a few questions about my mustang

[Caller]

Hi everyone, I'm new here, but I had a few questions regarding this old beat-up looking mustang I picked up last week. I was actually going to go buy an upgrade from a certain questionable quality student guitar, and I was intending to get a MIM stratocaster of some kind, but I like this one for some reason and decided to go the extra hurdle for it. It was unfortunately refinished (although the color/quality isn't an issue), which made me kind of sad, but the neck looks original finish, and feels like butter.

Anyways, I had a few questions about it, because I'm pretty unknowledgable about Mustangs. I just liked the sound of them when I played it at the shop.

a) The neck was unrefinished and as far as I can tell has the original frets. But one of the frets is buzzing a bit (#2) and I think that particular one needs to be refret. I also know however that refrets, especially here in Chicago, are expensive, and also require long rides on public transportation. Is it worth it?

b) I was told that the guitar is all original (aside from the refinish and missing tremolo bar) but I just wanted to know if your pickups looked like this. I'm not too familiar with old pickups as this is the first guitar that I've purchased that's this old.

c) I'm not sure if these are the original tuners or not. Do these look like the original ones? The pictures I've tried to see are too tiny for me to make out anything.

d) My neckplate is next to illegible, and doesn't seem to have any distinguishing features on it. Can anyone help me figure out what the hell it's saying?

e) Yes I know I need to replace the strings, I haven't had time to get it down yet -_-

Pics for Questions:

Pickups?


Questionable Picture of Tuners/Headstock


The unreadable neckplate. I have no idea what this says at all.

[DanHeron]

Welcome to the forum.. nice guitar!!

Here's some thoughts i have:
-Try changing the strings first and see how the buzz is. If its only at one fret you could try shaving that fret down maybe?

-Pickups are likely to be original, they're just missing the covers which mustangs usually have.

-Tuners, not sure. Need a photo of the back of the headstock to see what they look like. From the front they look original though.

[stewart]

it all looks as it should be at a glance, but hard to tell from low resolution pictures. does the neck plate look like it has/had numbers stamped on it?

also, if you whip the neck off, there'll be a date stamp on the heel.

[Caller]

Thanks for the replies-

I don't have an actual camera so it's going to be hard to see everything, but I just noticed that the back of the tuners say "Kluson Deluxe," if that helps anyone.

As for the neckplate, I can make out a ?13???. The last few things are too faint to be seen, and the first one is covered almost entirely in some mess that makes it illegible.

[hotrodperlmutter]

that neck looks frickin' gorgeous.

[DGNR8]

Say hello to Rodvonbon, the leading world expert on Mustangs and also a resident of Chicago. He may be able to help you sort it out. It's a beauty, buzz or no. I don't really mind a buzz on some guitars. Hold off on the refret until you make sure you have a good setup.

[Pacafeliz]

looks all a-ok to me. stripped and missing the pickup covers. nothing more.
i'd say mid 60s.
kluson deluxe tuners are original. i believe the reversed F on the backplate came out in '65, and i THINK i can see the first letter on the serial plate is an L? maybe an early '64, then?
does the vibrato unit have a PAT.PEND. or patent number stamped into it under the fender logo?

nice! and welcome aboard!

Pat.

[robroe]

oval whitehead klusons date to early 1965 mustangs and earlier duosonics and musicmasters. the mustang came out in mid / late 64 so there is about a 8 month window when mustangs came with the tuners that you have on that guitar.






mid 65' and after that they had fender stamped F tuners with trap whiteheads

[robroe]

here's what i think


90% you have a parts stang

10% you have a 1964 one of the first mustangs ever made

[serfx]

looks almost exactly like the `65 that i used to own and was stripped
those are `65 tuners
if plate has no F and an L it is either a 64 or 65
body appears to be slab

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[Caller]

Well, I think I can rule out the 1964. I took a look at the neck and it said "26 AUG 65 B" (or maybe APR 65) which i'm guessing means August 1965 was the time the neck was made. But the tuners don't have the "F" thing that was the mid-late 1965 period in those pictures. So I guess this means it's a partstang?

And yeah, it does have the "Pat Pending" on the bridge.

[Pacafeliz]

i'd say it's an all-stock (minus the obvious) original 1965, then!
congrats!

Pat.

[Caller]

okay, that's great, no need to panic about getting conned.

I got it for the same price as the used 65 reissue they were selling (sorry guys but urethane neck = icky), so I was a bit concerned that something was up. You don't usually see... 45 year old guitars in that budget range, and I tend to be a cautious guy when it comes to GAS.

[serfx]

the reason for the deal is the stripped paint and the missing pup covers
chances are you'll have a bit of orig colour in the neck pocket or under the pick guard

[Phil O'Keefe]

Yeah, it looks like a refinished late 64 to mid 65 Mustang that is missing the pickup covers to me. However, I wouldn't feel comfortable with saying that with any certainty without seeing better resolution / larger / more pictures. The tuners sound like original Klusons from the description and what little I can see, the decal looks correct (can you read any patent numbers on it under the Fender logo? If so, if you can post those, it will help authenticate it - ditto that for any numbers stamped into the control pots and on the neck heel, and any engraving on the metal vibrato plate, and, if possible, close up pictures of the inside of the control plate / pots to check the solder joints), the body looks to be non-contoured / slab, and the pickguard looks pretty aged / old - all of which is as it should be.

My main concern is the neck plate - the numbers usually don't fade or "disappear" over time, and unless the plating has worn off or there is gunk covering it, you should be able to read what it says. If it is indeed a late '64 to late '65, the serial number should either be LXXXXX or 1XXXXX, but if it was a six digit serial number that started with a "1" and not an "L", there should be a large "F" in the middle of that plate, which it definitely doesn't have... so if it's the original plate, it's almost got to have an "L" as the first digit. If it's anything else other than an L on that plate first, then the plate is not original. If it IS an L series serial number, then it corresponds with that time period.

If the neck date stamp and the potentiometer codes also correspond with that period of time, and the patent numbers on the headstock are correct and the engraving / stamped words on the vibrato plate are also correct, you probably have an all original (except finish / vibrato bar and pickup covers) 64-65 Mustang. If you want to pay silly money for them and you're patient, you can probably find some original mid 60s pickup covers and vibrato bar on Ebay to "complete" the guitar - it will still be a refinish though, which will always make it worth less than a true "all original" 64 / 65.

Oh, one more thing to check - the bottom of the pickups should be gray, not black. They most likely will have a penciled date written on them too.

http://fendermustangstory.com/gphotos/mustpu.htm

If you got that for about the same price as a used 65 reissue, in my opinion, even with the refinish, you got a very good deal indeed.