Fender '69 Reissue Mustang

this is the update to my old review...
I locked the trem. down for more solid tuning and better sustain...
I put a Seymoure Duncan JB jr. in the bridge. it sounds awesome!
I pulled the shitty excuses for tuners that fender had on there and added Schaller backlash tuners. It stays in tune forever. I could tune it and have a 4 hour band practice, come back the next day and do it again, and still be in tune. My buddy had to tune his Gibson SG standard every other song...

i play a lotta punk, anong other things. this works for it all. I use a superfuzz that i built through a fender deluxe 85 with a peavey scorpion speaker. it sounds great if you put a lot of work in it. Definitely change pu's

The action is alright. It is easy to play and it has good feel, but i think SG's and good Ibanezes have crisper and more solid action. Not bad, though

i have had this thing for three years and it's going strong. Honestly, i've NEVER broken a string on it. I've beaten it pretty good at shows and practices, even threw it. I play hard on DR 9's, and they won't break. the rounded saddles help a lot. Seriously, you could go on a killing spree with this thing and it would still have all the strings on and in tune. Little dings are common, cause the wood is kinda soft... Chrome got kinda crappy, but that's my negligence and abuse...

how the hell should i know. Once those whores get your cash, they're probably not to hesitant to tell you to go blow yourself, though.

After all the mods, i love it. If it were stolen, someone would be getting a battery acid enema if i don't get it back...
I've played for almost 5 years. I have a cyclone with an EMG 81, an epi SG in project stage, and i've played tons of other guitars. I still like this one, though. I like it a lot better since i modified it. Also, dan can tell ya that I'm here to help if you need it. I've got tons of diagrams.

Not sure what year this was made, but I think it was from back in 96' when they reissued this (69 mustang version) and the Jaguar. I got it a little knicked up, but it never effected it's sound. Its got 22 frets and has a Sonic Blue finish although it kinda has some sea foam green in it. I love the color, I wish I could have it for every Fender guitar. It has a red pickgaurd and with all the metal hardware, it just looks retro and vintage. For pickups, I liked them but didn't prefer the brigde single coil. So I got a Red Fender Lace Sensor and it sounds great and very hot tone. I'd reccommend putting U.S. lace sensors in because they don't take away from the original look like a humbucker would and they just fit the guitar. I am also looking to replace the neck with a gold lace sensor. The woods are basswood(body) and a one piece maple neck with vintage tuners. I don't see why Fender doesn't upgrade these kind of tuners on their American models. They are very low maintenance and hold their tune just as good. I love how u just cut the string it lentgh and then stick in down into the hole rather than through it. That way, you never have to worry about loose strings or getting poked in the fingers. The brigde is a floating vibrato tailpiece and brigde in one. you can take the whole thing off if you want and its got a wrap around style tailpiece. If you could make it hardtail somehow, this thing would never go out of tune. It the only thing I hate about. I've seen custom models with the same bridge hardtailed so I know it is possible. they should really make this guitar over in a America, it is so underrated. And the frets are smaller and the action is very low, but its great to play and sounds good for many styles. I play everything from Hendrix to Weezer to Incubus on this thing so it is very versatile. I'd make my own custom Mustang model if I could. The pick up selectors get in the way of up and down strokes but they offer lots of options.

I play this baby through a brand new Marshall AVT50 and it is surely a match. The lace sensor has a great humbucker high output tone and the Marshall has the bass I always wanted. I'd like to try it through a Mesa/Boogie sometime too, just to see how great it would sound. But the clean on this guitar is so crisp I really love it. I play in band with originals and covers and it suits everything we play, which is mostly alternative and rock. The pickup combos are great too, some are very subtle but noticeable while the neck and bridge are opposites in sounds.

the action is great but the frets could be bigger. I like the medium jumbo frets and just the distance between each of them could be scaled larger. The basswood body is very soft so it knicks up easily and my finish is very cracked. I am looking to upgrade to an alder body, but I worry about getting that great sonic sea foam blue color. Its the coolest Fender color around. The finish is great and the body is a nice size and fit.

