Category — Fender Guitars

Been busy lately. The Monotonix - “Body Language” EP review will be up tomorrow as promised.

Today would’ve been Kurt Cobain’s 41st birthday…hard to believe. I remember being in 5th grade, in 1992 and hearing/seeing Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video on MTV and being totally effected by it. I got the Nevermind album shortly thereafter, and still love it to this day. I think a lot of people remember when they first heard that song, as well as when they heard about his death as well. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana was what basically got me wanting to play guitar in general so I wanted to post here about it.

Also, I haven’t had a chance yet to go back and play that 70’s Stratocaster at Guitar Centers Vintage room, but I will definitely get around to it sometime this week. I also want to play some vintage Jaguars and Les Pauls just for fun. I can’t afford all of them so I might as well…

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So I’ve been playing the Mustang a lot recently and it sounds and feels great. I’m really glad I decided to get the guitar for my girlfriend, she’s also played it and loves it. Clean-tone is killer as is the distorted tone. So I’m still thinking about getting that 1970’s Fender Stratocaster I saw at Guitar Center Hollywood, in the vintage room, but I’m still riding the fence…$1600 is a lot of money to spend. I think I might go back and play it for a while and then determine whether or not to buy it. I haven’t even heard it amplified yet.

I’m trying to look up stuff about 1970’s Strats just to learn more, if anyone can offer any knowledge (regarding best year, general facts/info, etc…) please comment.

Planning to jam out with the Fender Mustang extensively, will see how it works out. I’m also I’m going to get the pics up here soon.

Ok, so I forgot to take pictures of the guitar this weekend, but I got it back and it sounds and plays amazing. I will try to get pics up this week! The DiMarzio’s sound great, the neck and action feels great and my girlfriend was really happy with it. The tech at Guitar Center, John did a great job working out all the issues, and did a great job with the intonation. When I went to pick it up, I stopped in their Vintage room and played a 70’s Stratocaster, and now I’m thinking about buying it…I really should stay away from nice gear…

If you don’t know what the Vintage room is at Guitar Center - Hollywood, it’s basically a huge room filled with only sought-after vintage guitars. A lot of famous players, like John Frusciante, come in and buy guitars there. Somebody posted a clip on youtube, if you want to see what I’m talking about. Basically any guitarist’s dream come true, (not your wallet’s dream come true though)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-1rFgrowH0

So, I finally heard back from the Guitar Center tech regarding the status of my Fender Mustang. He said the guitar will be ready at the end of today and that everything should be worked out with it. I’m going to pick it up after work and check everything out. I’ll try to post some pics of the guitar up here on Monday.

Also, just wanted to mention that I was browsing the internet looking at different guitar prices this morning. I knew vintage Fender Strats and Les Paul’s to be pretty up there, money-wise. It’s crazy though what prices some of the original Fender Mustangs are selling for. I’ve seen some decently beat up ones going for $2500 - $3500 at times.

I’ve owned and sold quite a few guitars, basses and effects over the years and have been playing in bands almost just as long. This past December though, is the first time I acquired a Fender Competition Mustang Reissue. I bought the guitar used for $300 on eBay (with a hard case and after market DiMarzio pickups!) which is a great deal considering the guitar retails for $699.99 just about everywhere, (excluding the case). It’s “Candy Apple Red” with the trademark white competition stripes on the body. It has a great short scale neck, and is nicely crafted in Japan. My intention was to buy it for my girlfriend with small hands to play. She’s a great player, but doesn’t own any electrics, just acoustics. So this was/is to be her first electric guitar due to its short scale and light weight.

This is where I ran into problems…I took the guitar to Guitar Center in Hollywood to get a set-up and get the action and intonation really nice for my girlfriend, as I work full-time and don’t have time to do it myself. The set-up was completed without a hitch. Apparently though, whoever wired the guitar for the aftermarket DiMarzio’s did it wrong, very wrong. As I type this, it has been a week since I have heard from the tech about the status of the guitar. When I talked to him previously he was having trouble getting both pickups to function correctly with the pickup switches on the Mustang. One would work and then the other wouldn’t, both pickups wouldn’t function at the same time. The tech remarked to me that if he ever has to work on a Fender Mustang again, he will charge double. He also mentioned that so many people, “want a Fender Mustang to be heavily modified to sound like a Les Paul, like Kurt Cobain’s, but the reality is they should just buy a Les Paul”. I tend to disagree with this statement and think the main reason people want a Mustang is for the feel/playability, then they would like to alter the sound.

Basically one of the pickups is a DiMarzio super distortion single-space humbucker, and the tech claims that this pickup cannot work with the guitar, something about having to bypass the tone knob. I feel like I’ve seen it work before in other peoples guitars. Are there any Mustang know-it-alls or experts out there who can help me out or know at all what he means? Please let me know.