Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

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Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by TourGuide » Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:16 pm

Hello everyone, I just came across this "1964 fender mustang USA electric guitar" on Facebook marketplace and there are a lot of things that don't seem right. However I know absolutely nothing about Mustangs. The description is vague. The price is pretty low for a vintage mustang. The case from what little I can see does appear to be period correct and the bridge looks old but everything else about this guitar seems off. Body is clearly a refin but what about everything else? Headstock is blank, neck seems a bit too dark. I know some of these things might seem like obvious red flags but I wonder if it's even half vintage if it's still worth the price. What do you guys think?

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by HedonismBot » Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:36 pm

Looks like a weird refin, possibly, with some aftermarket parts. The pictures aren’t the best quality, so it’s hard to tell for sure. The decal is missing, obviously, but the headstock, tuners, the neck stamp, and the neck plate seem period correct to me. The control plate is shiny, possibly, a replacement. The tremolo and the pick guard seem to be all right. Ask for some pictures of the routing cavity and the date stamps on the pots. Won’t hurt to ask for a picture of the second pickup as well. If the dates line up and there are no surprises under the pick guard - you might have found yourself a good deal. It’s, obviously, a “player”, but if the price is low...
Last edited by HedonismBot on Thu Oct 14, 2021 4:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by HedonismBot » Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:53 pm

One more thought: the pictures of the neck stamp and the date on the pickup are printouts... That’s suspicious. Maybe the seller isn’t experienced with guitars / not comfortable tinkering with them and uses old pictures of the guts for that reason?

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by TourGuide » Thu Oct 14, 2021 4:13 pm

HedonismBot wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 3:53 pm
One more thought: the pictures of the neck stamp and the date on the pickup are printouts... That’s suspicious. Maybe the seller isn’t experienced with guitars / not comfortable tinkering with them and uses old pictures of the guts for that reason?
Thank you so much for the responses. So I've been thinking the print out of the neck stamp was pretty sketchy but looking closely at the pictures the grain on the rosewood appears to match up with the birdseye picture of the guitar. I'm guessing you're probably right and he just might not have much experience with disassembling guitars.

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by andy_tchp » Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:11 pm

I'd say Fender Japan or aftermarket pickguard.
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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by HedonismBot » Thu Oct 14, 2021 6:38 pm

andy_tchp wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:11 pm
I'd say Fender Japan or aftermarket pickguard.
Could be, but I doubt it’s MIJ/CIJ: those don’t fit American Mustangs (ask me how I know ;) ). Of course, there are ways to make it fit. But, I imagine, that would leave some fairly obvious marks on the guard, wouldn’t it? Unless... they drilled new holes in the body (I hope not). Besides, why would one go out of their way when they could just order a proper replacement guard. Also, the gaps between the guard and the bridge and the control plate seem to be consistent with how old Mustang guards shrink. My ‘66 has similar gaps. The color does seem a bit off, but it might just be the lighting / resolution thing. I dunno. Not going to claim to be an expert on tort guards. I’m more of a pearloid guy.

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by SignoftheDragon » Fri Oct 15, 2021 7:22 am

I don't know why, but that wacky refin does it for me. If only the headstock finish was intact... or even present in any way- that blank slab gives me the heebs.

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by Maggieo » Fri Oct 15, 2021 8:55 am

It's legit. Obviously a refin/extra paint thingy. The neck and tuners are correct, as are the pickups. The only question is if they're actually photos of the guitar.
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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by Maggieo » Fri Oct 15, 2021 8:55 am

HedonismBot wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 6:38 pm
andy_tchp wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 5:11 pm
I'd say Fender Japan or aftermarket pickguard.
Could be, but I doubt it’s MIJ/CIJ: those don’t fit American Mustangs (ask me how I know ;) ). Of course, there are ways to make it fit. But, I imagine, that would leave some fairly obvious marks on the guard, wouldn’t it? Unless... they drilled new holes in the body (I hope not). Besides, why would one go out of their way when they could just order a proper replacement guard. Also, the gaps between the guard and the bridge and the control plate seem to be consistent with how old Mustang guards shrink. My ‘66 has similar gaps. The color does seem a bit off, but it might just be the lighting / resolution thing. I dunno. Not going to claim to be an expert on tort guards. I’m more of a pearloid guy.
The white balance on the pics is atrocious.
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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by zip73 » Fri Oct 15, 2021 8:59 am

Don’t see anything here that contradicts the description title. Has all the hallmarks of an early Mustang with a ‘64 shaped headstock, neck heel code & “L plate” serial all corresponding to that time. Completed and delivered in ‘65 as evidenced by the pickup date (if they are original to this guitar). Guard is typical of the time, screws look sweat / rust darkened in the usual manner. Case is common 60’s Mustang years. Bridge & saddles are the usual rusty mess. Plates look good (they really made them nice in those days, thick and well chromed). Finish wise, the white looks like the right shade with the obvious exception of the blue. Perhaps during some long forgotten fad or personal delusionary / hallucinatory period, someone went over it with that watery blue to achieve a then stylish funky marbled look? Maybe the blue just adhered in those spots but the white is original? See if you can get a photo of the neck pocket, pickups, pickup cavity, wiring and pots.

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by TourGuide » Sun Oct 17, 2021 2:26 pm

UPDATE: I bought the guitar. I am absolutely in love with it. I wouldn't have done it without all of your help. Thanks a lot yall.

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by Mechanical Birds » Sun Oct 17, 2021 6:15 pm

I don’t think that’s a refin so much as someone putting the weird smoky blue on top - obviously I can’t be certain but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that would be easy to remove and you’d have yourself a nice white early-production Mustang. Stuff like this, there’s not a huge upside to faking them because even the nicest examples are still relative steals compared to, say, a Strat or Les Paul. The decal missing is a good sign - rules out it being a Japanese Fender without even having to take the neck off because vintage Fenders had a straight decal on the headstock, while MIJ variants and most modern guitars have them underneath the clear coat. L-neck plate is worth a chunk on its own, that for sure is a vintage bridge, and the tort on Mustangs is different than what they were using otherwise - you’ll often see chunks of white as opposed to the darker more yellow splotches on a Jaguar or Jazzmaster. I didn’t even look at the picture of the neck stamp and I’d feel good about buying this if the price were right. If it’s like $1,500 or less I’d say go for it, and you might be able to knock a significant chunk of that off just by complaining about the missing decal and weird devaluing blue shit on the body

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by Mechanical Birds » Sun Oct 17, 2021 6:15 pm

Oh, you bought it, so glad I wasted 10 minutes typing that all out haha

Hope you love it and do cool stuff, nice score!

Now you gotta post pics! Especially pics of you scrubbing that gooftroop 70s asshole blue smoke off of there. Looks to be an otherwise nice Olympic White

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by TourGuide » Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:10 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Sun Oct 17, 2021 6:15 pm
I don’t think that’s a refin so much as someone putting the weird smoky blue on top - obviously I can’t be certain but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that would be easy to remove and you’d have yourself a nice white early-production Mustang. Stuff like this, there’s not a huge upside to faking them because even the nicest examples are still relative steals compared to, say, a Strat or Les Paul. The decal missing is a good sign - rules out it being a Japanese Fender without even having to take the neck off because vintage Fenders had a straight decal on the headstock, while MIJ variants and most modern guitars have them underneath the clear coat. L-neck plate is worth a chunk on its own, that for sure is a vintage bridge, and the tort on Mustangs is different than what they were using otherwise - you’ll often see chunks of white as opposed to the darker more yellow splotches on a Jaguar or Jazzmaster. I didn’t even look at the picture of the neck stamp and I’d feel good about buying this if the price were right. If it’s like $1,500 or less I’d say go for it, and you might be able to knock a significant chunk of that off just by complaining about the missing decal and weird devaluing blue shit on the body
So looking closely I can see that it did start life as a white mustang with the tort pickguard and white switches. Whoever did this finish to it just did it over the white finish so it appears they sprayed over the original finish with another coat of white and the blue because it's wearing off in some places and I can see a different shade of white underneath. The seller included the original white switches and the original strap lugs. Lol and you're probably right about this finish being around 70s or so because it is super discolored in some places to the point it's turning yellow. Tomorrow I will give yall some more pics if you guys are interested. Here's the best part, I only payed 900 dollars for it!! Super stoked over it man

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Re: Legitimacy of a vintage Fender Mustang

Post by TourGuide » Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:15 pm

Also to clear up some stuff I did take it apart and Hedomism was right. It seems like the seller wasn't confident disassembling the guitar because he had pictures of the inside which sketched me out initially but upon disassembling the guitar myself the pictures were of this guitar.

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