1966 Mustang Restoration (with pics)
Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2022 5:34 pm
Hi all, I recently purchased a 1966 Fender Mustang project that, like many others, fell victim to the '80s. The guitar was missing a lot of original parts and had an amateur refinish job in purple and black. I saw what appeared to be the original Dakota Red underneath the purple by the bridge, and it still had the original pickups, so I decided to buy it with hopes of restoring the Dakota Red and returning other parts of the guitar to original spec. The electronics (excluding pickups) were all cheap replacements and the tuners were replaced with '80s Schaller minis. For some reason, the previous owner applied a line of thick black paint behind the tuners. Upon disassembling the guitar, I found that the paint on the front was barely adhered and flaked off in large chunks with a feeler gauge. Unfortunately the back was painted using a different type of paint that had to be sanded off. After several hours of chipping and sanding paint off, I was left with a (relatively) intact coat of Dakota Red nitrocellulose lacquer. Unfortunately, I discovered that this was not the original factory finish (it appears it used to be daphne blue) because of a painted over neck pocket and filled middle pickguard screw hole. I will most likely be leaving the finish be, despite the hundreds of small chips from the removal of the purple paint. I replaced the cheap electronics with newer USA-made electronics and returned to the original wiring scheme. The tuners have been swapped to a set of Schaller tuners that fit the footprint of the originals. I currently have a '60s white pearl Mustang guard on the way and will likely be swapping the tuners again for the white-button F tuners this would have originally had. I will also be putting the correct string tree on, filling the other string tree hole, and most likely properly refinishing the back of the headstock (most of the original finish on the back of the headstock is sanded off and oversprayed) to get rid of the black paint line entirely. I will post additional pics when I put the white pearl pickguard on. I feel that the black pearloid guard it came with does not do it justice.
Also, was Fender using CTS potentiometers in 1966? The guitar included one vintage 250k CTS pot that may be original to this guitar. Unfortunately the date code is not legible but I wanted to see if it is original.
Here are the pictures of the guitar as it looked on Saturday morning when I received it and after some sanding and chipping away at the paint:
https://ibb.co/j4bkXZd
https://ibb.co/NCcSBwx
https://ibb.co/CH9dWT1
https://ibb.co/S7N147b
https://ibb.co/gyDBG6w
https://ibb.co/tbW4WCR
https://ibb.co/hFy8Dhv
https://ibb.co/SPR0Ttc
Also, was Fender using CTS potentiometers in 1966? The guitar included one vintage 250k CTS pot that may be original to this guitar. Unfortunately the date code is not legible but I wanted to see if it is original.
Here are the pictures of the guitar as it looked on Saturday morning when I received it and after some sanding and chipping away at the paint:
https://ibb.co/j4bkXZd
https://ibb.co/NCcSBwx
https://ibb.co/CH9dWT1
https://ibb.co/S7N147b
https://ibb.co/gyDBG6w
https://ibb.co/tbW4WCR
https://ibb.co/hFy8Dhv
https://ibb.co/SPR0Ttc
