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Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 1:00 am
by Dieca
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Check out these pics from these listings

https://reverb.com/item/915191-1976-fen ... rare-maple

https://reverb.com/au/item/233216-rare- ... -near-mint

I'd say you have a legit 70's fender neck on your hands there, wonder if theres still any evidence of a decal under that black paint. You could carefuly sand it back to see, decal from that era would have been under the clear so might still be there if the headstock wasnt stripped first.

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 2:07 am
by mgeek
Yeah that's deffo a fender neck- pretty sure my old musicmaster bass had an 'Armenta' stamp on it

curiouser and curiouser

What scale length is it, and what sucks about it enough that it made you doubt it? New fretboard perhaps?

Can't see any blue in the pics, perhaps worth a further poke around under the scratchplate? The routing does look pretty mustang-like to me, what am I missing? I wonder when Fender abandoned the bridge pickup rout on mms...

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 4:52 am
by jvin248
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It's a guitar worth saving. I save a lot of guitars, because I can get them cheap and have a great player when I'm done. Last one was a Teisco Tulip with bad back bow that after trying other things I had to just remove and reset the fretboard. It got all new stainless frets in the process. On yours, if it's fretwork you don't like then use a fret rocker and if high spots all over then do a fret level or replace with stainless and level and crown.

You can make a router sled and clean up the routing if it bothers you but it's going to be covered in the end.

Get a new pickguard and some fun pickups. I'm a fan of black with tort these days. Less with gold though so I see your interest in swapping those bits out.

I'd be tempted to use just a bridge humbucker and a 4-way switch to control both bobbins for 'neck'/parallel/'bridge'/series humbucker. I have a Tele I converted to an Esquire-H this way. Adjusting pickup height and screw poles I get great separation and it's a fun guitar to play. The Epiphone Junior I have is wired with push/pull tone coil split and the coil is rotated so the screw pole side gives a little darker P90 tone than if they were up against the bridge.

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Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 8:39 am
by Jazzmastervsjaguar
I would say that this is probably a Fender neck as well. Here is a link to dating 70's fender necks:

https://www.strat-central.com/70sstrats/index.htm

Looks like it would be from the 3rd week in 1978 on a Tuesday according to your stamp. It also sports the F/R/R inspection stamp.

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 9:20 am
by fartboy
thanks guys. Wow, interesting. I think my problem was partly that it had never been set up properly, so the action was ridiculously high, and it never played as well as my 66 Mustang. Also, think i'm just not a huge fan of maple fretboards. That said, like the strats I've had with them

check and it's 24" scale. May have all originally been the same guitar, not a partscaster (partstang?). It has a lot of issues aside from playing though. The original tuner screw holes have been filled in, and has a wicked crack that runs all the way through the headstock that's been pretty badly repaired

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I've bought a 66 Mustang 24" that hopefully will slip in.

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 2:59 am
by mgeek
haha that headstock break is amazing... totally possible to do a better fix though

Maybe the fretboard was damaged at the same time and replaced with a maple one?

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 10:45 am
by will
Yup - I've seen that name on Fender Necks, and I've had a maple-boarded Fender Mustang neck - looks like it is genuine to me! (though possibly modded under that black paint?)

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 11:32 pm
by fartboy
will wrote:
Thu May 21, 2020 10:45 am
Yup - I've seen that name on Fender Necks, and I've had a maple-boarded Fender Mustang neck - looks like it is genuine to me! (though possibly modded under that black paint?)
Didn’t the mustang have two string trees? This only has one for some reason

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Sat May 23, 2020 2:01 pm
by Dieca
fartboy wrote:
Thu May 21, 2020 11:32 pm
will wrote:
Thu May 21, 2020 10:45 am
Yup - I've seen that name on Fender Necks, and I've had a maple-boarded Fender Mustang neck - looks like it is genuine to me! (though possibly modded under that black paint?)
Didn’t the mustang have two string trees? This only has one for some reason
Plenty of mustangs have just one string tree, my 72 included. A quick look on reverb seems to show most late 70's mustangs have two, whereas its just one before that. Of course, there might be a plugged string tree hole under that paint.

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 6:06 am
by solfege
You sure you don't have a Duo Sonic II body there? They didn't have trems but did have top controls like a Mustang.

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 11:46 am
by fartboy
solfege wrote:
Tue May 26, 2020 6:06 am
You sure you don't have a Duo Sonic II body there? They didn't have trems but did have top controls like a Mustang.
Yeah, that or a musicmaster II, possibly?

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 11:49 am
by fartboy
Are there any good repro drop in machineheads for a 1966 fender mustang neck? As far as I understand the official ones won’t actually fit vintage spec as the holes are different sizes? Or do I just have to bite the bullet & pay stupid money for an original set?

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:52 pm
by will
fartboy wrote:
Tue May 26, 2020 11:49 am
Are there any good repro drop in machineheads for a 1966 fender mustang neck? As far as I understand the official ones won’t actually fit vintage spec as the holes are different sizes? Or do I just have to bite the bullet & pay stupid money for an original set?
There's a set up on reverb/ebay now for 100. If you search or wait, you might be able to find a set for around 80.

A maple neck might be new enough to use the later-style "F" tuners

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:55 am
by fartboy
quick update on where this is at. After a few false starts (scratchplates that did not fit, repro tuners that did not fit) I've started to gather parts. going for minimal as it's my first time doing this

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Q single coil hand wound pickup in neck position, with a repro duosonic style scratchplate (fit is a bit snug, but it'll do)

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Mustang neck. have some vintage f tuners that should fit on the way. Also just bought a duosonic bridge and control panel.

I've never soldered before, so this is possibly the most daunting bit. Any good guides or diagrams I should consult?>

Re: first project- restoring this....

Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 9:49 am
by will
Soldering isn't too tricky once you get the hang of it - make sure that the connections you're soldering are clean, and you get them hot enough with the iron so that the solder melts when it touches the connection (if you melt the solder by touching it to the iron, you'll wind up with gloppy connections.)

There are lots of sources for wiring diagrams - a search for "Musicmaster wiring" should pull some up.