My Affair with Fender’s ‘Best Kept Secret’ Guitar – The Mustang!

I was born in the early eighties, which makes me a nineties kid. That, as a guitar player, can only mean one thing; being heavily influenced by alternative rock music and loving offset guitars.

Well, I’m lucky enough to own a ‘66 Fender Mustang that has been in my hands for the past 15 years. I fell in love with it from the first moment from an aesthetic point of view, but the sound of that guitar grew in me this past decade and a half.

It’s the rare case of a guitar influencing a guitarist and not a player using a guitar to sound like himself.

I have played my Mustang in every scenario you can think of and have a profound understanding of what it can do, where it shines, and where it falls short.

I’ll pour 15 years of experience into a single post that will tell you exactly what a Mustang can do and if it’s the guitar you need to look for next.

The Fender Mustang, A Well-Kept Secret (Until Now)

The Fender Mustang is a bit of an outcast even for the offset world. We know that next to the almighty Stratocaster and the revolutionary Telecaster, offset guitars are a couple of steps below. That said, these guitars are making a comeback to the music mainstream in the hands of some of the biggest acts on the planet.

Even in that scenario, while Jazzmasters are the most popular offsets, Jaguars follow. But we have yet to see the Fender Mustang explode in terms of popularity and sales.

But here’s the catch, Fender has had many models in the past that went away without even making it to the big picture. I’m talking about guitars like the Coronado, the Swinger, the Maverick, the Electric XII, the Montego, the Bitzer, the Starcaster, and other outrageous ‘80s creatures like the Performer and the Katana.

So, why did the Mustang survive in the shadows since it was first introduced in 1964 and didn’t fall into that long list of Fender failures? Well, the answer is simple, because it’s a timeless killer guitar.

Yes, the Mustang isn’t just a Cobain favorite or Matt Healy’s go-to instrument. The Mustang imitates no other instrument and has a tone to call its own. That, in guitar world, is a lot to say.

Most of those other guitars named above are examples of Fender jumping into unknown territory trying to capture a new audience. Whether it was pleasing jazz players wanting big hollow-body guitars or ‘80s rockers needing triplebuckers to sound louder and meaner, Fender tried it all.

The Mustang, on the opposite, is pure Fender mojo and nothing but Leo’s brilliant intellect applied to making the best instrument possible. We’ll get into that in depth in a bit, but the tremolo system and pickup switching options were way ahead of their time.

The Mustang was produced by Fender from 1964 until 1982 and then reissued in 1990, manufactured in Japan.

But enough with all this historic mumbo jumbo, let’s get to the juicy part; how does the Fender Mustang sound?

The Fender Mustang’s Signature Sound

The Fender Mustang sounds like nothing else in Fender’s catalog. Believe me, I’ve played Strats from $150 to $15,000 and none can do what a Mustang does. The same goes for Teles, Jazzmasters, Jaguars, and any other Fender-made instrument.

Much of that has to do with the pickup switching system. To be perfectly honest with you, sliding switches to the side is not the handiest thing to play live and it does have a learning curve to get used to those sounds and finding a place for them.

That said, once you do, the guitar transforms into this brush capable of painting many different textures.

The Biggest Neck Pickup on Earth

This is the pickup I play the most. I would say that my guitar probably lives in this position more than in any other. It’s a weird occurrence that a guitar with a 24” scale and a small, contoured body as the Mustang can sound so big, dark, and mean.

Well, let me tell you a little bit about this pickup. I sometimes work as a guitar doctor bringing amps, guitars, pedals, and gear to recordings and helping players get the sound they want out of them. I was working with a band last weekend and they had this country-like tune that was half Johnny Cash and half Kyuss. It had a droning stoner vibe going over a sparkly set of chords.

We tried a Telecaster and an SG Jr., and we were lacking body and darkness. That was until we plugged in the Mustang. The guitar sound grew and became not only bigger but also darker and more menacing when coupled with a souped-up valve head.

If you want a truly mammoth-like neck pickup sound, the Fender Mustang is your choice. The one thing I did to mine was to lift it to be close to the strings and have more gain.

