| For me there is no guitar out there that is 100% great so this page follows my (hopefully not disasterous) attempt to build one that is as close to what I want in a guitar. I decided to buy different parts and combine them, to cut down on mistakes. |
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Materials used: • • Warmoth replacement Mustang body • Warmoth replacement Fender 24" neck (CBS styled headstock) • Seymour Duncan JB Jr pickup (for bridge) • Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound For Strat pickup (for neck) • Gotoh black tuners • • Warmoth replacement Mustang bridge and tremelo • • 250K Pot for volume • • Miscellaneous black & white volume knob • • Danelectro switch • Warmoth mono input for guitar cable • Fender Mustang volume plate • Warmoth screws for pickguard and neck • Warmoth black neck plate and plate buffer • |
| What the Mustang should look like |
| The Primer, Paint and Lacquer I planned to use. I used most of the primer on the first body (see below) and decided to return the lacquer to Home Depot. I'll get a different kind later. |
| I decided to hang my first body outside from a tree branch in my backyard. This would allow easy access to all sides of the body for spraying. The cord holding the wood is actually the cut cable of an old computer mouse I don't use! |
| My attempt at creating competition stripes over the primed body. With black spray paint applied and the tape removed - viola! - instant white stripes. |
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| However the tape wasn't holding very well to the primed wood, so I tried painter's tape instead. It looked alot better! |
| I went over to Dad's to have him give me some pointers in how to screw the holes into the wood for the neck binding, bridge and strap holders. It looked like it was going to be tricky, but the worst part was, when I got back to try and fit the neck into the corresponding slot, the holes didn't match up! I figured out this body was pretty crappy - I should have known in the first place. It was too heavy and not sanded well at all! That's when I decided to sell it on eBay (got a good price) and buy from Warmoth a real, replacement Mustang body. |
| The second Mustang body (bought from Warmoth) |
| Just like the previous body, I hung this one up in the backyard to prime/paint. Only I threw away the mouse chord that was holding it up. But I stuck with a technological theme, and held this one up with a broken pair of ear-buds! I primed it with two coats. |
| Just like the previous body, I added painters tape to the front of the body for competition stripes. I decided not to wrap it completely around the body - Fender Mustang's actually do the same thing. I was trying to make it look "complete" but it was too complicated. Ready to be painted! |
| Here I am painting it from primed white to hot black! |
| After I was done with 4 coats of black spray paint, I hung the guitar inside to dry (didn't want it to get wet if it rained and I liked looking at it!) |
| An hour or so later I couldn't resist peeling the tape off to reveal the white stripes underneath. The tape didn't work completely as some black got where I wasn't expecting, but I actually like that more. It now looks alot like those hip "distressed" t-shirts. |
| Looks good enough to eat!! |
| Lacquering up the guitar body. I did this so many times, there were probably about 15 coats in total. After awhile I noticed it seemed too much (I would touch it and my fingerprint would stay) so I sanded it down a bit. |
| Lacquered up the neck (blue painters tape over the parts I did not want to lacquer.) I also had a custom headstock label made. It's not a Fender, it's a Stever! |
| I put a JMU Duke Dog sticker on the back |
| I screwed on the neck and put the pickups in place. The next step (and all that's left to do) is to wire the electronics to the control panel. The project is almost done! |
| Here's the beginning of my pickup soldering. I've NEVER attempted anything like this, save the few times a wire in a previous guitar became unsoldered. But then, it was pretty easy to figure out where it went. Luckily, I have another Mustang that I'm able to look at and get ideas where to solder and ground. |
| The finished Mustang on the left next to the factory Fender Mustang on the right |
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