OffsetGuitars.com

...and I don't think I'll regret it.

I haggled down to a decent price with Luigi over at Southside Guitars so thought I'd dip my toe in. I've had some good days at work and cleared out some old stuff around the house and made some money so I don't really have to worry about justifying the cost to myself.
It's gonna take a few weeks to get here as they have to get a CITES certificate to ship across the pond. No mad drama, it'll get here when it gets here.

If you hadn't seen it hanging around on Reverb for the last month then here it is:

Wow wow wow

Congrats. I hadn't seen that but it's awesome. I love '64 A necks (have owned 4 total I think?) and I love firebirds in shortscale offsets. I've built two firebird-equipped Jags and would probably like a FB-equipped '64 Mustang even more.

Do you know what pickups are in it, and if they're proper firebirds? Firebird pickups are probably my single favourite design of the "OG" 50's-60's models. Nearly all of the advantages of Fender single coils with nearly all the advantages of Gibson humbuckers. Like filtertrons, they're criminally underappreciated compared to Fender single coils, PAFs or P90s.

mbene085 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:24 pm

Congrats. I hadn't seen that but it's awesome. I love '64 A necks (have owned 4 total I think?) and I love firebirds in shortscale offsets. I've built two firebird-equipped Jags and would probably like a FB-equipped '64 Mustang even more.

Do you know what pickups are in it, and if they're proper firebirds? Firebird pickups are probably my single favourite design of the "OG" 50's-60's models. Nearly all of the advantages of Fender single coils with nearly all the advantages of Gibson humbuckers. Like filtertrons, they're criminally underappreciated compared to Fender single coils, PAFs or P90s.

They're Duncan Antiquity Firebirds apparently, so not the old ones. I had a look online and they seem to be pretty well regarded - and damn expensive brand new too.

If it sounds rad enough then I might keep an eye for some 'real' ones to swap in. We'll see

Oh, that's totally what I meant by "real!"

I just meant alnico bar polepieces with a ferrous baseplate. Sometimes people stick mini-PAFs in no-hole covers, but those are fundamentally differently built and sound completely distinct from Firebirds.

Two thirds of Duncan's own Firebird models are that way, in fact, but the Antiquities are properly made. You just have to watch out for feedback, as the Antiquities are notoriously microphonic. Firebird pickups don't generally need to be fully potted - a dab of wax on top to keep the small steel plate under the B string stuck to both the top of the bobbins and the bottom of the cover will generally do it, but that little loose plate between the magnets and the cover can be a real issue at high SPL or high gain.

If you find yours too microphonic, just know that it can be easily solved by anyone who is comfortable taking a pickup apart and reassembling it. You don't have to throw the baby out with the bath water and replace them completely.

You can see the little plate most commonly responsible for this in this exploded view:



A lot of winders will just omit it so they can get away with no or minimal potting, but it's part of the magnetic circuit that makes vintage Firebirds so distinctive. Kind of like the ferrous Jaguar claw, whose function and impact is debated to this day and is sometimes substituted for a nonferrous one, only even fewer people care about debating vintage accuracy of Firebird pickups. You only ever see a small fraction of pickup winders mention it, and even fewer players. I've actually had issues with the unwound strings being underpowered if that plate is omitted, so I'm in the camp that believes it's there for a reason. Fender and Gibson really knew what they were doing back then and it's too deliberate a design element to have been truly unnecessary.

Hell yeah!

I'm so glad an OSGer got this Mustang. It is too damn cool, and I'm surprised it was on the market that long. Congrats on scooping up one of the coolest guitars this year.

Alnico Firebird pickups are amazing, they sound really great clean and overdriven. Nice idea on a Mustang, for sure.

mbene085 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:24 pm

Congrats. I hadn't seen that but it's awesome. I love '64 A necks (have owned 4 total I think?) and I love firebirds in shortscale offsets. I've built two firebird-equipped Jags and would probably like a FB-equipped '64 Mustang even more.

Do you know what pickups are in it, and if they're proper firebirds? Firebird pickups are probably my single favourite design of the "OG" 50's-60's models. Nearly all of the advantages of Fender single coils with nearly all the advantages of Gibson humbuckers. Like filtertrons, they're criminally underappreciated compared to Fender single coils, PAFs or P90s.

Agreed on the pickups, and it's absurd to me how wrong Gibson got it when they switched Firebird pickups to ceramic magnets. The distinct tone of the Firebird is totally lost with a ceramic pickup.

mbene085 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:20 pm

....

Two thirds of Duncan's own Firebird models are that way, in fact, but the Antiquities are properly made. You just have to watch out for feedback, as the Antiquities are notoriously microphonic. Firebird pickups don't generally need to be fully potted - a dab of wax on top to keep the small steel plate under the B string stuck to both the top of the bobbins and the bottom of the cover will generally do it, but that little loose plate between the magnets and the cover can be a real issue at high SPL or high gain.

If you find yours too microphonic, just know that it can be easily solved by anyone who is comfortable taking a pickup apart and reassembling it. You don't have to throw the baby out with the bath water and replace them completely.

.....

Would you say that's an achievable task for someone confident with a soldering iron & general electronics/engineering? Or a high chance of fucking things up?

Highnumbers wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:25 pm

Hell yeah!

I'm so glad an OSGer got this Mustang. It is too damn cool, and I'm surprised it was on the market that long. Congrats on scooping up one of the coolest guitars this year.

Alnico Firebird pickups are amazing, they sound really great clean and overdriven. Nice idea on a Mustang, for sure.

hah! Yeah, I thought I'd bring it into the fold. Of all the places most likely to appreciate this it would definitely be in here. Now there's just the agonising wait for CITES processing and shipping

Oh God yes! I had that one on my watching list, ever since they posted it. But the price, A-neck and shipping just made it impossible. And I have a "strange feeling" kinda resentment towards that shop... (long story)

I would/will love to build a clone of that, though... Someday!

Pacafeliz wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:07 pm

Oh God yes! I had that one on my watching list, ever since they posted it. But the price, A-neck and shipping just made it impossible. And I have a "strange feeling" kinda resentment towards that shop... (long story)

I would/will love to build a clone of that, though... Someday!

Yeah, the price was a little excessive - but not hugely out of whack for a pre-CBS with modifications. I watched it for a solid month and thought, if it makes it past the 4-week mark unsold then I'd throw a cheeky lowball. We ended up meeting somewhere in the middle which I was happy with (about £1200) considering the current guitar climate. I wont pry as to your 'resentment' but I'm sure it's founded considering how long you've been buying & selling old stuff. Fingers crossed it all goes smooth enough for me

That thing is so freaking cool. Have fun with it!

That looks insanely fun!

Holy crow, that's cool! My first Fender was a Dakota Red '64 Mustang with full-sized T-tops, so these photos give me all the feels. It looks amazing. Congratulations!

WOW!!!

Congrats and welcome to the '64 Mustang club!!!!