The Bridge Pickup is Not It

While the neck pickup is humongous, the bridge pickup is very small and thin. Yes, there’s something about the way the bridge pickup is set that makes this guitar have a very big contrast between the pickups.

My Fender Mustang needs to have a higher bridge because of intonation shortcomings. But besides my Mustang, I’ve played many different models. Don’t worry, we’ll talk about what’s available in the market toward the end of this article. What I’m trying to say is that the bridge pickup sounding thin and small is a treat that Fender Mustangs offer.

Yes, if you want to go from big, bold, dark tones to something smaller and jinglier, you can just do it by switching pickups. Plus, it’s a great platform for pedals because the Mustang and obnoxious levels of distortion or fuzz are a match made in heaven.

Hey, the alternative bands of the nineties didn’t just embrace the Mustang because it looks cool, the low gain of the bridge pickup allows more pedal juice going into your favorite amp.

Believe me, I’ve road-tested this feature, way more than once.

An Out-of-Phase Funky Machine

I talked about the Mustang’s pickups but there’s a feature that’s present in the Mustang that’s very hard to find on any other guitar. I guess a great example of what I’m about to tell you is the reissue of the legendary Gibson Les Paul “Greeny” by the Epiphone Custom Shop.

What’s the difference between that guitar and most other Les Pauls? The out-of-phase neck pickup and its uncanny tone. If you take a closer look, you’ll see that the bolts of the neck pickup are facing the same direction as the bridge pickup ones.

Well, the Fender Mustang already had the in-phase and out-of-phase feature available in 1964. The slider switches on top of your pickups can activate or deactivate each pickup and put it in and out of phase.

Therefore, the tone you get when you set your pickup selector to both pickups out of phase is perfect to play funk. It has that piercing, mid-infused tone that could make Neil Rodgers proud.

I’ve used it in the studio and live in this setting and it’s a definite head-turner. People have asked me if I was playing a Stratocaster in certain songs. I would smile and say it’s my Mustang out of phase.

But that’s not all, because you can also put both sliders to work in phase. In that position, you can get close to that Tele tone with the neck and bridge pickups on.

This guitar gives you many combinations to work with. The Fender Mustang’s tonal palette is not only broad and all-terrain, but it can also give you some unexpected tones that are not available on any other instrument.

A Fuzz-Friendly Guitar

Before ending this part about the tones you can get from this amazing guitar, let’s talk about this guitar and its relationship with gain stages.

For a moment in my life, I played in a post-punk band. This means I used to play with lots of distortion and fuzz. My signal chain was as easy as three pedals and a tuner. I had my Tube Screamer, a Tech 21 Double Drive (an absolute bomb of a pedal, highly underrated), and a Big Muff Pi.

Why is the Fender Mustang such a gain-friendly guitar? Well, the answer is in the pickups.

If you’re familiar with gain staging or gain cascading, you know that guitars that have hot pickups tend to overdrive everything they’re plugged into. The Mustang is a guitar with very low gain, therefore it’s a great platform to work with several stages.

I usually start it with an overdrive pedal and go for a distortion pedal (it used to be a Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion before the Double Drive) and a fuzz pedal to top it off.

Playing with my bridge pickup is especially good for fuzzed-out tones. In the same vein, the neck pickup gets even bigger with the fuzz.

One downside of the Mustang’s low gain is that when you play with multiple guitars live, you need to level up the volume to match that difference. For example, I play with my Mustang live and use two Tube Screamers with different volume levels.

Yes, I know what you’re wondering, and the answer is absolutely; I do play with both overdrives turned on. It’s twice the fun!

The Fender Mustang’s Amazing Playability

Sound-wise, the Mustang grows in you, and if you know how to work your way with pedals, you can get a plethora of tones from it.

But that’s just half the tale because playability is a dealmaker or deal-breaker for most of us. In the case of the Fender Mustang, it’s a dealmaker.

Let me break it down for you part by part.

Short Scale, Small Neck

The original Fender student models of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s came in two scale sizes, 22.5” and 24”. The production model Fender Mustang is always 24”, just like the neck you’d find on a Jaguar.

But the small scale isn’t, to me, the most distinctive thing about the Mustang’s neck. On the contrary, what makes the biggest difference is the neck’s width at the first fret. Yes, it’s not only smaller than most guitars but also has a nice round back closer to a D than a C.

