1964 Fender Mustang Wiring

[aquaduct]

Hey folks, a freind of mine has a 1964 Fender Mustang exactly like the one pictured here: www.paulplumeri.com/guitars/mustang_blue.jpg. He doesn't play himself and he got the thing as some kind of gift from a family member.

The strings were all broken and the pickups didn't work. I took it for him and changed the strings and put some electronics cleaner in the switches and pots and now the thing works great. We're going to play it and give it back to him when we play at his winery on Sunday (he's the winemaker), but I'm not familiar with the pickup and switch arrangement on these guitars. There are 2 single coil pickups and 2 3-position switches.

Can anyone give me the short story of how these switches are supposed to work and interact?

[paulschlimm]

Aqua,

This from Wiki: The Mustang has two angled single-coil pickups, each with an adjacent on-off-on switch, and a master tone and volume control.
The Mustang is unusual in having neither a pickup selector nor a circuit selector switch, instead just using the two pickup switches to allow the pickups to be used either singly or in parallel. The second on position reverses the phase of the selected pickup, allowing the pickups to be either in or out of phase when in parallel. This phasing option was also unusual for 1964.
It also meant that, as both pickups were floating with respect to ground, it was possible to modify the wiring to put the pickups into series either in or out of phase without excessive noise. The unusual switching could also be replaced by a conventional pickup change switch using the unused body routing already provided for compatibility with the Duo-Sonic, requiring only modification of the pickguard, and freeing the two eight-terminal pickup switches for other uses. As with many student guitars, aftermarket pickup additions and changes are commonly found in many vintage examples.

PS - 1964 was the debut year for the Mustang.

[Deleted]

I not only have the wiring diagrams, I can show you how to increase the tonal range without changing the stock components.

[aquaduct]

Nov 25, 2010 23:38:01 GMT -5 Marty said:

I not only have the wiring diagrams, I can show you how to increase the tonal range without changing the stock components.

That would be righteous Marty.

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2010 0:00:01 GMT -5 aquaduct said:

Nov 25, 2010 23:38:01 GMT -5 Marty said:

I not only have the wiring diagrams, I can show you how to increase the tonal range without changing the stock components.

That would be righteous Marty.

I will post it this weekend.

[Marshall]

I have a friend in our church band that plays one. Might not be a 1964, but it's close. But i don't think he'll have any better info than you're already getting here.

PS - The tremolo arm springage is so touchy the thing is NEVER in tune. Drives me batty.

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2010 8:53:46 GMT -5 Marshall said:

I have a friend in our church band that plays one. Might not be a 1964, but it's close. But i don't think he'll have any better info than you're already getting here.

PS - The tremolo arm springage is so touchy the thing is NEVER in tune. Drives me batty.

It is possible to turn the vibrato into a stop tailpiece using the stock hardware.

Tremolo, modulation of the amplitude, volume.
Vibrato, modulation of the pitch.

[Marshall]

He actually likes the VIBRATO arm. Thinks it's cool.

His acoustic is an ooollldddd low level Ovation. I tried to talk him into using a digital processor to smooth out the crunchiness of the thing. He smiles and says he likes the cutting power of it.



And then he launches into a barrage of old 80's tunes. I get to hear Stairway to Heaven every week in the lull between tunes we're working on.

[Deleted]

Here is the wiring diagram. Replace the red circled jumper wire with a .02 mf capacitor and you will get a variety of tones beyond the in/out of phase of the stock wiring.

[Deleted]

The Mustang vibrato can be turned into a stop tailpiece.

Remove the strings and the screws holding the vibrato in place.
The two holes in the string bar will accept a hex wrench, I think it is 5/64".


Turn the inserted hex wrench to unscrew these two arms from the string bar.
Unhook the springs from the base plate


Take this part with you to the hardware store and find a 3/8" long bolt of the same diameter and thread size and two lock washers.


Normally the handle hole in the string bar is on the treble side, when you reassemble reverse the string bar so the handle hole is on the bass side.
Put a lock washer on each bolt, insert the bolts through the base plate from the bottom and thread them into the string bar. Tighten the bolts to a snug fit and install the base plate on the guitar. Restring the guitar with it's new stop tailpiece.

[John B]

Nov 26, 2010 17:57:59 GMT -5 Marshall said:

He actually likes the VIBRATO arm. Thinks it's cool.

His acoustic is an ooollldddd low level Ovation. I tried to talk him into using a digital processor to smooth out the crunchiness of the thing. He smiles and says he likes the cutting power of it.



And then he launches into a barrage of old 80's tunes. I get to hear Stairway to Heaven every week in the lull between tunes we're working on.

Umm... you lost a decade. Stairway is from the 70's...

Mustangs are cool. Paul S., the first Ford Mustangs were 1964 1/2* models. I have a thing for old Falcons (I had a 1963), so I know an ancillary amount of Mustang info since the Mustang was built on the Falcon chassis.

























OK, so I edited out "1963 1/2. So sue me.

[paulschlimm]

John,

First Ford Mustang was 1964 1/2.

Paul

[John B]

Nov 26, 2010 19:34:30 GMT -5 @paulschlimm said:

John,

First Ford Mustang was 1964 1/2.

Paul

Exactly, just like my edit says.

[paulschlimm]

[Marshall]

Nov 26, 2010 19:20:28 GMT -5 Marty said:

The Mustang vibrato can be turned into a stop tailpiece. . . . ,

I was thinking more about taking a helical arc welder to the thing


Either that or a blow torch.