OffsetGuitars.com

I hopped the Mustang train the other day. Now I have bought a Mustang from 1966, which has a humbucker in the neck position, and I would like to mount a suitable bridge pickup as a single coil to it. The humbucker is a PAF type from DiMarzio. Any suggestions?

Plus another question: Are there any good replacement tremolo systems for the Mustang on the market that does not require drilling and routing?

For the vibrato, I don’t know of any alternates. Even the American Performer vibrato would require routing. The key to making them play in tune is to use the farthest-out/highest tension spring notch, and make sure the pivot points are sharp and don’t have wear. It’s possible to file them sharp again if needed, with some patience. I also recommend cleaning and lubricating the pivots with white lithium grease; just don’t get any on the finish.

Whatever you do, the Mustang vibrato has an extremely loose feel. I recommend not turning the vibrato posts while the strings are on the guitar, as this can increase wear.

Can’t really help with the pickups as that’s too much to taste, I’ll let someone else chime in there.

Congrats on your '66 Mustang! I can't speak to the vibrato info, but I can recommend the pickups I put in my Squier Vintage Modified Mustang - a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity II The 60's Myth For Mustang pickups. You can buy the bridge or neck pickups separately.

I also own '65 and a '66 Mustangs and find the SD Antiquity II's comparable to those guitars by my ears. There are other great pickups out there - Lollar or Fralin make great pickups. Highly recommend you do some research and figure which pickups sound best to you. Good luck!

Congrats on the Mustang! Yeah!
I can highly highly recommend those Q-Pickups!
https://reverb.com/item/5667811-mustang ... -duo-sonic

They are cheap and mega good sounding!
Test them.
I tested and I am not interested in others...
For me it´s a sound question, not money. I love them because of the sound mainly!!


To the trem system I can´t say anything. My experience is, that the old vintage ones work perfect to me.

JohnHenry wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2020 5:34 am

I hopped the Mustang train the other day. Now I have bought a Mustang from 1966, which has a humbucker in the neck position, and I would like to mount a suitable bridge pickup as a single coil to it. The humbucker is a PAF type from DiMarzio. Any suggestions?

put the Dimarzio on ebay and get a nice set of single coils

mgeek wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 12, 2020 10:53 am

JohnHenry wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2020 5:34 am

I hopped the Mustang train the other day. Now I have bought a Mustang from 1966, which has a humbucker in the neck position, and I would like to mount a suitable bridge pickup as a single coil to it. The humbucker is a PAF type from DiMarzio. Any suggestions?

put the Dimarzio on ebay and get a nice set of single coils

that's not a bad suggestion.
I have a '66 with a really early duncan rail pickup in the neck.
I used a pickup from a '78 strat in the bridge. The 70's strats have flat-pole pickups (which fit under the solid covers, and are a little hot).
I think two work well together, kinda Keef sounding.

I like hotter pickups in Mustangs, but there is no guitar I can say I prefer a humbucker in the neck (especially if a single is in the bridge.) There are few single coils that output-wise would keep up with a humbucker, even a ‘vintage-output’ one, let alone a DMZ of some sort.

Rose pickups made me a custom Mustang set around the Buff Beauty model- singles at around 10k neck/14k bridge. They’re great and balance well.