ShortScale.org

alright, I finally got my mustang setup properly and it plays great now. but man, finding info about setting it up is a task. there is very little info about it on the internet. there's no scans of the original manual anywhere (not even on the fender website). this forum is nearly the sole resource and even here there is no straight forward info on setting it up. I had to dig through several threads and piece together how to set it up. no wonder noobs fuck it up constantly. so on that note here is what I've gathered about how to set it up so far. feel free to comment on anything you feel should be added.

The Tremolo
The Mustang uses a unique tremolo known as the Fender Dynamic Vibrato. It is a very sensitive tremolo capable of bending the pitch many steps. However, if setup correctly it can be made to accommodate subtle playing styles. The tremolo should be adjusted so that the tremolo arm can sit comfortably in your hand while playing. For most people this means the arm will be parallel to the body of the guitar. To adjust the projection of the arm two things can be adjusted. The first being the height of the tailpiece. A 3/32" allen wrench fits into the two small holes on top the tailpiece to adjust it's height. The higher you set the tailpiece the farther towards the bridge it will lean. Adjust it lower and it will lean farther back. The second function for adjusting the tailpiece angle is by moving where the springs attach to the posts. Remove with tremolo plate from the guitar to access the springs. You will see there are two notches on the end of the tailpiece posts. The far notch will make the the tailpiece lean back, the higher notch will decrease the tension causing the tailpiece to lean farther forward. Adjusting both the tailpiece height and the spring notch to balance stably with whatever strings you choose will allow you to set the tremolo arm however you find most comfortable.

The Bridge
The Mustang uses Fender's floating bridge design. You may have noticed that the bridge shifts around as you use the tremolo. This is part of the design and enables smooth action of the tremolo. It is similar to the Jazzmaster/Jaguar bridge, the only difference being the saddles. The saddles are a fixed height matching the radius of the Mustang fretboard. The height of the bridge can be adjusted to set the action to your preference. A 0.05" allen wrench fits in the holes on the side of the bridge to raise or lower the bridge.

The Tremolo Arm
The tremolo arm is attached to the tailpiece of the tremolo and held in place with the grub screw on the end of the tailpiece.



how is that? please give coments and suggestions. maybe we can add a part about common mods like locking down the trem? also, there may be certain notable differences on the japanese mustang. like I think the trem arm is looser and falls out easier?

also, I signed up for the wiki but there's no way for regular peeps to add a new page?? I would add a shitload of useful info to the wiki if I had access.

also also, does anyone have a mustang manual? we should find one and scan it.

I find it amazing that there is no manual for this thing anywhere. the fender site has manuals for models as obscure as the bass VI and bronco but no mustang, which was one of the best selling fender guitars of the CBS era. I found this picture of a mustang manual on marcel roy's site, so we know it exists:


it has jaguars and jazzmasters all over the cover??

can anyone who's bought a new japanese mustang tell me if they got a manual with it? Or was it just something like this:



the fender japan site has a similar diagram in a pdf: http://www.fenderjapan.co.jp/mgcontrol.pdf

mage wrote:it has jaguars and jazzmasters all over the cover??

the duo-sonic and musicmaster manual has the same cover, i think it was just standard for the time. i doubt there'll be all that much info in the manual about setting the trem, they're generally pretty useless.

nah dude they tell you how to adjust everything.

http://www.fender.com/support/manuals/p ... r_1965.pdf

I think it would be interesting to look at for more than pure amusement's sake. in a way, everything we have pieced together on how to set up the guitar is pure conjecture. none of us have seen the actual guide that was written for the instrument. and plus, we're shortscale.org. if we're not going to find the manual who is?

i believe my mustang came with a booklet in japanese i think i still have it somewhere.

the thing is just for all common fender models no specific setup manual though. and a certificate. i took pics.




on the back of the booklet there's some shit about tuning and a bunch of phonenumbers.
certificate with just stamps/sticker, there is an autograph on the certificate for me MIA p bass and hand written dates.

kim wrote:the thing is just for all common fender models no specific setup manual though. and a certificate. i took pics.

awesome. thanks for the pics. this actually has info on a much wider variety of fender models than the current fender USA manual (which is just a general manual as well).

kim wrote:

on the top right of the left page that's a jaguar or mustang bridge yeah? and on the bottom of the right page that's a mustang tremolo yeah? so the accompanying text must say something about how to operate it. better than nothing. too bad I can't speak japanese.

the bottom image says (ダイナミツク　トレモロ　ムスタング）dainamitsuku toremoro (musutangu) but kanji are difficult for me still i'll ask my gf

lol well it seems like all it says is you can make the bridge rise by adjusting the posts, but when that is done you still need to put in the trembar, adjust the bar tilting it to the postion you want it to be in and with a wrench screw it tight. really ? haha

Best guide ever to setup Mustang bridge

http://www.jag-stang.com/forum/viewtopi ... mmy+set+up

excellent. thanks icey.

I added the page to the wiki under the tech section. as well as whole bunch of other stuff under the other guitars section and in random places all over. http://www.shortscale.org/wiki/index.ph ... l:Allpages

I'll try to put a link to mad mike setup in there too.

...

yeah yeah, I'll fuck around with it later. I've been working on stupid wiki stuff for the past 8 hours or something. I got other shit to do.

.....unless by "someone" you meant you. by all means have at it. =]

i don't mind doing it, but i probably won't get a chance until tomorrow, if it can wait til then.

mage wrote:excellent. thanks icey.

I added the page to the wiki under the tech section. as well as whole bunch of other stuff under the other guitars section and in random places all over. http://www.shortscale.org/wiki/index.ph ... l:Allpages

I'll try to put a link to mad mike setup in there too.

if someone had doubt

my mustang is proof mad mike guide is best guide ever.





flawless , in 3 years tryng make that sh!t in tune , blocking tryng setup.

that guide saved my ass. since them my jag-stang nevermore stayed out of tune. belive it´s stay more stang than even block Oo

Remove with tremolo plate from the guitar to access the springs. You will see there are two notches on the end of the tailpiece posts.

can someone tell me what are the posts?

good question, I was actually wondering if that was entirely clear when I wrote it. the tailpiece consists of a crossbar suspended by two posts. the posts are the part that physically pivot against the trem plate.

so the posts are those to big things that connect the springs to tremolo, right?

mage wrote: The Tremolo
The Mustang uses a unique tremolo known as the Fender Dynamic Vibrato. It is a very sensitive tremolo capable of bending the pitch many steps. However, if setup correctly it can be made to accommodate subtle playing styles. The tremolo should be adjusted so that the tremolo arm can sit comfortably in your hand while playing. For most people this means the arm will be parallel to the body of the guitar. To adjust the projection of the arm two things can be adjusted. The first being the height of the tailpiece. A 3/32" allen wrench fits into the two small holes on top the tailpiece to adjust it's height. The higher you set the tailpiece the farther towards the bridge it will lean. Adjust it lower and it will lean farther back. The second function for adjusting the tailpiece angle is by moving where the springs attach to the posts. Remove with tremolo plate from the guitar to access the springs. You will see there are two notches on the end of the tailpiece posts. The far notch will make the the tailpiece lean back, the higher notch will decrease the tension causing the tailpiece to lean farther forward. Adjusting both the tailpiece height and the spring notch to balance stably with whatever strings you choose will allow you to set the tremolo arm however you find most comfortable.

So your advice is actually to decrease spring tension and to lower the pressure onto the bridge, to get the trem arm angle right. Advised by this forum I did it the other way 'round and have an awkward angle. But I have tuning stability instead. So this part seems to be discussable.