Under the Bed for Forty Years…

Offset asymmetrical double cutaway solid body. This 12 1/4 inch "student" guitar weighs just 6.90 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 9/16 inches and a scale length of 24 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with 22 frets and pearloid dot position markers. Fender 'transitional' headstock logo with "Fender" in gold wih black trim, followed by "Mustang" in black, and four patent numbers in black below. Individual Fender "F" style tuning gears with octagonal metal buttons. Four-bolt Fender "F" neck plate with serial number "224721" stamped between the top two screws.Two plain-top slant mounted single-coil pickups with outputs of 5.56k and 5.77k. 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 "16 AUG 66B", the potentiometers are stamped "137 6642" (CTS October 1966). This guitar is in mint condition and is complete with it's original hang-tag / instruction manual, tremolo arm, and black leather guitar strap. Housed in its original Fender gray hardshell case with black imitation leather ends and orange plush lining (9.25).

Although the available Fender literature states that the "Competition Mustang" first appeared in 1969 we have dated this very early example as a '66. The neck on this guitar is stamped August 1966, as are the pots… this may indeed have been one of the very first "Competition" Mustang's to be assembled… It may not have left the Factory in '66 - but clearly the majority of the parts had already been manufactured…

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 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.