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Fender Mustang Club
- Thread starter FlyingPigSound
- Start date
I've used light tuners in conjunction with installing a strap button at the neck plate as I described above. With extra light bodies (on my DIYs) I may also move the lower strap button a few inches up toward the lower bass bout. I've found that all those methods help depending on the bass in question.
I’ll keep that neck plate trick in mind when I get around to attacking the neck dive in my MIJ. It’s not too bad, but it’s there.
First up is my much more heinously neck diving SG bass though
I have ordered a Vintera Mustang to complement my American Performer and am looking forward to playing it through my GK rig. I guess it will have a different sound to the American Performer I would like to have tried one but there are no shops where I live that stock them.
I had a '78 Mustang and sold it because I found it too heavy and didn't sound any different to my CIJ one. I have an AP and really like the weight and the sound.
And youmma got one! @Iofflight you are #86, and welcome to the corral!
I didn't because from what I've read, you'd have to do more than just replace the tuners--you'd likely have to also add weights to the body, or drill a new hole and move the strap button, which then also involves filling the original hole and painting over it. It's a bit more involved than I'd want to get just to get a bass to not neck-dive, and I also worry about the resale value once I've done the modification. So instead I looked for another short scale bass to replace the Mustang.
But it turned out even the Ibanez Mikro has neck-dive (which now I alleviated with the string tied to the headstock). If I had known all this earlier, I would have just kept the Mustang. But the Mikro is nice and a lot lighter, and shorter, and sounds good, so I'm not too bummed out over the Mustang. I do prefer the tone and look of the Mustang more though.
Looks like a great fit, I have yet to be lucky enough to own a Mustang but I do have two Musicmasters. In light of recent spine sugery I'm interested in dropping the weight on my gear everywhere possible. The hard cases I have are very old, work well, but have some lbs behind them.
My Vintera arrived!
I didn't realise how 'vintage' they were going with these basses! Small frets, lollipop tuners, heel trussrod adjustment, the works. All that is missing is a tug bar!
I like this bass. It has less output than my PJ Mustang, but a broader tone with a bit more rumble to it. The body is thicker and feels a bit more substantial. The real treat is the neck, which is like a mini P Bass neck, and much less toy-like in the hands than the PJ.
I didn't realise how 'vintage' they were going with these basses! Small frets, lollipop tuners, heel trussrod adjustment, the works. All that is missing is a tug bar!
I like this bass. It has less output than my PJ Mustang, but a broader tone with a bit more rumble to it. The body is thicker and feels a bit more substantial. The real treat is the neck, which is like a mini P Bass neck, and much less toy-like in the hands than the PJ.
Beautiful bass! Mini P-neck is how a Mustang bass should be. Shrunken in every dimension.
The PJ feels a bit like a Jazz bass nut width, whereas the Vintera is definitely wider and a bit thicker.
The guitarist in my old band had a Fender Musicmaster, which was basically a Mustang with a neck pickup only. The Vintera reminds me of that guitar, in a good way. I wish the fretboard was a wee bit darker, but there are ways to make that happen!
My Squier feels like it has a mini-P. It has a 1.5 nut, but that's commensurate with other dimensional shrinkage. It's got some heft front-to-back and doesn't taper back to a narrower nut like a J. I was never tempted by the P-J because I didn't like the neck as much, but the Vinteras look so classy and old-school.
If you are referring to the Vintera Mustang, then no. The SD Custom Shop pickup on the JMJ is unique to that model. It was specifically voiced to replicate the sound of Justin's '66 Mustang, and is not available on any other Fender or Squier model. I believe it is also different from the Mustang pickup that has been available for years directly from Seymour Duncan.
If you look carefully at the size of the pickup on the JMJ you will see that it is physically larger than the pickups on vintage Mustangs, the Vintera, the American Performer, any of the MIJ/CIJ Mustangs, or any other "stock" Fender or Squier Mustang I've seen.
This is a composite photo I made to show the size and location of the American Performer's bridge and J pickup compared to the JMJ, but check out the overlay view of the pickups. The JMJ pickup is longer by about 1/8".
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The Duncan-Design pickup in my Squier is also larger than the Vintera/vintage pickups. It seems larger than the JMJ as well, but it might be the same size. Don't some of the MIJ/CIJ Mustangs also have the larger pickups?
The criticism I read about Mustangs and short scale basses in general is the lack of clarity and depth of the E string if not using a pick? Anybody find this themselves compared to a 34" bass? I find being a fingerstyle player a difference myself but they compensate in other ways.
I think you can get past this issue with the right strings. I'm sure Mustang owners used to simply chop down a 34'' set and call it a day. If you listen to old Status Quo recordings with Alan Lancaster on bass then you can hear how uneven his tone was across the strings (his bass lines have lots of hotspots and notspots due to this).
Labella Mustang Flats, for example, seem to be very evenly voiced. Conversely the stock roundwounds on my Vintera are pretty uneven, and the E does suffer the most.
I use the La Bella mustang flats and haven’t experienced any issues with the E string. In fact, if it weren’t for perception bias, I think I’d play the mustang a lot more as it sounds amazing. Some people just want to see you holding a full size bass and they sound good too.
