I played a Blue one at Best Buy and a red one at Guitar Center today. A few thoughts:
Construction: Solid and good quality like you would expect for a Japanese Fender guitar. I also played the Fender 72 in Surf green and it was also very well made.
Body: The overall guitar is very light weight and comfortable to hold in your lap. When you look at the body, it looks very small (like a miniature Jaguar), but it feels great while you play.I liked both LPB and the CAR, though I am a sucker for red guitars.
Neck: Perfect. Nice tint and gloss....similar to CV guitars but better. If you have played a Japanese neck you understand. Frets were well dressed and played heavenly. The profile felt like my AVRI Jaguar or the CIJ Jaguar HH, as opposed to a traditional Mustang neck. Tuners were good.
Pickups: Let me start by saying I don't like humbuckers. I had a PRS McCarty I sold and bought my AVRI Jaguar. I have also never been a fan of coil tapping or humbucker splitting because the single coil sound never sounds very good. I like how they did these Enforcer WRHBs. Using the Mustang switches, you can switch between humbucker or selecting either of the single coils from the humbucker. I played it thorough a Hot Rod Deville III and a Twin Reverb. The humbucker sounds similar to a WRHB but not as much presence. The coil split actually produced a nice single coil sound, especially on the bridge pickup. Great cleans and I liked the humbuckers as well.
Overall: I really liked the Mustang special, everything but the price. If I had to choose between a 65RI Mustang and the Mustang Special at that price, I would choose 65RI, but that doesn't take away I really loved Mustang special. I would not hesistate to pickup a used one down the road for a better price or to drop the pickguard/electronics into a normal Mustang style body for a more traditional feel. That sounds like a nice build idea for later
