The Taming of the Wild Mustang

When you hear “taming something wild,” what comes to mind? Do you think of a difficult-to-control personality, taking the term literally? Perhaps Shakespeare’s comedy? Or maybe that horse from the Takarazuka Kinen that stood up at the gate and had a significant delay? Actually, that might not even be on the same level as ‘wild’.
...But I digress. The wild mustang I’m dealing with today is this one.

Yes, the Mustang. Not the car, but the guitar. This time, the star is this guitar.

Let me introduce this guitar again.
This is the Squier Vintage Modified Mustang.
For those who think of a certain anime, sorry, it’s not related. This choice wasn’t influenced by a character who’s really good at guitar and has black twin-tails. As a matter of fact, I only know the original manga (including the sequel) and the first and second seasons of the anime, and the movie.

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Okay. Candy Apple Red with a matching headstock and dynamic tremolo. It’s got typical Mustang features.

The tuning pegs are of the Kluson type with octagonal white buttons. The buttons are somewhat similar to F keys. However, since the body lacks contouring, it feels somewhat mismatched with the overall Early ’60s vibe. Well, this could be considered typical of Squier.
I bought this used in early 2023 and haven’t even changed the strings since then. While it’s playable, there’s plenty of room for improvement.
So, this time, I’ll try my best to adjust this Mustang.

■ Neck Work

First, while adjusting the nut slot height, I widened the slots slightly to accommodate the gauge of the strings I want to use. Ensuring the nut doesn’t pinch the strings is crucial for tuning stability, as is preventing side-to-side movement.
Next, I polished the frets and fingerboard. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary to keep the frets sparkling clean all the time, but rust should absolutely be prevented as it can cause significant damage to the strings.

Since it felt a bit underwhelming to stop here, I polished the headstock top thoroughly with polish. It was purely for my own satisfaction.

■ Body Work

Next up is the body. Since there wasn’t much to do other than adjustments, I decided to do more.

Yes, I rewired the control panel. Even though I had leftover parts and there wasn’t much to do with the body other than polishing, I now feel it might have been a bit wasteful.
I used metric standard CTS pots, but the control panel holes were already in inches. Choosing metric standard parts was unnecessary. Pre-checking is important.
Here’s the back of the pickguard.

It’s a Duncan-designed Strat set for the bridge/center. This combination allows for hum cancellation in the in-phase half-tone, meaning reduced noise.
I made sure to polish the body as well.

■ Assembly

Once everything is good to go, it’s just a matter of reassembling. It’s simply following the disassembly steps in reverse, but for this guitar, I added a shim to the neck pocket. This is effective not just for Mustangs but also for improving the playability of Jazzmasters, Jaguars, etc.
Oh, and I polished the parts as well.
After installing the parts, it’s time to string and adjust. I used GHS 10-52 strings this time:
GHS / GB-TNT BOOMERS 6-STRING - Thin-Thick
Personally, thicker strings are a must for short scale guitars.

■ Completion

Despite proudly showing a post-assembly photo, there’s hardly any visible change. Well, I didn’t change any externally visible parts.
However, the difference in playability before and after is night and day. There’s also a noticeable change in sound.
Since I changed the electronics, setup, and string gauge all at once, it’s hard to pinpoint which change had the biggest impact.
The tuning stability is decent. It’s less prone to detuning even with bending, though it goes out of tune significantly with arm vibrato...

I bought this guitar early this year on a whim because it was cheap, but now that I’ve put this much effort into it, I think I’ll play it occasionally.

So, the closing BGM for today is

The 1975 - Chocolate (Official Video) - YouTube

The Mustang played by guitarist/vocalist Matty Healy is quite memorable to me.

By the way, Sound House also offers a variety of Mustangs!

⇒ List of Mustang Models