middle of a bronchitis thing, kicking my butt... so I'm gonna do the neck first, then strip the body down and re-re-re finsih it.  Gimme a week or so to begin the paint strip.
Click to expand...

Get well soon =CB=, I too get bronchitis on rare occassions , it can knock you for a six! (australian colloqualism = to kick your butt)
 
Hey... I played a Mustang in High School (it was the school's, they had about a dozen for guitar class).  As I recall, the tone was very typical Fender, chimey but with a certain depth to the low end.  We never quibbled 'bout the 24 inch scale, never even noticed.  At the time my own guitar was a Telecaster ('72).
 
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