Competition Red with cream 'Racing' stripes.

1971 Fender Competition Mustang.

Offset asymmetrical double cutaway solid body. This 12 1/4 inch "student" guitar weighs just 7.00 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 inches. Solid alder body, one-piece maple neck with 22 original medium-thin frets and pearloid dot position markers. Headstock logo with Fender in black with gold trim and "Pat. 2,741,146   2,960,900   3,241,418 / 3,143,028   3,290,980  Des. 204,098". Individual Fender "F" style tuning gears with octagonal white plastic buttons. Four-bolt Fender "F" neck plate with serial number "305537" stamped between the top two screws. Two black bakelite, slant mounted single-coil pickups with gray bottoms ("4091" stamped in black) and outputs of 5.75k and 5.80k. Three-layer plastic (pearloid/black/white) pickguard with 12 screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus two three-way pickup 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 date stamp has faded and is unreadable. The potentiometers are stamped "304 7107" (Stackpole, February 1971). The Competition Red color which is very similar to Candy Apple Red is bright and fresh and shows no sign of fade or discoloration. There is some fine finish checking and a few small surface marks - the most noticeable being on the lower treble edge of the body. Overall this super little guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition and is complete with the original tremolo arm. Housed in its original Fender gray hardshell case with black imitation leather ends and orange plush lining (8.00).

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.