I play this thing live all the time in my band and record with it and I am always pleased. It is a very good live guitar and I can't wait to see the options the Marshall has to record with. It has a nice jack that emulates a stack sound so that would be nice to hear the Mustang through. Its tooken many a hits and has its battle scars but it always gets back into tune so its reliable, but I still would like to replace the body sometime and the pickguard.

Considering this model is only offered in Japan at the moment, some of Fender's staff might not know too much about it, but I am sure there is someone who can guide u in the right direction with this guitar.

I had this guitar for 4 years I believe and I have been playing for almost 7 years so I know what's up guitar wise. As I said, I own a Marshall AVT50 amp and have a chorus pedal and Crybaby wah for it. If it were stolen and I had enough money, I'd call up Fender to order a Custom Model and guard it with my life. Plus, I'd track down who ever took it and beat them. I love the look and feel and just the vintage coolness of it but the modern tone and Lace sensor bridge pickup. I wish it had the same bridge hardtailed, so someday I will just take out the springs and drill the damn tailpiece into the guitar and that will be the end of it. Otherwise, a damn fine guitar.

Made in Japan,1996 50th anniversary. 22 frets 1 vol.,1 tone two lace-sensor single coil pickups each has thier own selector switch.
Basswood body i believe??? Thick SEA Foam BLue with red tortise shell pick guard. Floating bridge, stock tuners, rosewood fretboard.

I've had this guitar for 4 years. I play mostly '77 style punk rock/emo hardcore to 80's New Wave???(a mixture of everything I like)
The set-up I have as of now is Mustang to Line 6 AX2 212. The guitar sounds great thru this amp although I don't really like the amp to much. It sounds excellent thru a Sovtek All-Tube Mig 100 and with overdrive. Its only noisey by ungrounded equipment??? It has all different tones>>> if u only have the neck PU on its sounds all thick/fat & bluesy.but if the PU selectors are opposite you get kind
of a thin rubbery tone that sounds really neat...but my favorite setting is having both PU selectors to left, its a good mid tone not too fat, not too thin...THe only thing that I'd change on this guitar
is the bridge pickup, I'd like to put in a good humbuker???

When I first bought this guitar I raised the pickups a bit,but that was it....about four months after I had it one of the PU selector wires fell off,but i haven't had a problem since???? the action is low
and very flexible which is good...the salesman that sold this to me said I might wanna change the tuners but I haven't and i've never really had a probalem w/ it going out of tune while playing a show or practicing???

this guitar has seen a number of live shows and numerous practices...
I've never brought a back up to a show because my only other guitar is a LEs Paul Special(and i have to re-sotter the wires back on every couple months)The hardware still looks all shiney and clean(no pitting)the finish has a few chips but thats only cuz of my stupid playing...I replaced the strap buttons with straplocks along time ago
cuz i get kinda jumpy when playing... I doubt I'll gig with a backup(unless i'm playing big venues????)

I never had to deal with Fender???

I've been playing almost five and a half years, and my only other guitar is my epiphone L.P.special and I've had that for only about 2 years, and I still play my mustang all the time plus I use it for recording and live shows(i don't really know why i have the LP???)
If somebody ever stole this i don't know,I'd probally have to beat the SH*T outta them!!!! I love the way this guitar looks, the color is absolutley beautiful, the sound is amazing...the only thing i wish it had is a Sovtek Midget 50 to plug it in to!!!!!!***if you ever get the chance to own one,don't pass it up!***

A 1996 Japanese made "50th Anniversary" reissue of the classic 69 Mustang. It has a cream white body with a red mother of pearl pick gaurd. Everything is stock on the guitar, I have considered replacing the pickups but then it wouldn't retain the wonderfully warm "surf guitar sound" that it was designed for. I hear a lot of people saying that they feel that the pickups are weak, but this guitar has such a range of sound that can be obtained from the two 3-way switches that I have been able to get any sound I desire, it is just a matter of figuring out the switch configuration and fooling around with the amp. The neck is a thin 22 fret, which I love. The only flaw I can find in this guitar is with the whammy bar. For one it doesn't screw in, so if you move around on stage you might run the risk of losing your bar. Secondly the tuning keys don't lend well to heavy use of the whammy, I have noticed the guitar will not stay in tune if you use it.

