During COVID, I decided to work on another guitar. I found a pretty rough vintage Fender Mustang on Reverb and decided it would be a good project.
What I received was the original 1965 body, neck, and body cavity shielding. The body was originally blue but had been stripped and refinished with clear poly at some point. There was extensive buckle rash that needed to be addressed and the whole thing needed to be cleaned and correct parts needed to be sourced.
I was able to find a correct neck plate with an accurate serial number to the time, along with a good condition original mustang vibrato tailpiece and control plate. I already had a bridge and tuners from various experiments with my Jaguar over the years, so the only real remaining parts were the wiring.
I commissioned a set of custom wound pickups from EP Customs out of Santa Cruz. These are based on the original fender 1965 spec, with the bridge pickup wound slightly hotter to get a bit more power.
The wiring is mostly standard as you can see above, however the switches are wired slightly different from stock. The rear switch includes a capacitor which enables a “dark” mode which gets me a great grunge tone with the hotter bridge pickup engaged.
I opted for a pearled pickguard from WD Music and some switch spacers to ensure that the control switches on the upper bout of the guitar didn’t stick out of the face too much and interfere with playing. I finished it all off with a strap from Couch that is made with vintage Ford Mustang seat fabric.
What I ended up with is a fantastic guitar that has tons of mojo and ridiculous tone. It’s also a dream to play and might be the perfect living room guitar (it’s actually one of the custom models with the shorter 22.5″ scale). It’s super lightweight, perfectly balanced, and the neck is extremely fast. Being from late 1965 it is also from the transitional period just after Fender was purchased by CBS.