I haven’t played any neck that’s more comfortable to play open chords.

Some people might say that their fingers feel a little crammed but as a counterpart to that, bends are not only easy to play but stretch beautifully. Yes, you get the best of Gibson’s butter-like playability for solos, bends, and such coupled with Fender’s maple neck spank and percussiveness.

The small neck isn’t the best for everybody, and when you first pick up a Mustang, it might feel a little too small for you. Believe me, it’ll get much more comfortable with time.

The Vibrato System and My Pinky

The vibrato system of the Mustang isn’t just revolutionary but is also a great unit to add just a little extra to your playing’s dynamics.

Mustang bridges have a big, round metal bar that can be used with your pinky or with a whammy bar. Vintage models do not have a locking tremolo arm, which makes playing with a tremolo bar kind of a game of luck. You can easily lose it mid-show and never see it again.

Whammy bars, picks, and guitar cables all tend to go to the Twilight Zone and stay there forever.

So, instead of using a whammy bar, you can just activate the tremolo system with your pinky and make a wavy effect that sounds great. It’s important to say, though, that if your guitar isn’t properly set up, it’ll go out of tune.

The shorter scale gives the guitar a little less tuning stability than regular 25.5” scale guitars. This is because strings have less tension.

Playing My Mustang Live

Playing the Mustang live requires certain measures I’ve learned with time. Let me share them with you.

• I always make sure I have a different overdrive pedal set especially for it so I can level it with the rest of my guitars.
• I try to perform tone changes with my pedals rather than switch pickups because it’s not easy to do it live.
• I put some Vaseline in the nut so strings will move freely, and I can carelessly use my pinky for the tremolo system.

Playing My Mustang in the Studio

The Mustang in a studio becomes a big palette full of bright colors that can paint many different pictures. Here are some scenarios I’ve used it (and this guitar has shone) in.

• To play funk with the out-of-phase setting of the pickups directly into my Fender Deluxe Reverb 65 reissue amp. I only add a little of the reverb’s amp to thicken it a pinch.
• To play some obscure, stoner-like, tremolo-infused music the darkness of the neck pickup of the Mustang is just perfect.
• To play stoner music, post-punk, or any other high-gain, fuzzed-out music style, the Mustang can handle up to two fuzz pedals cascading into each other.
• To play extra-clean, small-sounding guitars, the bridge pickup straight into an amp guarantees extra-clean tones that might not sound amazing alone but work perfectly in the mix.

Squier’s Current Available Models

Let’s begin with the most affordable models that are always in the Squier realm. You can choose from three models that get increasingly less affordable toward the top-of-the-line Classic Vibe guitars.

Squier Sonic Mustang

The most affordable of Mustangs is a great bang-for-the-buck instrument. It’s perfect for those starting out but can make a great second or third guitar as well (with some minor overhauling). It comes with a maple neck and a couple of single coils as well as a hardtail bridge.

The HH Version

For those who want more gain and power without sacrificing comfort and playability, the HH version is really cool. It comes with an Indian laurel fingerboard.

Squier Bullet Competition Mustang

This guitar is the closest to the Bumble Bee Transformer you’ll get in Guitar Land. But besides the yellow and black paint job, this guitar has a key difference from the above model; it’s a string-through-body construction. You get some of that nice Telecaster-like resonance with a pair of mighty humbuckers and neck-turning looks.

All of that is for just a very small money difference with the Sonic model.

Classic Vibe ‘60s Mustang

Classic Vibe instruments are Squier’s highest tier. I’ve opened many boxes and played a handful of Classic Vibe Mustangs and they’re serious guitars. The biggest difference between the lower models and the ’60s Classic Vibe Mustangs is that they look like the real thing. This guitar has the proper tremolo, pickups, switching system, and vibe the original one has.

Fender’s Current Available Models

While Squier instruments make great entry-level axes to explore your guitar abilities with, when the logo turns to Fender, you know you’re getting serious. Well, we’ll talk about it in a bit, but the Mustang’s triumphant return has inspired many Mexico and USA-made variants that are cool.

