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I know this is highly specific, but does anyone know about the trem routes in Mustangs? I noticed in the Jag-Stang I have two channels with the same depth all the way along, but in my '70s Mustang, it has slanted routes and a circle in the middle. What's the deal?

Slanted routes make sense

But circle in the middle? Pics please

The way the springs are angled it's only necessary to have the full depth at the back of the route nearest the butt of the guitar. I'm fairly sure the Mustang body I had had the route at a uniform depth, though.

James wrote:

The way the springs are angled it's only necessary to have the full depth at the back of the route nearest the butt of the guitar. I'm fairly sure the Mustang body I had had the route at a uniform depth, though.

Yep, the Mustang I have has them angled so the springs fit snugly inside them. I guess the pro is you get more body, but surely it's more difficult to cut them out like this? The circle in the middle is quite odd too. I wish I took photos of it when I had it open, but I'm not going to take the strings off again tonight to do that.

uniform on my '72. would have to check the '76 but i seem to remember it being the same.

stewart wrote:uniform on my '72. would have to check the '76 but i seem to remember it being the same.

Hmm, it might be just something they did on the '77+ ones then. Apparently in '77 they changed over to putting the serial on the headstock (which is what the Shadstang is) so it seems possible they could've changed other things, such as the route. I haven't seen any pictures of a similar trem route to the one I have, the circle in the middle is about the size of a 2p piece.

I wonder if it's like the wierd crop-circle looking route I have on my cyclone (near the toggle). No one seems to know why that's there, either.

MaMo wrote:I wonder if it's like the wierd crop-circle looking route I have on my cyclone (near the toggle). No one seems to know why that's there, either.

Possibly. I think it's actually a curved route too, it peaks in the centre (imagine a doughnut with a tiny hole stamped into the guitar). It might be something to do with the machine they used to cut out the slanted trem routes. I'll definitely take a picture tomorrow, I'm surprised that it doesn't exist on any other models.

MaMo wrote:I wonder if it's like the wierd crop-circle looking route I have on my cyclone (near the toggle). No one seems to know why that's there, either.

the crop-circles are a result of the CNC machine's work. im not sure exactly what purpose they serve, but they're definitely CNC left-overs

Maybe weight saving. I've heard of pauls with bits cut out under the maple top for weight

mcconnachiea wrote:Maybe weight saving. I've heard of pauls with bits cut out under the maple top for weight

a circle the size of a 2p isn't really saving much weight.

mcconnachiea wrote:Maybe weight saving. I've heard of pauls with bits cut out under the maple top for weight

It's not chambering.

Malik wrote:

stewart wrote:uniform on my '72. would have to check the '76 but i seem to remember it being the same.

Hmm, it might be just something they did on the '77+ ones then. Apparently in '77 they changed over to putting the serial on the headstock (which is what the Shadstang is) so it seems possible they could've changed other things, such as the route. I haven't seen any pictures of a similar trem route to the one I have, the circle in the middle is about the size of a 2p piece.

my '76 has the serial on the headstock.

Mo Rocca wrote:

MaMo wrote:I wonder if it's like the wierd crop-circle looking route I have on my cyclone (near the toggle). No one seems to know why that's there, either.

the crop-circles are a result of the CNC machine's work. im not sure exactly what purpose they serve, but they're definitely CNC left-overs

It is this, it's a tooling artifact.

Mike wrote:

Mo Rocca wrote:

MaMo wrote:I wonder if it's like the wierd crop-circle looking route I have on my cyclone (near the toggle). No one seems to know why that's there, either.

the crop-circles are a result of the CNC machine's work. im not sure exactly what purpose they serve, but they're definitely CNC left-overs

It is this, it's a tooling artifact.

Well, that solves a mystery that's always bugged me. Maybe this is what's going on with Malik's trem route?

It seems bizarre that they'd use a different CNC method to cut out the routes in just a few Mustangs that they hadn't used before and haven't used since. As I said, the routes are totally slanted, so it's definitely a more sophisticated cut than the standard. I'll take it apart a bit later and get some pictures for you all.

They are more sophisticated because it is a CNC machine. It is completely unsurprising to me that the few few CNC programs they used were primitive and left tooling artifacts.