The sound that can be produced from this guitar is phenominal. I have heard people say that they feel the pickups in the guitar are weak, but I have never felt a need to replace them. The Mustang was made to produce a "surf guitar sound", but with a bit of messing around this guitar can accommodate any style of music. I play in a political rock/punk band, which relies on a strong distorted rythm and good leads. The sound I can get from these pickups is amazing. I use an old Laney 50 watt all tube head through a Crate 4-12 cab. The distortion is straight out of the head, I only use a channel switcher, no distortion pedals. I can see that people could be annoyed with the amount of noise the pickups can produce, especially out of a tube half stack. I have learned to use feedback almost as another instrument, so an accasional hum is not really a concern for me. The sound can range anywhere from a twangy poppy sound, so an almost scary growl. With some patience and experimentation with the switches and the amp you can get any sound you want. From a warm mellow clean sound, so a gut wrenching distorted one this guitar has more variety than any other I have owned, or even played.

I have had a slight problem with how the neck was set up straight from the factory, the action was too low. I have played vintage Mustangs, and the action can be played alot lower than the reissues. So I had to fool around with that when I first got it, but I don't mind having a "meaty" feeling guitar when I play. From what I understand the action on these guitars straight from the factory is notoriously too low, so I don't pay that much mind. As for everything else I have no complaints, this guitar preformed just as good now, as it did straight out of the box.

This guitar has withstanded 4 years of punk shows. I have beat the shit out of this guitar and never once has it failed me. It has been kicked off of guitar stands, nocked off my amp, and even fell off a car once (while in the case) not to mention all the wear and tear 4 years of crazy shows will due to a guitar, and never once has it failed to preform perfectly. The only problem I have had in this respect it with the bridge. On the high E side the adjustment bolt that holds up the bridge fell out at a show once, it is now being held up with a nickel. I replaced the strap buttons for a pair of store bought locking strap buttons, this gives me more assurance that the guitar won't come flying off my shoulder when I am jumping around stage. As far as dependability goes, this guitar is second to none. I have never brought a back up guitar to a show, and as long as this guitar is with me I dont think that I ever will. In fact usually when a guitar player on stage needs a backup I hand him mine. It never fails to preform. I can't stress enought how impressive the durability of this guitar is.

I had a local guitar shop fix the actio on the neck when I first go the guitar, the warranty covered it. Other than that I have never had to get it repaired, and barring some horrible accident I don't think I ever will have to do that.

I have been playing guitar for about 7 years. Aside from the Mustang I have owned a classic 60's strat, and a Westone Electra, which was an 80's heavy metal style guitar. I own a crate 1-12 amp, and a half stack that I have mentioned before. I used to use a boss distortion petal, but I felt that the distortion straight out of the amplifier suits the Mustang better. If this guitar was stolen or lost I think I would cry for about a week, then find the person that took it and kill them. If that didn't work I would buy another one. I love the way this guitar feels and plays. It is nocitably lighter than most other guitars out there and it feels and sounds so great to play. Before buying this guitar I looked at some strats, I looked at a Jag-Stang, and some Jackson guitars. I chose this one for its sound, appearance, feel, and affordability. If I could change one thing it would be the tuning pegs, which for anyone that owns this guitar they know you have to pre-cut the strings and feed them down into the peg. I always end up poking my fingers with the ends of the strings and hurting myself. Aside from this minor inconvenience this guitar is a God-send. I couldn't imagine a better guitar for the price that I payed, and I never sell this guitar.

stock item small frets, 22 scale neck, 2-3 way PU's 1 lace sensor pu in the neck and a seymour duncan little 59 i put into the bridge postion. originally another lace sensor. a reg mustang but damn pretty! sonic blue w/ red tortoise

i love the sound from this guitar. and it went through the roof once the seymour duncan little 59 was put into the bridge. this was done becase the bridge pu was a little weak. but the sound is amazing. i play lots of types of music and it all sounds really good with the 8 possible PU combos.

