Post
by honeyiscool » Tue Aug 11, 2015 10:12 am
You must have had a really heavy Mustang, then. Normally, Jags seem to weigh in at 8.5 lb or more, and Mustangs tend to top out at 7.5 lb, but most of mine have been under 7 lb. I've had several Mustangs, all Japanese:
1. '69 RI Sonic Blue (basswood) - I bought this used. I think this was built in the 90s or early 00s when the Japanese Mustangs were not made to particularly good standards. You can tell because the bridge saddles have gaps between them. I don't really remember what I found so mediocre about it, but it just never played all that well. This might be due to neglect, because the neck was quite nice, very thin. I also wasn't all that good at making mods back then, and while I installed Kinman pickups that sounded fantastic, I think maybe I wasn't quite able to get every ounce of quality from it.
2. '65 RI Dakota Red (poplar) - This guitar was quite perfect out of the box. I just found it to be an excellent guitar out of the box. I bought it new, I think it was $699 back then. I really like this model of Mustang a lot. Every Japanese Mustang I've seen post mid-00s or so has been excellent, and there are no more gaps in the saddles. The '65 RI has the slab body and the gaps between pickguard and control plate, which I think is supposed to mimic an aged, shrunken pickguard, because I don't know if they came like that from the factory. I love this model a lot. I feel that it gets a lot of things right. I love the '65 RI stock pickups, but this is also the guitar that started my Lace Sensor obsession, and I had a pair of Hot Golds in there.
3. '65 RI Daphne Blue (poplar) - This one, I bought used for quite a good price. It wasn't quite the same level of excellence as the Dakota Red one, but I think maybe it just needed a really good setup. The thing is, with these vintage style necks, I think I used to fear the truss rod adjustments, but a properly adjusted truss rod and well maintained frets can take a guitar from "good" to "wow" and I guess I just didn't quite nail it. The other thing is, I kind of missed the Sonic Blue after having the Daphne Blue. I think I put some GFS pickups in there. I sold it to a friend for a very friendly price and he loves it.
4. '73 RI Vintage Olympic White (basswood) - This one, I still have, and it's where I started to make more drastic adjustments, culminating in the final form I illustrated above. I think these 73s are slightly lighter than 65s, which if I remember correctly, were probably right about 7 lb on the scale. My 73s are both in the 6.5-6.75 lb range. The neck seems slightly thinner, too. There are no gaps between the pickguard and control plate, and the '73s have the competition stripes and the matching headstock. The only issue with this guitar I've had is that the basswood dents somewhat easily, but you know what, that's kind of my fault, too. Over the years, I've really come to love guitars made of basswood and agathis because anyone who says they sound bad is only saying that because a lot of cheaper guitars are made of these woods and those guitars have a lot more than tonewood holding them back.
5. Kurt Cobain Signature, Lake Placid Blue (alder) - Kind of a weird thing about this one. To me, the most iconic Kurt Cobain Mustang is the one in the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, Competition LPB with matching headstock. So why no matching headstock on this one? I don't know. It's not THE reason, but it's just one of the few reasons I didn't really bond with it. The other thing is the ABR-1 bridge. I really truly hate it. I just don't think it's the right bridge for a Mustang, though I eventually got a Wilkinson roller bridge to work pretty well. And the JB? Actually, I like the JB a lot. It really worked well with a Lace Sensor Emerald in the neck, produced some truly stunning tones, and I came up with a really good wiring configuration for it. I actually had a really good configuration on this one way before I did on the '73. But unfortunately, the guitar was pretty heavy for a Mustang and the neck was kind of thick. None of these things by themselves would have kept me from loving this guitar. But when you combined them all, I just didn't feel it anymore, and it's a shame because I really wanted to like this guitar.
6. '73 RI Fiesta Red (basswood) - Everything I love about the white one can be said about this one.
I think that the recent built '69s and '73s are only different in cosmetics. They should feel and sound almost identical. However, the earlier '69s are not as good as the later ones, IMO, so buying a '73 RI is a lot easier to know what you're getting. But you can easily sort the early '69 builds out just by looking at the bridge saddles because if they're gappy, they're the old ones. The '65 RI is a very good one if, and that's a big if, you like the slab body, but to me, that, and the kind of demure cosmetics, dooms that model for me, but they're really great guitars. '69 RI also is all over the place in terms of specs, so you have to be certain exactly what you're getting. Some have matching headstocks, some have competition stripes, but none both, except for the '69 RI Beck model in orange. There's one really cool '69 RI that's all black w/ a black headstock and DiMarzio pickups, which to me is the rarest and best of the MG69s (MG69/DP/MH), which you see Hyde from L'Arc~en~Ciel play a lot. There's even one that has a gold pickguard and two humbuckers, the MG69 ALG 2H. And technically the Kurt Cobain models are all based on the MG69, so as I mentioned, the '69s are all over the place in specs.
Unfortunately, I no longer have the LP Tribute. I loved that guitar, and what tones it had, but the neck cracked near the headstock one day, and while I repaired it quite well and the guitar was fine, I guess I could never really trust it after that.
