Poll: Squier Bullet Mustang worth its price?

[JSutter]

When they were $119 it was a good deal. Now they are $179 which I think is too much.

[hexes]

Remember the Showmaster? Never had one, but these were out there at a formative stage in my guitar playing. 7-strings were becoming all the rage and were blowing my mind.

oh I do. i wanted one bad (still want a 7 string) that's when i bought an ibanez RG for a space rock band, the showmasters weren't available locally.

[Acidhouse]

When they were $119 it was a good deal. Now they are $179 which I think is too much.

I saw that Musician's Friend had them for sale this weekend at I think $129.00.

[Embenny]

Ok, so I admit I own a shameful number of guitars. Among them, I have a vintage '62 jag, '66 jag, and '65 mustang. I have several hand built custom acoustics, each made with figured woods and incredible attention to detail in the woodworking.

Yesterday, I pulled out my blue sparkly bullet mustang and my wife said, "That is the prettiest guitar you own. It's my favourite."

I tried not to let that hurt my feelings. Buy, yeah, it was worth the $150.

[JSutter]

When they were $119 it was a good deal. Now they are $179 which I think is too much.

I saw that Musician's Friend had them for sale this weekend at I think $129.00.

Yes, they go on sale often.

[Pepe Silvia]

How are the necks on these? Are they smaller than a typical Mustang/Jag neck?

[JSutter]

How are the necks on these? Are they smaller than a typical Mustang/Jag neck?

It is very thin (thinnest of all my guitars actually) and flat, 12" radius. Nut width feels on par with my Blacktop Jaguar. The fret work is good. The rest could use some sanding.

[mackerelmint]

Yeah, I kinda really want one of these to mod as well. I know they're thin, but I gotta ask: are they so thin that routing for a trem bilindastang style would blow through the other side? And if so... should I even care?

[Embenny]

Yeah, I kinda really want one of these to mod as well. I know they're thin, but I gotta ask: are they so thin that routing for a trem bilindastang style would blow through the other side? And if so... should I even care?

I happen to have an AVRI vibrato in my parts drawer, so I did a couple of eyeballed measurements with my tape measure (couldn't remember where my caliper is at the moment). The Bullet body looks to be about 1 11/16" and the AVRI vibrato is about 1 1/2" deep. I'm not sure how much you can reduce that by tightening the spring adjustment screw, but I certainly wouldn't trust routing it to 3/16" deep in the trem cavity. Plus, probably 1/8" or more of that body thickness is the poly finish, so you might have like 1/8" of wood there if you routed a 1.5" term cavity.

TLDR; it's a great model platform for just about anything but a bilindastang setup.

[mackerelmint]

Yeah, I kinda really want one of these to mod as well. I know they're thin, but I gotta ask: are they so thin that routing for a trem bilindastang style would blow through the other side? And if so... should I even care?

I happen to have an AVRI vibrato in my parts drawer, so I did a couple of eyeballed measurements with my tape measure (couldn't remember where my caliper is at the moment). The Bullet body looks to be about 1 11/16" and the AVRI vibrato is about 1 1/2" deep. I'm not sure how much you can reduce that by tightening the spring adjustment screw, but I certainly wouldn't trust routing it to 3/16" deep in the trem cavity. Plus, probably 1/8" or more of that body thickness is the poly finish, so you might have like 1/8" of wood there if you routed a 1.5" term cavity.

TLDR; it's a great model platform for just about anything but a bilindastang setup.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Honestly, thank you for measuring that. That's pretty much what I had figured and I'm a little surprised that it wouldn't blow through the other side since full thickness mustang bodies don't have a lot of meat there either, as I understand it. These guys are so cheap though that I'm kinda not that worried about it and if I needed to just slap something on the back of it to shore up the strength or even patch a hole strat-style, I'd be fine with doing that. Sub $200 mod platform guitars are perfect for doing shameful things to.

[Embenny]

Well, you've got a point there. If you routed clean through the body and put a metal plate on the back (with...a lot...of wood screws), you could just have the plunger pushing against the plate instead of the wood.

No idea how well that would work, but its possible if you're willing to risk it.

The funny thing is that an AVRI vibrato costs as much as the entire guitar. Even my G&L clearance pickups and pickguard came out to roughly the same price as the entire rest of the guitar. No regrets about that, though. There aren't many swimming pool-routed offset bodies around that would work with Z-coils.

[Pepe Silvia]

Just ordered a Surf Green one. Too cheap to not give it a shot

[Pepe Silvia]

What pickguards fit these? I want to swap in regular Mustang pickups when mine arrives and was getting a parts order together now.

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

I gave one of the sonic grey ones to my niece for her birthday, last autumn - and before she received it I had it for a few days to try it out and - in case - do some maintenance - but there was nothing needed to be done.
I noticed one rough spot between the nut and the E-tuner which could have been sanded - but otherwise pretty good out of the box. The neck felt great, the finish was flawless.

The pickups were quite alright too. I expected worse. Maybe a bit gritty. In my case it didn‘t wake the grunge kid in me but it was screaming for fast garage-rock chord progressions.
I didn‘t open it up - but the swimming-pool route makes sense - as it is really really light. Thin too (I thought about doable bridge mods if I‘d get another one for myself, and putting my Surf90s in it - but I had just treated myself with a VM Jag at this point for exactly this purpose)

I remember it to keep the tuning for quite some time - but no long time experience. Would have to try that thing again the next time I visit them.
Love the colour. All in all I‘d say it‘s totally worth the 145€ I payed for it. Not a VM quality wise - but a total fun guitar.

[Pacafeliz]

DAMMIT FOLKS STOP IT

this staying at home thing makes me buy unnecessary stuff.
But I have these cool old Maxon humbuckers here and nothing to put them into...