My Squier Mustang Project

[averic03]

This is my Squier Bullet Mustang HH. It was my first guitar, and I got it for only 200 bucks! It’s a beautiful instrument and I have modded it to no end.

Neck PUP: Seymour Duncan P-Rails
Bridge PUP: Golden Age Lipstick Humbucker

As far as wiring goes, I have two push/pull pots wired in series/parallel with coil splitting, master vol and tone with a standard 3-way selector switch. There’s an extra three way toggle switch from when I had it wired differently, but it doesn’t do anything, I just haven’t replaced the pickguard.

The nut is a TUSQ self lubricating one, there’s an aftermarket roller bridge and bigsby style trem, and there’s new tuners. The tuners are Wilkinson EZ-Lok, which are pretty much pointless but they’re at least nicer than the stock tuners. I still plan on replacing then with locking vintage-style tuners at some point, but for the time being they’re gonna stay this way.

Let me know what you think! As this was my first project and took many years to complete, there are a few parts of it that aren’t super “pro” (such as a neck shim being made of cut up uno cards, and the tremolo arm never staying in place despite numerous applications of loctite), but I think it’s pretty cool.

[Lotek]

I like it! I Just ordered one, hope to see it on Fri. I've been reading a good deal on them in the meantime and I have to say yours is a novel approach. Lipstick pickups and a Bigsby style trem, haven't seen that! I'm planning on putting a Bigsby B50 on one of my Telecasters soon, but I didn't even consider getting one for the Mustang till now. My guitar on the way has a black body, I think the polished alum tremelo would look pretty sharp! If you had it to do over again would you go with the same unit? I don't know if the B50 has the same issue. No issue here with the Uno shims, my CV JM had sandpaper as a shim from the factory. Thanks for the inspiration!

[LVC]

Cool mods! Any chance of bigger pics?

and the tremolo arm never staying in place despite numerous applications of loctite

You mean the locking nut is coming loose all the time? The plastic locking insert in it must be worn from being adjusted too many times. Try replacing it, these are supposed to eliminate the need for Loctite.

[averic03]

Cool mods! Any chance of bigger pics?

and the tremolo arm never staying in place despite numerous applications of loctite

You mean the locking nut is coming loose all the time? The plastic locking insert in it must be worn from being adjusted too many times. Try replacing it, these are supposed to eliminate the need for Loctite.

That’s strange, those pics were high quality when I uploaded them, very strange. I’ll reupload them on imgur tomorrow and come back here.

As for the locking nut, it’s rounded off at the end in a way where you can’t easily adjust it, I would need some sort of tool with a suction cup or something and a very long socket to get under the screw. Next time I replace the strings I can show you what I mean.

[averic03]

I like it! I Just ordered one, hope to see it on Fri. I've been reading a good deal on them in the meantime and I have to say yours is a novel approach. Lipstick pickups and a Bigsby style trem, haven't seen that! I'm planning on putting a Bigsby B50 on one of my Telecasters soon, but I didn't even consider getting one for the Mustang till now. My guitar on the way has a black body, I think the polished alum tremelo would look pretty sharp! If you had it to do over again would you go with the same unit? I don't know if the B50 has the same issue. No issue here with the Uno shims, my CV JM had sandpaper as a shim from the factory. Thanks for the inspiration!

Awesome! You should post some pics when yours arrives

If I had the budget at the time, I definitely would have gone with a real Bigsby, but something about putting a trem in a guitar where the trem is more than the original price of the guitar sets me off.