NGD: beater 1965 Mustang straight outta Mexico

[Pacafeliz]

EDIT: moved this from the restaurations section here, since I don't know if I'm going to do something big to it.

...so even though I've been living in Germany now for 8 years, i still keep an eye kn the Mexican local ads and always tell my brother if there's good deals. Most of the finds he then keeps himself... even though he doesn't realla play. Anyway...
So about 6 years ago this one appears, basically for peanuts, obviously refinished. I've never really cared about it as it's so ugly, with such a thick layer of I guess car primer and several paint/color types.
This year, i originally wanted to snag the white beater '75 Mustang off him, but then fell in love with the neck of this one. And since i already have a bunch of 70s 'stangs, i got behind this one, and he let it go for basically a symbolic bro price, as he needs to make space too.

So, I'll just post a bunch of pics first, since yesterday was the first time i took it all apart.
Here we go...

































So as you see, it's far from mint or original. Frets are played DOWN. Thankfully both pickups are original and work (Bridge one was wound by legend Abigail Ybarra, like my '64 JMs neck pup).
The low E tuner kept "rolling back" by itself, so I've put a new one on for now - is there a way to tighten it?
I'll have my tech look at the frets to see if he can still file them down or if it needs a complete refret, which I'd hate.
Bridge was a japanese repro, so i put an old one on, since my '76 now has the Mastery on.

Dunno if the vibrato "cigar" posts are original?! Help? Tailpiece is Pat.Pend.

Body has been routed somehow, haven't figured that out yet, how and why, since the pickguard is "untouched". There is a big "plug" in there - see pic. Wtf?!
And there is an extra channel from the pickup to the control cavity. Wtf why?! The original cable hole is there and unused!

Pots seem original but incredibly rusty, volume works still, tone doesn't. The screws on the knobs are also so rusty that i can't take em off... hope i don't have to break em.

The neck pickup slider switch does not "click" into position any more, but at least works again now that i sprayed it with Deoxit.

...and then there's the paint. look at the neck pocket and you'll see how thick that layer is!!! Also the pocket looks kinda rough, like partially re-carved?!

My main Impulse would be to have the body stripped all down, and have it refinished, also to hide the wood mods and let the wood "breathe", but probably I'll do nothing but replace the pots, have the frets done and play it as is...

Also weird about the pickguard holes not aligning- i know these tend to to shrink, but not expand?! I have a cut up old guard somewhere and might be able to replace the missing tip. As if that made a difference...

Still, I'm happy to have this one now, and hope to be playing it a lot soon!

...what would you do?
Any good refinners here in the EU?

[ainm]

Honestly? I’d probably replace the broken electrics, have the frets taken down and play it. If the paint feels meh, a refin, but I think it looks glorious! I used to hate vintage guitars, but now I’m firmly in love with those that have been played, modded and even abused. This guitar looks a lot of fun.

Has the body been lightly contoured or is it a trick of the paint and light? Some shaping on the headstock?

The plug will be because the pickup switching was done like a Strat at some point. Seen a few bodies modded like that. Seems like it has either been put back to stock or someone did a parts resto at some point.

Super cool! Just a tiny bit jealous

[Pacafeliz]

Honestly? I’d probably replace the broken electrics, have the frets taken down and play it. If the paint feels meh, a refin, but I think it looks glorious! I used to hate vintage guitars, but now I’m firmly in love with those that have been played, modded and even abused. This guitar looks a lot of fun.

Has the body been lightly contoured or is it a trick of the paint and light? Some shaping on the headstock?

The plug will be because the pickup switching was done like a Strat at some point. Seen a few bodies modded like that. Seems like it has either been put back to stock or someone did a parts resto at some point.

Super cool! Just a tiny bit jealous

Yep the body has been. Slightly contoured like a Strat.
The color and worn looks cool but it feels kinda like cheap plastic.
Well, little by little. The important parts are there, it's a proper early CBS Mustang.

Does anyone know about these vibrato posts? I know the "cigar" and those tend to get terribly rusty at times...

[crazyzeke]

This is so much cooler than an off-the-peg Relic, because this guitar has clearly seen some shit, man, but it's still kicking. That's character. Also means if you decide to tinker you're not ruining a mint example, anything you do will probably be an improvement.

