A Very Early, Near Mint, Slab-Body Daphne Blue Mustang Under the Bed for Forty-Six Years…

Offset asymmetrical double cutaway solid body. This 12 1/4 inch "student" guitar weighs 7.30 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with a very comfortable thin-to-medium profile. Brazilian rosewood fret-board with 22 original thin frets and pearloid dot position markers. Fender 'transitional' headstock logo with "Fender" in gold with black trim, followed by "Mustang" in black, and four patent numbers in black below ("DES 186,826 PAT 2,960,900 2,741,146 3,143,028 PAT PEND"). "Offset / Contour / Body" in black on ball end of headstock. Individual Kluson Deluxe 'double-line' tuners with white plastic oval buttons (each one stamped on the underside "D-169400 / Patent No.") Four-bolt neck plate with serial number "L 91383" stamped between the top two screws. Two plain-top slant mounted single-coil pickups with outputs of 5.99k and 6.48k. The underside of the neck pickup has "8-13-65" written in black and the underside of the treble pickup has "8-13-65 Mel" written in black. Three-layer plastic (pearloid/black/white) pickguard with 12 screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus two three-way selector switches. Black plastic control knobs with seven sides and white line markers. Fender Mustang Bridge with six adjustable saddles. Fender 'Dynamic Vibrato' tailpiece. The neck is stamped "8 JUN 65B", the potentiometers are stamped "137 6528" (CTS July 1965). The Daphne Blue color is as fresh and bright as one could ever wish for. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition with just some very fine finish checking and a couple of very small and insignificant surface dents. Complete with the original Fender 'Mustang' folding instruction manual / hang-tag with matching serial number, tremolo arm with cream plastic tip, original black leather guitar strap and an original set of Fender .014-.050. Mastersound strings Housed in the original Fender gray hardshell case with black imitation leather ends and orange plush lining (9.25).

The Fender Mustang was introduced in August 1964 before the sale of Fender Electric Instruments to CBS. The idea was to create a mid-line model between the student grade DuoSonic, and the professional Telecaster. The Mustang was a very popular model, and was made until 1981. Originally designed with a 22.5" inch scale guitar, the Mustang is almost always found (as here) with a 24 inch scale. Early models had a slab alder body, but it was given the patented Fender contour body in early 1969.

The Mustang had two pickups and (usually) a 24" short scale length. Though the scale length is longer than the original Duosonics/Musicmasters (which had 22.5" scales), the Mustang is still considered a "student model". Hence their value is low compared to other models. Originally the Mustang was introduced to replace the entire DuoSonic / MusicMaster line, becoming the new Fender student model. But The introduction of the Mustang moved the DuoSonic / MusicMaster lines to a second generation, 24" scale length. Due to extreme backorders, all student-line Fenders stayed intact to 1969 when demand dropped and the DuoSonic was discontinued.