NGD: Mustang

[Chistopher]

Guitar: Squier Bullet Mustang
Pickups: Lace Sensor D3 Sabretooth Neck, Deathbucker bridge
Bridge: Mustang Bridge / Bigbsy Tailpiece
Wiring: 50s wiring with simple threeway toggle, oddly enough it came with 50s wiring from the factory.
Tuners: Planet Waves auto-trim locking tuners
Pickguard: very mint shade of green, doesn't really translate well into the picture hardly at all.

I bought this guitar seeing as I had a bunch of spare parts laying around and a Mustang seemed to suit them the best.

Reused one of the holes from the original hardtail bridge for the Bigsby, so it's fairly close to the bridge, making it a little bit tough to restring jt.

I haven't adjusted the pickups yet, but from the heights I set them at using no more than my eyes, they sound pretty good. I've gotten phenomenal results out of the Deathbucker before, so I think if I raise it up a smidge I can make it quite a bit better. I've not seen a single review of the Sabretooth yet, so I'll get to doing that tommorow once I get the chance to give it a proper listen, but bear in mind this is a short scale instrument.

Bridge stays in tune extremely well, the bridge actually is perpendicular to the strings, however when I took the picture was right after I restrung it, so it hadn't gotten a chance to seat quite right yet.

I am going to have to do a bit of work on the neck, seeing as its got a little bit of sprout on the frets, but all in all this was a great little project that let me use up some parts I otherwise didn't really have a use for.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Looks like a very cool project.

Love the Planet Waves tuners. Never heard of those pups but their names sound pretty heavy. You'll probably want a roller bridge on that.

Scale length is 24" right? How does that short scale feel to play? I can easily switch between 24 3/4" and 25.5" scale but I've never played a 24".

 

[Chistopher]

These planet waves tuners are pretty nice except for my low E string took so much effort I debated grabbing a wrench to finish turning it, and I'm a reasonably strong guy.

The pickups are actually about half as much as a standard humbucker :lmao:
But they are actually pretty great. They can definitely keep up with the 81/Black Winter/Blackouts type crowd for high gain applications, but if you back off the gain they do some well above average clean sounds.

The scale length change is interesting. It's the same change in length as between 25.5" and 24 3/4", but the difference is much more noticeable, especially when you're doing cowboy chords. It gets less noticeable up the neck, but you can still feel your fingers have less room. Also, these thing's bodies are like a quarter inch thinner than a "real" one, and that definitely compounds with the scale length to make it feel like a smaller guitar.

 

[GuitarDoc]

^ +1.
I hear you about the tuners cutting the low "e" string, but it's never been a big problem for me even with a set of 10-54s.

 

[Chistopher]

I'm using 11-54. I don't know, but the low e isn't too much bigger than the a, but it was way harder to turn.

Also this neck pickup is insane. It's got PAF levels of clarity despite being LOUD. It kind of messes with my head because those are usually mutually exclusive. It's got so much bass that it started rattling the fine China, but at the same time it sounded tight. The way I understand it those two phenomena are opposite, so I'm still trying to figure it out.

These are definitely two atypical pickups, so it's gonna take me a minute to figure out what all needs to be tweaked on it. Very modern sound, but a mid 80s EQ, very confusing.

Also, one thing of note is that the center pickguard screw isn't actually screwed into the body, but rather a random Jazz 3 pick I had laying around.

 

[beaubrummels]

Looks like a fun, comfortable player.

FWIW One trick to fast changes with that kind of Bigsby I happened upon is just bend the ball end in a semi-circle (to more easily hook and stay on the pin) and feed that under the tension bar from the bridge side; don't try to put the ball end on first and feed the string under the tension bar and then over the bridge.

 

[Securb]

That looks like a really fun rocker. Love the Bigsby on it. Bigsbys do a lot more than a bit of wiggle. You can have a lot of fun with them.

 

[Chistopher]

That looks like a really fun rocker. Love the Bigsby on it. Bigsbys do a lot more than a bit of wiggle. You can have a lot of fun with them.

Definitely. Any tips to stop the spring from wiggling around when I pull up? All the other ones I've used have had the spring firm in place, but this one just falls out.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Bigsbys aren't designed to be pulled up...maybe just a tad. It's normal for the spring to fall out if you pull up too far. You can't treat a Bigsby like a Strat or Floyd

 

[Securb]

Definitely. Any tips to stop the spring from wiggling around when I pull up? All the other ones I've used have had the spring firm in place, but this one just falls out.

I pull on mine very aggressively and never lose the spring on either of my Bigsbys. I treat them no differently than my Babicz, Kahler, or Sofia. What does the bolt/nut look like that holds on the bar and sits inside the spring? Is it long enough to keep the spring from falling out?

 

[Chistopher]

Interesting, I don't have a bolt on mine. I've got the B500 import that I had laying around from a bigsby to hardtail conversion I did, so it's entirely possible I just lost it.

 

[beaubrummels]

If you have heavy strings / more tension, you can pull the bar up more without the spring coming out. But if you have light strings or low tension, everything will be just barely in balance and I wouldn't advise pulling up. As mentioned, they weren't really designed for that.

 

[Securb]

As mentioned, they weren't really designed for that.

I pull up on mine aggressively and dive bomb. I think there is a mind set because we typically see Bigsbys on guitars playing more laid back types of music that they can not perform like other tremolos. You move the bar and the pitch changes, it is that simple. The only drawback I find with the Bigsby is the wider trem bar makes is harder to control when doing heavy trem work and they take more force to move, outside of that I run into no limitations with mine.

 

[Securb]

Interesting, I don't have a bolt on mine. I've got the B500 import that I had laying around from a bigsby to hardtail conversion I did, so it's entirely possible I just lost it.

If the bolt or whatever holds the arm to the system is removable, I would do so and replace it with a longer bolt and a couple of washers. Like I said I pull up very aggressively with my Bibsby and have no problems.

 

[GuitarDoc]

I pull on mine very aggressively and never lose the spring on either of my Bigsbys. I treat them no differently than my Babicz, Kahler, or Sofia. What does the bolt/nut look like that holds on the bar and sits inside the spring? Is it long enough to keep the spring from falling out?

Even though the bolt in yours keeps the spring from falling out, how do you keep it returning into the spring recess? If you pull up too far the spring may return to the lip of the recess and your guitar will be horribly out of tune.

 

[Securb]

Even though the bolt in yours keeps the spring from falling out, how do you keep it returning into the spring recess? If you pull up too far the spring may return to the lip of the recess and your guitar will be horribly out of tune.

I have never encountered that problem so I have never thought about it.