more mustang options!

[samuelgin]

I would love to get a mustang for my next warmoth project, but with the very limited options available it makes it a very unlikely option for me.

I love the shape of the mustang, but I don't like tremolos or small necks. my ideal guitar is a mustang with a flat mount bridge and a 25-1/2" scale SRV neck with a hot tele like single coil in the bridge and a 59 humbucker in the neck(trans blue with tortoise pickguard rosewood neck w/abalone and gold hardware), but unfortunately the hardtail bridge option is unavailable and while there are alternative neck lengths for most of the other necks (like short scale or baritone options) there isn't one to make it full length.

i like the mustang option because to me it is like a combination of all the other fender models: it has the double cut/contours of a strat, having different pickup types in it doesnt make it seem odd like on teles, and it has the controls of jaguars. i dont want to get a tele because of all the comfort contours i want on it and am used to (i play a jazzmaster now) not to mention in the music scene i'm involved in everyone has a tele and i don't want to get a strat because i feel it would look too strange for the pickup options i want and the hardtail bridge, and i want to replace my jazzmaster because of the tuning with the bridge and also my changed taste in its cosmetics, not to mention i can't find a case that will accept both the body shape and the angled headstock.

this is an amazing company and i'm not going to get a guitar made by another company, but i don't think i'm going to build another one until i can at least get the same neck as i got on my jazzmaster (25-1/2 scale, 1-5/8" nut, and SRV contour). i think i should be able to handle the hardtail bridge rout, but i need my neck

 

[OzziePete]

I love the shape of the mustang, but I don't like tremolos or small necks. my ideal guitar is a mustang with a flat mount bridge and a 25-1/2" scale SRV neck with a hot tele like single coil in the bridge and a 59 humbucker in the neck(trans blue with tortoise pickguard rosewood neck w/abalone and gold hardware), but unfortunately the hardtail bridge option is unavailable and while there are alternative neck lengths for most of the other necks (like short scale or baritone options) there isn't one to make it full length.

* A lot of folks dislike the Mustang trem ,so you are among a number of people there. It can be locked down to become a hardtail, a simple mod underneath the trem I believe.
* A Mustang body with a full sized neck might look out of proportion and maybe the balance will be off?
* Balancing the tone between the single coil in the bridge and the humbucker in the neck will be tricky and I would suggest a low powered PAF sounding humbucker to make that balance more achievable. BTW, are you considering the Tele bridge pickup with the 3 screws? The baseplate of those Tele bridge pickups is quite larger than the pickup that is seen from the front.The routing footprint is an issue on non Tele bodies.
* Correct that the hardtail option not available. What sort of hardtail are you thinking of? (BTW, a Mustang body is a little thinner than the Strat and Tele so that may become an issue mixing and matching other body style's bridges onto a thinner Mustang.....)

i like the mustang option because to me it is like a combination of all the other fender models: it has the double cut/contours of a strat, having different pickup types in it doesnt make it seem odd like on teles, and it has the controls of jaguars. i dont want to get a tele because of all the comfort contours i want on it and am used to (i play a jazzmaster now) not to mention in the music scene i'm involved in everyone has a tele and i don't want to get a strat because i feel it would look too strange for the pickup options i want and the hardtail bridge, and i want to replace my jazzmaster because of the tuning with the bridge and also my changed taste in its cosmetics, not to mention i can't find a case that will accept both the body shape and the angled headstock.

*Mustang has the looks of the Jaguar volume and tone controls but underneath the hood they are quite different from each other.
* Strats came out with hardtail bridges as far back as the 1950s......nothing unusual there.
* Warmoth will do body contours on Teles, it's an option on many of them.
* Tuning issues with the Jazzmaster, might be best to take it to a good repairer and see what can be done. You can improve the stability of that Jazzmaster trem by adding a device that increases the break angle over the bridge, it's non invasive just bolts onto the end screw that holds the trem plate in.http://www.northcoastmusic.com/buzzstop/
* A full length Mustang guitar might be just as hard to find a suitable case as the Jazzmaster with the angled head. Thought of getting a Jazz Bass case for the Jazzmaster btw?

 

[Cagey]

This is what, the 907th thread on how Warmoth should make a Mercedes or Rolls-Royce Mustang? Doesn't anybody realize that Mustangs were inexpensive student guitars that weren't designed for high-end options or features? It's like "I'd love to buy a Ford Pinto, but I want a turbocharged 429 under the hood, a tuck/rolled corinthian leather interior with buffed walnut appointments engraved by Faberge, a Bose sound system, Reccaro bucket seats, MacPherson strut suspension, Z-rated tires on magnesium wheels, disc brakes all around, and it should run on hydrogen rather than gas. I mean, think of the children!" Of course, the salesman is splitting a gut laughing...

I don't think it's gonna happen. At least, not from Warmoth. I don't speak for them, but even on a scotch whiskey bender I can't imagine they'd ever entertain the idea.

Doesn't mean it can't happen, though. I think CB did a restoration a year or so ago where he went above and beyond the call of duty on a Mustang's behalf. Look it up. Seems to me it was a pretty wicked guitar when it got done.

 

[Jeremiah]

Just because that's what it was originally doesn't mean there is now a law that this particular body shape can never be anything else; the Broad/Telecaster was originally designed to be a simple guitar, cheap to mass produce with a basic slab body, but that doesn't stop a lot of people buying carved-top figured exotic wood Teles with Floyds and all kinds of complex electronics.

And if this really is the 907th thread asking about it, that indicates that at least 907 people are interested in more options, and that there is at least a potential market that Warmoth could  make money from.

And even if for some reason the Mustang body shape is only suitable for students, surely it would make sense to give them some kind of sensible bridge that they could learn on, like a Strat hardtail, so they don't have to cope with the Mustang tremolo as their only bridge option.

 

[tfarny]

I'm with Cagey - we should stop wanting better versions of guitars. Things were better in the old days when there were few choices, and those times cannot be improved upon!

OP: I played a G&L Sc-2 hardtail the other day, I'm pretty sure that's the exact guitar you want. It was very very wicked but the neck was too small for me and I'm not really in the market. It was wicked though.

 

[tfarny]

The one in the middle is exactly the type I played. 25.5 scale.

 

[OzziePete]

I'm with Cagey - we should stop wanting better versions of guitars. Things were better in the old days when there were few choices, and those times cannot be improved upon!

OP: I played a G&L Sc-2 hardtail the other day, I'm pretty sure that's the exact guitar you want. It was very very wicked but the neck was too small for me and I'm not really in the market. It was wicked though.

THAT ^^^^^ would be a lot easier to buy off the shelf than frickin around with compatibility issues and minor engineering matters to mix and match a fullscale neck onto a small scale body and orphan electronics!  :icon_thumright: