Vintage Fender experts... Your thoughts please.

[vin*tone]

Hey folks.
Penny for yr thoughts on this...
I'm looking at this '66 Mustang - all looks good but the decal looks .....er ..... unique. In fact it looks like a mustang guitar decal with another 'bass' decal. I'm thinking that it is probably original as i has the paddle tuners and '66 neck stamp- and the simple fact that if someone were to fake this- it would in fact be easier to just pick up the 'correct' decal off ebay.

Cheers, Vin

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[Double E]

I'd say it's legit. It was definitely strung by a guitar player though

 

[jimmy rocket]

+1 on the guitar player crappy stringing job.

the neck was probably re-finished a long time ago and someone got a little creative in the absence of the correct decal.

 

[wvbass]

Here's a pic I found of a '66 Mustang. Matches the picture in my head, so I'm thinking its correct.

Most likely, somebody has replace the word "Bass" on the one you're looking at. No way to tell why this was done.

 

[coreyfyfe]

I knew I had seen something weird like this before in the fender bass book, but it turns out it was a late 60s tele bass. They did a separate "bass" in larger script font. That book has very limited info on the mustang.

However, the picture they do have a bunch of mustangs together, there are a few different options for the logo. It looks like when they first started they did big gold letters like the "fender" and "bass" parts of your logo. It is possible that the "mustang" could have been added later after a refinish. I don't know mustangs all that well, so sorry I can't be of much help.

Edit - looking at the picture of that 66 it still seems to me that the "mustang" is out of place on the OP's picture. It doesn't line up with the rest the way the one in the 66 picture does.

 

[Shadi]

It's definitely a legit decal albeit an early one. Much like they did with the early Telecaster bass where they used a regular Telecaster logo and tacked the word 'bass' on there, they did this with the early mustangs. Actually this is somewhat of a transition logo because the VERY first mustang basses just said 'Fender' on them.

Cheers.

 

[vin*tone]

Thanks guys. The Stang is purchased and is winging its way to my house.

It looks a lot like the '64 Mustang guitar decal...with "BASS" from the Tele

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Later decals began to include the ® symbol.

coreyfyfe- Thanks- I've been busting a nut trying to remember where I've seen that "BASS" decal before.

 

[the art guy]

I had a '66 Mustang Bass with that same pieced-together decal. I researched it and found out that it is indeed factory. The "BASS" was clipped and taken from the Fender Bass VI, if I recall correctly. There are also '66 necks that have the lettering all in the same font, which are of course later. Yours is simply an earlier one, before they had made the Mustang Bass decals.

 

[vin*tone]

^ Thanks, do you remember where you found out that it was factory? I'm intrigued.

 

[slybass3000]

Is it really 666 at the butt of the neck?

Apparently,some folks at Fender at the time were having some fun with stuff like that,so it is probably legit.

 

[Zoidberg523]

I'd say it's legit. It was definitely strung by a guitar player though

+1 Being guitarded has been found not only to inflate the ego, but also the brain, causing acute attacks of stupidity and ignorance.

 

[the art guy]

^ Thanks, do you remember where you found out that it was factory? I'm intrigued.

Wish I could remember, but honestly I'm not sure. I do know that a couple local "Fender experts" told me that was the case. And I've seen others on ebay & elsewhere that are the same also.