I'm no expert but I very much doubt any good luthier would attempt a crowning on the frets - I reckon from the little I can see in the closeups that's a refret right there, and on a vintage 7.25" Mustang neck that is very, verrrry worth doing, those things play great.

Might not hurt to have a very light layer taken off the rosewood to level it back out and remove some dings too - the worst can probably be carefully filled and blended to match the colour tone.

The pickup/switch wiring looks original (dark braid is a giveaway I think), the pots not so much.

---

Personally what I'd do is find out the original finish colour, get it stripped to bare wood and back to factory paint job, preserve the pickguard with original pickups as it is, get a new one that suits the restored factory colour, and drop a Hot Rail in the bridge plus some kind of nice mildly hot neck single, have the coil tap wired to the bridge OOP position (you still have the neck OOP so it actually adds a feature and reduces redundancy) and have yourself a retrofitted Fender Player kind of deal. Oh and obviously a Mastery or Staytrem bridge but that almost goes without saying

That's an idea that fires me up but I suspect everyone's MMV.

[raphaël]

This is some nice guitar here. Another one shall I say
That headstock is wonderfully worned
What I'd do would be to just offer it a proper refin. And I'd point you toward Relic'Art Guitares. It's a french based refiner guy who does nitro exquisites refins. I've used his fantastic skills for my green 66/67 parts Coronado and I can't praise him enough. I will contact him for 2 other projects with full confidence.
I obviously can translate everything, if you need me to, if you go by him, if you chose the refin pat, path.
(Huhuhu)

[MattK]

Colour and vibe are great. I’d get a buffer and polish out the finish, it can make a WORLD of difference and you will regret stripping the wear and tear off.

[infinity_times_nil]

That looks like a fun guitar.

For European refinishers I can vouch for Mateusz from Restauracja Gitar in Poland. I got a Jaguar from him, a friend a Tele and another friend a lot of refins and we are all very happy.
https://restauracja-gitar.pl/

You could ask him about the frets as well. I don't know if he does refrets but the setup he does on guitars is great.

His site has a lot of examples of his finishes. Looking forward to see your choice of color (whoever you choose)

[Pacafeliz]

Thanks!

You know, there more i think about it, the more i get the feeling i should just leave it as is. A full re$toration/refin wouldn't be cheap, and the body has just been too modded to invest too much money into it.
It looks cool as hell now.

Maybe at some point I'll just sand off a bunch and spray paint it in the taste of the week. Or not.

First of all i need to fix the frets and basic electronics. The rest is just details.
Thnx

[F15hface]

Looks cool. As you say, get the frets and electronics sorted first. I'd be tempted to strip and then respray in some sort of pastel, maybe my favourite Porsche colour Moonstone, and clear coat with the plasticiser free nitro someone mentioned in I think the duplicolor thread. You'd struggle to go wrong either way I feel though.

[Pacafeliz]

Ok so I had a new CTS 250K pot laying around. The guitar was sounding so damn dark and muffled.

The set screws of the pot knobs are way too rusted (I tried with wd40, beating and rattling) so i had to rip the pots apart. Dunno if i can rescue the knobs somehow.



I wired the thing horribly but managed to get it working. No tone pot (no need, really), sounds SO MUCH better and clearer!
I'll take it to my guitar repair guy to see if it needs a complete refret or if he can just sand them down a bit like he did on one of my Squier Venus guitars.

[Kinx]

...what would you do?
Any good refinners here in the EU?

super cool! I would consider a refin tho. As for refinishers in EU, I can't recommend Ondrej Vlk (The Wolf Guitars - website ) from Czech Republic enough, he's the best - he's worked on all of my guitars and saved every one of them, even the unsalvagable ones Here's a sample of his work, he recently refinished a trashed '67 Coronado

[Pacafeliz]

[ludobag1]

for your knobs ,you have to drill the screws
use a little drill (less 0,5mm or 1 mm under the size of screw)
a vise and a drill press will made it easyer ,but the screws are often in brass and really ezasy to drill ,sometime in steel more harder but doable also

[MattK]

Maybe reverse the drill so if it frees up, it will unscrew rather than disintegrating