Fender Mustang Club

[Doctor Morbius]

If it's worth keeping then it's worth spending an hour to address the issue and make it totally comfortable to play.
If you're not sure of your file skills any guitar repair or jeweler friend can make them smooth as silk for you.

I would be fine with doing that on a $250 bass, but on an $800 bass it shouldn't be a problem, IMO.

 

[felis]

All mustang basses, except the Player II are string through, including Squiers.

@felis My Mustangs with the through-body bridge take medium scale strings.

The player mustang in your picture is top loading.

Yes - I have 5 Mustangs that are thru-body, and the Player is top loading.

 

[felis]

Same here. One of mine is a Sweatwater exclusive in surf green. Terrible fret ends with lots of tang sticking out past the Pau Ferro fretboard. I should have sent it right back but didn't. It's my fault for being a dumb ass.

Now every time I play that bass all I can think about is the sharp fret ends.

And for anyone else that is wondering what strings came on it, they're FULL SCALE strings. The E string barely fits into the tuning post and it looks sloppy. The other strings are fine.

My Squire Jaguar SS has had full length strings on it for about 10 years without problems. Doesn't look absolutely correct though.

 

[shoulderpet]

Not that this will make you feel better but my Player 1 mustang has cruddy finish around the truss route, not to mention terrible fret ends. I know a lot of folks have good experiences with MiM fenders these days but they’re not all winners.

Thanks, I raised another returns request and made it known that I was not happy and they have agreed to replace the bass so fingers crossed

 

[Doctor Morbius]

My Squire Jaguar SS has had full length strings on it for about 10 years without problems. Doesn't look absolutely correct though.

Yeah, it plays fine with the full scale strings, but there isn't much of a break angle on the E due to its heavy gauge at the post.

 

[shoulderpet]

I did a deep dive on this last year, all fender and Squier Mustang basses ship with the fender 5250 short scale bass strings which are 40-95, despite the spec sheet often saying something different

I'm not sure if it's a regional thing (I'm in the UK) but the Mustang i received seems to have been strung with long scale strings, they also feel stiffer then 5250's so maybe the 105-45 I read on the Fender website is correct

 

[T McClure]

I'm not sure if it's a regional thing (I'm in the UK) but the Mustang i received seems to have been strung with long scale strings, they also feel stiffer then 5250's so maybe the 105-45 I read on the Fender website is correct

Did you buy it from a shop that does setups on new basses they sell? I wonder if the shop changed the strings and didn't have any medium scale strings in stock.

 

[Sharko]

I'm not sure if it's a regional thing (I'm in the UK) but the Mustang i received seems to have been strung with long scale strings, they also feel stiffer then 5250's so maybe the 105-45 I read on the Fender website is correct

It’s possible that the PJ mustangs come with long scale strings, you are the second person in a week to say theirs came with long scale strings.

 

[Sharko]

I’ll just leave this here

 

[BASS YODA]

Should I use roundwound strings? The bass is hard to hear in the mix... Listen and tell me what you think, please! Thanks.

 

[Brandon Shea]

Should I use roundwound strings? The bass is hard to hear in the mix... Listen and tell me what you think, please! Thanks.

Definitely a little tough to hear – what’s your EQ like on the amp?

 

[NorthTexasBass]

Should I use roundwound strings? The bass is hard to hear in the mix... Listen and tell me what you think, please! Thanks.

The JMJ is one of the few basses I prefer rounds on when playing live. I am guessing it's a short scale thing. I love it with TI flats for recording, but with rounds it really cuts through live. I did find boosting around 1k helps with the flats though.

 

[Sharko]

Should I use roundwound strings? The bass is hard to hear in the mix... Listen and tell me what you think, please! Thanks.

Rounds if you want to be heard

 

[T McClure]

It looks like Squier has expanded their Antigua offering to the Mustang, but right now, I only see it being sold in Australia and at Anderton's in the UK. Does anyone know if this is coming to the U.S.?

The strange note I have is the Antigua Mustangs from 78 or so all had the forearm and belly contours, yet this Antigua finish is being done to the slab body 60s CV.

I'm interested only because I love this finish on a Mustang, but it also seems like Fender barely made any of these in the late 70s. The only one I've ever seen come up for sale is on reverb now and weighs close to ten pounds, which is crazy for a Mustang.

 

[Brandon Shea]

It looks like Squier has expanded their Antigua offering to the Mustang, but right now, I only see it being sold in Australia and at Anderton's in the UK. Does anyone know if this is coming to the U.S.?

The strange note I have is the Antigua Mustangs from 78 or so all had the forearm and belly contours, yet this Antigua finish is being done to the slab body 60s CV.

I'm interested only because I love this finish on a Mustang, but it also seems like Fender barely made any of these in the late 70s. The only one I've ever seen come up for sale is on reverb now and weighs close to ten pounds, which is crazy for a Mustang.

View attachment 7330722

First of all, that finish looks killer. I hope I can find one in person!

Second, ten pounds for a Mustang?? Where does all the weight go? It's hard to imagine these weighing much more than eight pounds.

 

[shoulderpet]

First of all, that finish looks killer. I hope I can find one in person!

Second, ten pounds for a Mustang?? Where does all the weight go? It's hard to imagine these weighing much more than eight pounds.

Not a Mustang but very similar, I had a musicmaster bass many years ago that was like a boat anchor, that thing must have weighed 14 pounds easily

 

[sleddogn]

I had a 78' about 5 years ago, ended up selling, wish i never had. The one for sale right now is about 5k, ouch...

 

[T McClure]

Second, ten pounds for a Mustang?? Where does all the weight go? It's hard to imagine these weighing much more than eight pounds.

I recently sold a Mustang I otherwise liked because of the weight. It was approaching 9 pounds, and after playing it one night for two hours straight, I decided it was too much.

Maybe I'm a wuss or spoiled, but when my next heaviest bass is maybe 8 pounds (even my full scale P is under 8), I decided to put it up for sale.

 

[SpyderX]

I recently sold a Mustang I otherwise liked because of the weight. It was approaching 9 pounds, and after playing it one night for two hours straight, I decided it was too much.

Maybe I'm a wuss or spoiled, but when my next heaviest bass is maybe 8 pounds (even my full scale P is under 8), I decided to put it up for sale.

Yeah my American Performer Mustang weighs in at 8.8, and it is considerably heavier than my Squier, which is 6.7 (with no strings right now)

 

[sonic boogaloo]

recently had some Nordstrand NM4 pickups installed on my Fender Japan Mustang.

wow! why did i wait so long to do this?

i'd ummed and ahhed for so long as i couldn't really notice much difference from the content i found on YouTube.

i'm so pleased i bit the bullet. they sound fantastic! louder, punchier and much more clarity than the stock pickups. in band rehearsals i noticed the difference straight away. the bass was much more defined. superb upgrade, just wish i had done it earlier.

on a side note, before i had the Nordstrand NM4s installed my Mustang sometimes suffered from pickup hum, especially with my overdrive pedal. i put this down to being normal behaviour from single coils and purchased a noise gate pedal for when it happened. the luthier who installed the pickups told me that the stock pickups were not grounded very well (or something along those lines, i'm not very good at technical terminology.)

the upshot is that i've noticed zero hum since having the pickups installed. talk about killing two birds with one stone!