Mustang VS Mustang VS Mustang

[acsme]

OK, I'm after:

1. A mustang Bass

2. Through Body Stringing

3. Something where I won't be left COMPLETELY out of pocket if I need to sell

 

I've narrowed it down to:

1. American Performer  (american) £1kish

2. JMJ (mex) £1kish

3. Vintera (mex) £750ish

Which do you think is the best buy at the moment?

 

Thanks

 

[ezbass]

I haven’t played the Performer, but I have the other two. The JMJ is lovely and that custom pickup, plus the fitted flatwounds give it real gravitas and makes you just want to play it. However, the Vintera is no slouch and I enjoyed playing that very much too, although it isn’t quite in the same league. But change the strings out for flats and you’d be getting close to the JMJ and saving a pretty penny or two. The Gallery have them for £649, which is a good deal IMO.

https://thebassgallery.com/collections/all/products/fender-vintera-60s-mustang-bass 

Edited December 14, 2020 by ezbass

[Pea Turgh]

I can’t see the point in the PJ pickups on a Mustang. Don’t look right.

I really like the Vintera though.  Lollipop tuners (like the JMJ).  41mm nut width.  Also like the JMJ?  Also, you get to wear it on your own road!

[Bigguy2017]

JMJ or s/h MIJ all day long...

[Adee]

All three are superb, I’ve had the Performer as well as a couple of MIJ Mustangs  and I currently have a JMJ .... get a used one and you’ll not need to worry about losing money,  you can pick up a good Performer or JMJ for around £650 on a good day

[martthebass]

I've had 2002 MIJ and currently have a JMJ.  Of the 2 I prefer the JMJ, the thicker neck and fuller sound take it up a notch.  I'm also on the side of the single split coil pickup and 'proper' Mustang style bridge.....otherwise it's not a Mustang.

[pete.young]

Best buy at the moment is Clarky's CIJ Mustang in the Basses For Sale section.

[CameronJ]

I do wonder why Fender have insisted on using a full sized Jazz pickup on some of their Mustangs. It just looks out of place. You’d think they might try to be a little bit clever and try something like a single coil Precision pup at the bridge. I reckon it would look pretty badass! Certainly more likely to fit the aesthetic of a Mustang, in my head at least.

Anyone fancy throwing a little photoshop mock-up together? 

Edited December 23, 2020 by CameronJ

[MoonBassAlpha]

45 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

I do wonder why Fender have insisted on using a full sized Jazz pickup on some of their Mustangs. It just looks out of place. You’d think they might try to be a little bit clever and try something like a single coil Precision pup at the bridge. I reckon it would look pretty badass! Certainly more likely to fit the aesthetic of a Mustang, in my head at least.

Anyone fancy throwing a little photoshop mock-up together? 

That's interesting - a few years ago I got a lady at work to photoshop another Bronco  white  pickup at the bridge position. I  thought it looked great!  This was the red Bronco. 

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, CameronJ said:

I do wonder why Fender have insisted on using a full sized Jazz pickup on some of their Mustangs. It just looks out of place. You’d think they might try to be a little bit clever and try something like a single coil Precision pup at the bridge. I reckon it would look pretty badass! Certainly more likely to fit the aesthetic of a Mustang, in my head at least.

Anyone fancy throwing a little photoshop mock-up together? 

In my head, I’m thinking that adding another Mustang split pickup at the bridge would be awesome - mini P/P. Once I get mine, I might have to make this happen.

[CameronJ]

All of the above suggestions are a million times better than the stock square jazz pickup Fender have been using!!

[Fil1ip]

Can you put a P pick up (block style) on the vintera, i.e is there a pick guard out there to support the size difference and cavity etc 

[ezbass]

On 23/12/2020 at 15:51, CameronJ said:

 

Anyone fancy throwing a little photoshop mock-up together? 

