My Teenaged Years '74 Fender Mustang

[FretlessOnly]

No, this isn't a reunion story, but back in 1979, I obtained a 1974 Fender Mustang. I was the third owner, and I knew both of the other two owners. The first owner had sold it to someone who made some, shall we say, Eddie Van Halen-esque mods to the guitar. He then proceeded to treat it rather poorly, so that when I got it on the cheap, it was pretty well used beyond it's 5-6 year life. In '79, I put Dimarzio replacement pickups in (you know, Dimarzio was cool in the late 70s), and let it be for a while.

In 1982, while in college, I had a friend of mine who worked on guitars mod it up for me. Mustang pickup switches were replaced with a neck/bridge toggle switch, an in/out phase switch was added, and the guitar was made string-through with the addition of a Telecaster bridge/tailpiece.

So, it deteriorated over the years, and since I'm mainly a bass player, I let it sit. Well; last week I brought this into Mouradian Guitars in WInchester, MA, and John did a bang-up job. I had Tony at Pickguardian make the cream pearloid pickguard (complete with shielding under the tone/vol knobs) and picked up some new knobs from Stewie-Mac. Not restored to a vintage Mustang, but restored to my 1982 mod. The fingerboard on this is lovely, and it plays and sounds really sweet:

[chrisdski]

Love the stripes on those early 70s Mustangs. I'm a 70-75 Fender bass man myself ( 1 tele, 1 P and 2 Js). There's just something about those early 70s Fenders I dig. Platform shoes and Rayon shirts !!

[collin]

Love the stripes on those early 70s Mustangs.

+1 love em!


Bummer about the mods on your guitar.....Competition Mustangs are becoming more and more collectible, shame to see one "butchered up" (no offense intended).

[kiramdear]

That looks really cool, and what a great story!

[octagon]

That is cool man.Makes me wish I still had my 73 Mustang.

[scotty]

Looks great John im glad your enjoying it.Mustangs are cool guitars.

[wj350]

Very cool, congrats--I just recently sold a Fender Japan RI. They are great little guitars--love the small body and 24" scale.

Bill

[FretlessOnly]

Thanks for the replies. Thing is, I'm starting now to wonder if this really is a '74. This site: http://fendermustangstory.com/default.htm seems pretty thorough and indicates that the competition series ended in 1972. But, it also states that the second string guide on the headstock started around 1974 (mine has two, as you can see). So, a conflict there.

I had originally dated this from the serial number and info on Fender's website, but the link I posted above also indicates that the neck stamp is needed to confirm a date. I had this axe all taken apart three weeks ago, and I'm not doing that again now that it's all fixed up.

[collin]

Thanks for the replies. Thing is, I'm starting now to wonder if this really is a '74. This site: http://fendermustangstory.com/default.htm seems pretty thorough and indicates that the competition series ended in 1972. But, it also states that the second string guide on the headstock started around 1974 (mine has two, as you can see). So, a conflict there.

I'd say it's much easier to add a string guide than build an entire Competition Mustang two years after production ended.

I've never seen one past '72 either, so I'd put money down that it's not later than that.

Like most Fenders--you can really only date it by looking at the neck heel. (Loosen strings a bit, unscrew four bolts, take a look, screw back together, tune up and jam. Pretty easy peasy!)

[FretlessOnly]

Yeah, but the neck's been off of this at least three times that I am aware of, and I'd rather not risk taking it off again.

So Collin, are you telling me that the neckplate serial number is definitely not the way to ID the year on this?

[FretlessOnly]

I would add that the first time I saw this guitar was probably in 1978, and the "competition" stripes were already very yellow. They haven't changed that much at all in the 30 years I've owned it. Which strikes me as odd, because the red competition was originally described as red w/cream stripes (the link I posted earlier shows the color combination). Not sure where I'm going with this, but maybe mine is a fair bit older than I thought. Those stripes are very yellow and always have been since I've known this. With varnish on them, I wouldn't expect them to yellow in eight years, but maybe so. I've seen modern-day pictures of red competitions that still look red and cream - almost white.

Arrgh; I'll have to take the neck off again to answer this, and I really don't want to do that.

Maybe there was another owner before the two I knew. And if it's really a '69-'72, I now really regret having it modded as I did. But it really plays nice.