ShortScale.org

Hello to all. I am not a new member here but I am now a new "poster". I frequently post at the offset forum and thegearpage so some of you might now me from those other sites.

I have been (for the past couple of years) a Jazzmaster player. While I still love the JM I wanted to get into something a bit more compact. I have been a tad leery of the shorter scale but the Mustang really hits a lot of what I would need and am going for. Great looks, the option to still do shoegazy and surf stuff all while being smaller than the JM.

I purchased a 65 RI Mustang months back but it had some issues so I returned it. I am now in the market again so I am thinking of heading to a Mustang again but am not sure which direction to go.

1. Should I try to hold off for a players grade vintage Mustang or are the reissues as good or better? I do like the fact that I could mod the newer one with less guilt as I would like to maybe try some different wiring schemes. (honeyiscool has a great one available) but if the vintage ones are really a ton better I would go that route.

2. In the spectrum of the reissues is there one better than another. I like the contours on the 69 for sure but I am not a fan of matching headstocks or comp stripes. Also it seems like the poplar on the 65 would be more vintage accurate and maybe a better body wood. I am not sure.

3. Keeping with number 2 is there a specific set of years in which the reissues are better?

I am also possibly thinking of looking at a Cyclone. I like that the scale is slightly larger and that it has a 3 way switch but would not want a humbucker so it would require a new set of pickups and a new pickguard. Not a huge deal but I have heard they are not as nice as the Mustangs quality wise. Thanks in advance for the help!

The Cyclone II is a very cool guitar and has three single-coils in the mustang-style angled fashion. The strat trem on the cyclone is not very shoegazy tho. I think you should just go out and fap some necks in your guitar store I think there is no better way to tell which suits you the most. I kinda tend to like the very late mustangs from like '77 but i will never be able to afford such a guitar.

I am pretty flexible as far as necks go. I tend to get along with both thick and thinner ones. I see some decent deals on late 70's ones but then have heard that the quality can be a bit iffy.

I found two very good deals on some vintage Mustangs so I went the vintage route.

If you go vintage (which you have...) remember all the Mustang wiring is on the scratch plate. You can very easily whip the vintage plate/pickups/switches out and fire in something funkier and keep the originals clean and unfucked with.

I actually found a killer deal on one that is largely original except for the pickguard and electronics so I am going to swap that stuff out with no worries at all.....then I found one for a sick deal that was all original even down to the owners manual and I couldn't pass that one up. So somehow my search ended up yielding 2 guitars instead of one. That one I will just keep stock I think. But it is good to know that I can easily change some stuff and keep all of the wiring original!

jagsonic wrote:

This

Ok, you have me intrigued. That's not the all-original one, obvsly from the rails pick-up, but are the neck and body the same date? If so, 70s from the F tuners? Original contour body - when was that?

Very nice Stang. Would put a tortoise pickguard on it.

NickS wrote:Ok, you have me intrigued. That's not the all-original one, obvsly from the rails pick-up, but are the neck and body the same date? If so, 70s from the F tuners? Original contour body - when was that?

The pickguard, pickups and tuners were replaced on this. The rest of it dates to 66.