I've finally got around to looking at this. Lining up the Performer P/J config Mustang with a Vintera, one pickup one, reveals that the bridge p/up would need to go hard up against the bigger bridge plate of the normal Mustang. This is also born out if you resize a 34" P/J Precision to 30' scale and line it up at the nut, 12th fret and bridge (although the Mustang's pickup does sit a little north of the Precision position). Using a '50s reissue as a source image for the pickup gives us this... 

Because of the string spacing, there is a wee gap in the mockup, but you get the idea. I've added an extra knob rather than get into cloning a 3 way toggle on. I don't think it looks too bad from an aesthetic standpoint.

Edited March 25, 2021 by ezbass

[CameronJ]

That looks pretty damn good @ezbass

[ezbass]

Today, I had a good old play of the JMJ, using my pedalboard in front of my Yamaha headphone amp. All my long scale basses (passive) love my, always on, Sadowsky SBP2 pre amp, it sprinkles ‘fairy dust’ on the tone and just makes it, er... ‘more’. This feeds my octave and chorus boxes, then my VTDI for a little dirt (eq set to render a flat response against the character control) and then into my MXR compressor. However, the Mustang doesn’t react in the same way to the SBP2, it makes it too bottom heavy and detracts from the great, inherent tone; hmm. This got me thinking, what if I used the VTDI less as a dirt box and use it to make the Mustang more cutting by pushing the mid control (apparently centred @1khz) for a more, bridge centric, J like tone?  Hello Mr Honky! Suddenly, the Mustang becomes more of an all rounder and my other basses start to get worried (don’t worry, guys, Daddy still loves you - today 😉). But the experimentation doesn’t stop there, what happens if I now use the SBP2 as well? Ah ha! The normal Mustang tone returns, but now accompanied by the previously mentioned ‘fairy dust’. Oh, happy day!

Now, this is of course using a headphone amp and it might all be a different story through my Phil Jones rig (sadly in storage, 500 miles away) but given that setup’s pretty flat, uncoloured response, I think it’ll be the same. This means, that my idea of potentially adding a bridge p/up may well be moot.

It really does seem that only having one pickup with, by comparison, limited tonal options (even compared to P basses), makes you think more and become more inventive. I’ve seen this phenomena with single pickup guitars (yeah, I said guitars, what of it? Oh, no! I’ve stirred up the natives, where’s my tin hat and hiding hole? 😂) and I think it’s a good thing.

In short, I’m digging the Mustang even more now.

[MoonBassAlpha]

On 25/03/2021 at 16:14, Fil1ip said:

Can you put a P pick up (block style) on the vintera, i.e is there a pick guard out there to support the size difference and cavity etc 

If the Vintera is a Mexican made  beastie,  I'd guess the routing is the same as the p-j one.

[MoonBassAlpha]

On 25/03/2021 at 20:42, ezbass said:

I've finally got around to looking at this. Lining up the Performer P/J config Mustang with a Vintera, one pickup one, reveals that the bridge p/up would need to go hard up against the bigger bridge plate of the normal Mustang. This is also born out if you resize a 34" P/J Precision to 30' scale and line it up at the nut, 12th fret and bridge (although the Mustang's pickup does sit a little north of the Precision position). Using a '50s reissue as a source image for the pickup gives us this... 

Because of the string spacing, there is a wee gap in the mockup, but you get the idea. I've added an extra knob rather than get into cloning a 3 way toggle on. I don't think it looks too bad from an aesthetic standpoint.

Looks great! Shiny chrome pickup covers would look nicely retro too! Is there even such a thing?

[ezbass]

3 minutes ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Looks great! Shiny chrome pickup covers would look nicely retro too! Is there even such a thing?

Ooh, a lipstick p/up in the bridge! Too much?

[MoonBassAlpha]

1 minute ago, ezbass said:

Ooh, a lipstick p/up in the bridge! Too much?

Yeah, that kind of thing. Chrome for the split too though!