If I can convince myself that I can 'do' shortscales again with my big gangly hands (plus some heavyass strings), I'm gonna look at picking up one of those Squiers, preferably used, and get it close to that.
Anyone have any direct experience with 'em? Fit and finish, stock pickups, tuners, vibrato usability?
I had one I got as part of a trade or something (mainly just to check it out). At first I was blown away by it buy that was just new gear blindness.
It was average. The neck was OK but not as nice as the other VM stuff I've played, the fretboard was dyed (probs to cover up cheap materials) fretwork was decent as with all the VM stuff tho needed a polish, pickups were already changed on it so I'm not sure about those, paint was really thick, all the parts from scratchplate to hardware from tuners to trem was cheap and flimsy like the super cheap stuff you can buy on Amazon, cheap wiring issues aaaaaaand when I took the neck off to give it a setup the neck pocket revealed really shitty quality wood that was very soft and the body join was awful.
Saying that they do pop up for sale super cheap and would make a good modding platform. I'd stay away from them at newish prices as with the cost of replacing the tuners and everything else you could get a decent Japanese one second hand.
I forgot to say it was actually put together well, neck aligned and everything screwed in where it was supposed to be. The neck had some mass to it so wasn't too skinny. I expect you'd be able to wrangle it without cramping up.
They have basswood bodies as far as I know, so yes basswood is a soft wood. I remember also somebody told here that unlike Fenders they have jumbo frets and that makes even less space between frets on a shortscale
0. The one you posted has the back contour and is not the droid you're looking for.
1. Nice finish, but not the standard for Mustangs. The red is a bit brighter, the blue a bit brighter, the white creamier. Weighs more than the usual Fenders, mine came in at 7 lbs. something, so not a heavy guitar but not super light.
2. Pickups are higher output than normal. Bridge gives nice distortion, neck pickup can give a good thick jazzy sound clean.
3. Tuners, never had any problems with them.
4. The reverb handle is bent and much nicer than the straight Japanese one (although they also made some curved ones and called them "vintage snob series" or something like that, according to online translation). Although it may depend on your reverb handling style which you prefer.
i have the VM Jag, so can't vouch for the mustang per se, but beyond the comedically bad bridge i haven't had any problems with the hardware or electrics. the nut feels like it's made from recycled egg cartons or something but i haven't bothered to change it yet.
one thing i'll say in defence of that bridge- if you want an ultra trashy, garbage sound (as i sometimes do) it does it really well. i think i've kept hold of one of those bridges for recording purposes, there's a setting on the little fender mustang amp that suits it perfectly.
Had to wrap the bridge posts, shim the neck, raise the bridge,and put 11's on it before the bridge became manageable and not a rattling mess. I really liked the neck on mine. No issues whatsoever with frets and the chunky neck was a welcome change of the same old generic cheap Fender feel. No complaints with the finish other than the blue was lighter than I would have liked. Bridge post hole was sloppily drilled on the bass side. Fun guitar for the money, great for tinkering, not so great it you want a new guitar to be set up and working well out of the box
Thanks for the deets, my dudes. Gonna swing by some shops over my 4-day weekend and see how it plays as a start with all that info in mind; I guess it's all by the by if I can't get on with the scale etc.
Don't really know why anybody would plonk down monies on the new generation of mustangs, the china Mexico Indonesia factories have the modern equipment and cnc machinery, but they are building to a price point, and they are building with cheaper woods.
There is 30 years of building mustangs from Japan, and they are still pretty cheap second hand. I recently picked up a US 1975 mustang pretty cheaply and was very surprised just how close it was to my 2012 mij mustang in build quality and neck feel.
Darth Stang wrote:Don't really know why anybody would plonk down monies on the new generation of mustangs, the china Mexico Indonesia factories have the modern equipment and cnc machinery, but they are building to a price point, and they are building with cheaper woods.
There is 30 years of building mustangs from Japan, and they are still pretty cheap second hand. I recently picked up a US 1975 mustang pretty cheaply and was very surprised just how close it was to my 2012 mij mustang in build quality and neck feel.
The Japanese also substituted basswood for poplar and ash at times.
