What is it about the PJ Mustang?!

[adk teleman]

Two years ago my wife bought me a Fender Player PJ Mustang in Firemist gold.
Now, mind you, I have a really nice collection of basses. But, there’s something really special about this bass that has catapulted it into the #1 bass.
My band did a show last night and I went with a smaller rig(Ampeg SVT 7 Pro and a 1x15 cab). My band mates said that that set up was just as rich and punchy as the week prior when we did an outdoor festival where I used my SVT Heritage and 8x10 rig.
Both gigs I used the Mustang exclusively, so it IMO has to be this particular bass. I can’t recsll playing any other bass and having this same reaction from my band mates.

 

[Jeff K]

For as long as I've been playing, I've never played a Mustang bass. I HAVE been jonesin' for one recently, but really have too many basses already. But I do love that Firemist Gold. The only short-scale I currently have is my Gibson Les Paul Jr. DC. Great little bass, which makes it even harder for me to justify a Mustang. But if I were a younger man...

 

[adk teleman]

For as long as I've been playing, I've never played a Mustang bass. I HAVE been jonesin' for one recently, but really have too many basses already. But I do love that Firemist Gold. The only short-scale I currently have is my Gibson Les Paul Jr. DC. Great little bass, which makes it even harder for me to justify a Mustang. But if I were a younger man...

I hear you. I’ll be honest, my LP Jr. DC was my #1, but the Mustang bumped it out. Both are amazing, but something about the Mustang is just pure magic!

 

[Jasonm3]

Interesting I’ve never really heard much on them

 

[Smoove-Groove]

I like the mustangs, but the addition of the P and J pickups just don’t look right to me on those basses. I just like the smaller original oval style split PU’s

 

[Andy Marshman]

I previously owned 2 original style Mustangs. Should have kept at least one, duh! When the PJ came out, I was so keen to get one. Amazon had a sale over the Christmas holiday for $200 off and I grabbed it. I am not a jazz PUP fan at all. I figured that I'd use the split P most or all of the time. I found it was a low output bass even with the pickups elevated and I never warmed up to it. Add to that the switch which seemed to always get in the way, and I sold the bass. It was the firemist gold which looked great. No regrets selling it. I now have a new Squier CV Mustang and am quite happy with it.

 

[CallMeAl]

Those sound freaking great! Sadly the one I tried was very neck divey The Squier CV was better balanced. I ended up getting a cheapo Mitchell, which gave me those punchy PJ pickups, but better balanced.

but yeah, SS PJs are great

 

[MojoPin]

I like the mustangs, but the addition of the P and J pickups just don’t look right to me on those basses. I just like the smaller original oval style split PU’s

I’m the same way, the actual mustang pup is also adding more punch with the pole pieces being under each string like it does with the original P basses.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Two years ago my wife bought me a Fender Player PJ Mustang in Firemist gold.
Now, mind you, I have a really nice collection of basses. But, there’s something really special about this bass that has catapulted it into the #1 bass.
My band did a show last night and I went with a smaller rig(Ampeg SVT 7 Pro and a 1x15 cab). My band mates said that that set up was just as rich and punchy as the week prior when we did an outdoor festival where I used my SVT Heritage and 8x10 rig.
Both gigs I used the Mustang exclusively, so it IMO has to be this particular bass. I can’t recsll playing any other bass and having this same reaction from my band mates.

Back in the day (70’s) I was gigging a EB3. One of our keyboard players conquests had a MIA mustang and let it to me for a gig. I was totally impressed, as it sounded so much better than the EB3 and played better too.

She offered to trade me even up, but at the time EB3s were selling for a good deal more than Mustangs that were considered an a nice entry level instrument. So I declined.

 

[stringthrough]

Yup, I totally get it. I've owned 50+ basses over the years, including some of the best (Sadowsky, Lull, Lakland, Fender CS, etc.) and my MIM Mustang is getting ALOT of playtime these days. The action is insanely low w/o buzz and the truss rod has not been tweekd since day one. Since buying it new, stock, I've modified it greatly. The PU's are now Delano's and the flimsy, in-the-way 3-way switch is now a detanted rotary knob.

 

[Beefwren]

Yup, I totally get it. I've owned 50+ basses over the years, including some of the best (Sadowsky, Lull, Lakland, Fender CS, etc.) and my MIM Mustang is getting ALOT of playtime these days. The action is insanely low w/o buzz and the truss rod has not been tweekd since day one. Since buying it new, stock, I've modified it greatly. The PU's are now Delano's and the flimsy, in-the-way 3-way switch is now a detanted rotary knob.

View attachment 5468145

My luthier did something similar with the blend knob instead of the 3 way switch. I really like being able to roll off either pickup a bit. I have a Fralin P and a Dimarzio Ultra Jazz, which are perfect sounding to me. I did not love the Fralin J pickup in the Mustang as much. But I agree with the OP’s statement that there is “something about this bass” that keeps you coming back!

 

[socknroll1]

Mustang basses bring the punch for sure.

 

[Mustang Surly]

Yep...I have an MIJ with Nordstrand NM4 pup and recently snagged an MIM "Player":

 

[Mustang Surly]

in-the-way 3-way switch is now a detanted rotary knob.

May wind up doing something like this, because the switch does have an annoying tendency to get thrown by your leg/pants when you are playing seated.

When I went shopping for a second Mustang, I mainly looked for a maple neck with 1-1/2" nut and non-opaque finish. Beyond that, I was expecting that I might need to do a bit of tweaking (pups, electronic components) and was OK with that as long as the overall craftsmanship and ergonomics suited me. The "Player" has a slightly flatter fretboard radius (9-1/2" vs. 7-1/2") and larger frets (MJ vs. "narrow vintage") neither of which are very noticeable while playing. Then there's the top-load versus string-through bridge, which means that the MIJ usually needs "medium scale" string sets while the "Player" takes "short-scale". I mainly didn't want a 1-5/8" nut because I found the MIJ neck to be so comfortable for my arthritic old hands.

I had planned to put flats on the "Player" immediately. but have left the rounds on there for now since all my other basses are strung with flats. Kind of enjoying having one with rounds on it.

 

[Awesomus]

I replaced the stock bridge pickup and toggle switch in all 3 of my mustang pj's, with that junk out of there these little ponies are solid