the action is really good once u get it into a place where it doesn't buzz. if its put low enough it will buzz no matter what which kind of pissed me off to be honest. no matter what i did i would find myself fretting out at only the 12th fret! grr oh well just put the action up a little bit and u r fine. the only problem with that is u have to unstring it basically to take out the bridge because unlike a gibson tunomatic things are harder to get at.

reliable as hell. u can slam the shit out of her and she still keeps going.

never had to deal thanks god.

i love this guitar. its super light and has a fantastic sound. but i give it a 9 because of the action. but once u get everything where u want it its the perfect guitar in my opinion. i love this guitar damnit! its just soo perfect. and it sounds soo great through distortion such as the DS-2 and awesome through just about any effect. i have yet to find an effect or amp this thing doesn't sound great with. have fun and have a nice day. :-P

1995 made in japan. 22 frets two single coils. very thin neck

This is actually my friends guitar. anyway I play hard rock and metal.This guitar is completly unsuitable for both those styles.I tried it in a crate blue vodoo amp head with carvin 4x12 cabnet. Noisy on some settings. It has a rather bright sound. clean sounds alright but distortion sounds like shit. I played it through a boss overdrive/distortion, metal zone and a digitech rp -5.very crappy pu's

The action was way to low from the factory. you could'nt even play a power chord without fretting out above the 8th fret.

This guitar sucks. the knobs loosen out of place all the time, same thing with the pickups. this guitar has been repaired way too many times.

i've been playing for 6 years so I can judge guitars pretty good. I did'nt want to come sounding like someone bashing this guitars name for no good reason but it's true this guitar sucks. for $450 you can by a much better guitar. thank god I did'nt buy it. the reason my friend bought it was because he wanted a kurt cobain sound. i actually read an interview in which kurt cobain says he like the mustang because it has a thin neck,sounds like crap and is a bitch to change the strings.

Two Fender single-coil Pickups, volume and tone knobs, two three-way pickup switches (in-phase, off, out-of-phase), short scale neck.

I got this guitar for one reason -- It sounds JUST LIKE Johnny Winter on his first Columbia Album. (This is the album I learned blues from in '69. Highly recommended CD).
Johnny made that album using a Fender Mustang and a Fender 12-string converted to 6-string. To get the sound that's on that album, play the Mustang through the NECK pickup - but EQ for a trebly sound. (On a Fender the knobs should be bass-2, Middle-10, treble-10). The result will be that clanging bell-like tone that Winter was known by. It's a great sound, but moreover - it is DISTINCT. People have heard so many repetitions of the SRV Strat neck-pickup sound, or the balls-to-the-wall bridge-humbucker sound that it is very hard not to be categorized when you use them. The Mustang neck-pickup lead sound is sublimely bluesy, and thank God, different.
(Note, Winter later used Gibson Firebirds, again running the NECK-pickup through a trebly EQ. This gave a similar, perhaps more trebly sound that was great for slide.)


The way to get Winter's

Very solid and well set up Wood feels nicely heavy, maybe alder. Great action. Feels just like my friend's Mustang that I knew when I was a kid.

Durable Fender guitar. Everything very solid.

I'm sure Fender or any local quitar tech could service it.

This is a great blues guitar with a unique sound. Many of the entries below mention replacing the pickups with Duncans, Rails, etc. I hope they're taking good care of the original pickups -- They sing so bluesy when pushing a Fender mid-wattage amp.
Listen to the first (black) Johnny Winter CD "Jonny Winter" to hear what Mustang neck pickups can do for leads.

i think mine was made in 95' or something. I bought it new and it's still completely original so you can read about the pickups and switches and stuff in the other reviews. Same thing goes for the wood, electronics, bridge,...

I love this guitar. I've kinda build my style around it i guess. I play simple lo-fi indie pop stuff but i also like to make sonic youth-dinosaur jr-pavement sort of noise. The 2 switches are great to play around with and the humming that goes together with some of the settings doesnt really bother me. The pick ups are ok for me but i might replace the brigde pickup some time. What i love about this guitar is it's body size and design and it's really thin neck. I use the floating tremelo only for freaking and stuff and i tend to torture my guitar on gigs but it stays in tune and doesnt have a scratch. oh yeah some guitarist that use the trem a lot might find the trem bar on the mustang annoying cause you have to screw it so it's locked and you can't move it around like u can with a strat. a detail i guess

Wheni bought mine , it had some problems with the frets that werent filed properly or something. The people at the store where a i bought it took care of it and also raised the actions. the machine heads and switches look solid.