Fender Player Mustang

Fender’s Player Series Mustang has been a best-seller. It packs all the things you expect from Fender at an affordable price. Well, in this case, the Fender Player Mustang is closer in design and features to the Squier entry-level model than to the real thing.

Although it lacks all the cool features that make the Mustang such a special guitar, the good news is that it has a thing of its own as a version of the early duo-sonic.

The Player II Series by Fender takes the same concept up a notch. They’ve upgraded the fingerboard to rosewood, improved bridges and hardware, and created fretboards with rolled edges. Also, this guitar’s Alnico 5 pickups give this model a big low-end in the neck pickup that’s closer to the original.

The P90 Version

The P-90 version of the Player Series Fender Mustang is even further away from the original concept. The dual P-90 pickups and the short scale make you think you’re playing a Gibson Special. Yet, the spank of the maple neck and the comfort of the 9.5” radius make it a rocking beast. Well, just like Gibson Specials are.

Fender Vintera II ‘70s Competition Mustang

This is the first guitar in the Fender line that looks, sounds and works like the original. Let me tell you that if you want a Mustang as your 3^rd guitar, you’re not gigging relentlessly, are a casual strummer, or just think they’re cool, this is it. You can get all I said above about my ’66 Mustang here.

In a sense, I guess I can say that in my guitar the lows are lower and more defined, the middle is mellower, and the high end is more musical, but in essence, it’s all here in the Vintera II Mustang.

Plus, how cool are the competition stripes, right?

Fender American Performer Mustang

The Fender American Performer Mustang is a great guitar if you’re playing it a lot and want to hit the road with your Mustang. The key aspects are the Yosemite pickups, which sound great and super clean, the redesigned tremolo system that locks your whammy bar in place, and the 18:1 vintage-looking ClassicGear tuners.

On the low side, Fender decided to remove sliders and just put a three-way switch. It’s cool for the road, but it takes some of the sounds the Mustang is well-known for away. As a counterweight to that, you have dependability and ease of use.

Oh, and special kudos to the jumbo frets that make your life as a player much easier.

A Custom Shop Student’s Guitar?

The Fender Mustang hasn’t (yet) been issued in the American Vintage line. This means that you can’t buy a USA-made reissue Mustang that’s faithful to the original. The closest you can get is the American Performer. It’s a great guitar, but it’s not the real deal.

That said, you can order one from the Custom Shop. Yes, the guitar that once was a student model can be ordered (at the specs you want) from the Fender Custom Shop.

You can buy a ‘70s model, maybe refinished at the price of a Custom Shop instrument. That said, if you want yours customized with modern appointments, then the Custom Shop is the way.

Otherwise, just look one up and you’ll have a plethora of vintage options online.

The Mustang’s Triumphant Return

Before concluding this love letter to all Mustangs, let me tell you that, just like the offset guitars made a stellar appearance after hair metal and floating tremolo days were over, they’re stepping on the forefront of the stage right now.

These are some of the players you can look up and catch playing Mustangs. As you’ll notice, some are from back in the day and some are from right now.

• Matt Healy (The 1975)
• Brendon Urie (Panic at the Disco)
• Frank Black
• Bilinda Butcher (My Bloody Valentine)
• Theresa Wayman (Warpaint)
• John Frusciante
• Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie)
• Adrian Belew
• Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn
• John McLaughlin
• Blixa Bargeld (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds)
• Rory Gallagher
• Mac DeMarco
• Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)
• Omar Rodríguez-López (The Mars Volta, At the Drive-In)
• David Byrne (Talking Heads)
• Norah Jones
• Bob Mothersbaugh (DEVO)

Perhaps the most important player in the history of the Mustang was the one and only Kurt Cobain. It was his playing behind a smoke curtain and next to evil cheerleaders in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video that gave the Mustang the second chance it deserved.

Closing Thoughts

Fender Mustangs are great guitars. They’re awesome instruments for the price and all-around great guitars to play with. As you saw above, they have shortcomings and strengths and some hidden, secret sounds that are just great.

But above all, what Mustangs have is an uncanny sound that’s filled with personality, character, and loads of tone. So, if you are thinking about it, go try one today.

Who knows, I might be reading your Mustang love letter soon too!

Happy (Mustang) playing!