I'm rebuilding a friend's Mustang.

Painting? Routing? Set-up tips? Or just straight-up making a guitar from scratch? Post here, and post pics!

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Larry Mal
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I'm rebuilding a friend's Mustang.

Post by Larry Mal »

A 1993 Made in Japan Mustang, to be precise. I'm not super knowledgeable about these guitars, but I know Jazzmasters and Teles and all that.

Right now I've got the bridge off, and I'm cleaning it. I notice that there is play when the strings aren't holding it down, which was the case with my Jazzmaster. I was able go get thimbles that would eliminate that play, so that the bridge didn't have any chance of moving when the tremolo is used. It made it a lot easier to keep in tune when using the tremolo. But that was with a Mastery bridge, and I don't know if I can just get the thimbles.

What do all of you use? I'm cleaning off a bunch of sticky crap from the posts of the bridge now, it looks like someone at some point used tape, but it isn't there now, just the sticky residue. I'd rather not use that. Does anyone know where I can get thimbles for this?

Thanks! I'm sure to have more questions, as I'm just not that familiar with the model. Nice guitar, though.
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serfx
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Post by serfx »

the bridge is designed to rock back and forth when the tremolo is in use to increase tuning stability.

to clean i generally just use a bit of goo gone and then some windex.. but i'm sure that others here will have better ideas (i just always have those two things kicking around)
Larry Mal
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Post by Larry Mal »

Hey, thanks for the response! Yeah, I know how they were designed, but I thought that had been pretty much debunked these days. Either way, my Jazzmaster was supposed to do the same thing, but I've got it completely fixed in there (and with locking tuners to boot) so it's much more tuning stable than it had been. I was hoping there was something similar that folks used for the Mustang.
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serfx
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Post by serfx »

i use thicker gauge strings, that seams to work quite well
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Joey
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Post by Joey »

I love cleaning with lighter fluid (naphtha)... I'm sure it's in the "goo gone" mixture also.

I'm sure someone can toss up a link with Robert talking about setting up the tremolo... basically moving the springs underneath the tremolo plate.
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serfx
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Post by serfx »

didn't that end up in the wiki?
maybe not.. where is hotrod he's good with the search function
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Joey
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Post by Joey »

thought it ended up on youtube also
Larry Mal
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Post by Larry Mal »

I'd be happy to see it. I'm new here... don't know squat.
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serfx
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Post by serfx »

Joey wrote:thought it ended up on youtube also
it did!

i found it

[youtube][/youtube]