Rock solid

the shop where i bought mine, repaired it free of charge. Don't know about fender.

I also have an old squire strat and some other crappy guitars i restored. I'm currently out of practice amp but i still have my orange amp and marshall cabs. for effects i have a boss ds-1, a rat, a lovetone big cheese, a lovetone meatball, dod vibrothang, ibanez wah-fuzz and lots of other fuzz boxes i rarely use. Compared to other guitars, this one fits my style best. Maybe the pickups might have been a little better for the price, it's the best. If it was stolen i'd get me another but then id look for another color, 'cause my plain white body depresses me. (I'm still talkin' about my guitar!)

it's a japanese made 1996 model with 22 frets and a short scale neck..after all, it is a short scale guitar! there's 2 single coil pick-ups connected to two 3 way switches...there's also a master volume and a master tone control knob. it's got one of those fender floating tremolo bridges which makes the guitar look quite retro. it's got tons of features and you'll spend hours trying to find your sound.

the stock pickups that it came with really suck! if you ever buy a mustang, replace those pick-ups!!! on my model, i put in a dimarzio fast track mini humbucker in the bridge postion and it really makes the guitar come alive. i get a really bright clean sound with this guitar but when it's hooked up to my boss ds 2 distortion pedal, it's a distorted monster! the sound is good but it's not for everyone. i like the sound to a certain extent, but i've heard better.

i just love the look of this guitar! it's sonic blue with a red tortoise shell pickguard. i personally think that this guitar is one of fender's best guitars. there was absolutly nothing wrong with this guitar in terms of defects...everything was nicely set up professionally.
however, this guitar is very hard for me to play mainly becuase it has a short scale neck and the distance between frets is rather small. this guitar is for people who have long thin fingers.....hmm i wonder why kurt cobain played this!

everything on this guitar will last for eons! except for one thing! the frets! i don't know what it is, but it has terrible frets on it! i don't play too often cos i switched to bass, but the wear on the frets is extrodinary especially the first few frets! i used to have a squier strat and it never had any fret wear and i played it more! but over all, the body is sturdy, the neck is sturdy everything is great except for the damn frets! i can depend on it, but i sure as hell wouldn't use it for a gig cos i have a hard time playing it due to the short scale neck.

the warranty is 3 years long although i haven't had any problems or tried to contact fender, i'm sure their customer service is top notch.

i love this guitar...i really love the look of it, but that doesn't help if i can't play it properly! all i can do is strum out power chords! if it only had a full scale neck like a start then i would love it. this guitar is for people with small hands/long fingers! why do you think kurt cobain used one and why do you think that all these girls use them? small hands/long fingers! but overall it's a great guitar. it has great sound, but i wouldn't by another. i'll just buy a strat. but since i play bass now, i won't touch a guitar!

'69 reissue mustang
Guitar made in 1996 in Japan. Two single coils tone and volume knobs two pickup selector switches. Sonic-Blue with Tortoise shell pickguard.

Regardless of what you may read elseware the stock fender pickups in this guitar are terrible, you will definately have to have them replaced. I have two Mustangs and two Jag-stangs and I have had all the stock pickups changed for this reason. You can't do wrong by placing at least one Hot-Rail in a Mustang.

Apart from the cheap pickups this is perhaps the finest guitar Fender has ever put out, the neck is perfect and the standard contours in the body really help playing. I my experience Mustangs are also substansially lighter in weight compared to a Jag-stang.
There is no real difference between a reissue Mustang and one from the 60's

I have owned both Mustangs for around three years now. Considering how cheaply I purchased them for they have payed me back with countless hours enjoyment.

If something goes wrong with your guitar, you best bet is to find an authorized dealer in your town

This is a wonderful guitar, it is a pity that in the last few years by playing this guitar you look like a Nirvanabe.