What the hell was I thinking?
After the debacle that was my first guitar project, I never wanted to try that kind of thing again. In the fall of 2000 I had bought a '65 Mustang neck with completely different intentions (see below). Once I realized it wouldn't be used as originally planned, and then saw some '56 Duo-Sonic parts in an auction, a (low wattage) light bulb went off over my head: I could "build" a 24" scale Duo-Sonic, but with a 3-way toggle switch in the treble horn (out of the way, where it belongs) instead of 2 scratchy slider switches.That said, I really wasn't sure this would work. I knew the '60s Duo-Sonic II/Musicmaster II/Mustang bodies could accept either a 22 1/2" scale or a 24" scale neck, but I wasn't sure if a '50s body could accept a 24" scale neck, (i.e., if the "footprint" of the butt of Fender necks were similar or not). It was a tight fit (the location of the neck mounting holes must have changed by a smidgen between '56 and '65), but it worked, and the guitar plays and sounds grrrreat! It's got almost the same fast neck feel (this one is slightly thicker) and high-octane sound of my '65 Musicmaster II hot rod. Too bad about the ugly-ass body, though. At least I can "saw away" at it with my pick and not care about scratches. These days, the paint is completely gone in the area above the pickguard where my pick misses the strings, and the finish is starting to check nicely elsewhere.
[ back view | body, front ]
Since this guitar was initially re-animated, I've made three major changes and also found a silver '60s Mustang case for it. The original pickguard was removed in favor of a black plastic repro 'guard (the Black Flag sticker was optional), because I was tearing up the "protective" layer of lacquer I sprayed on the original pickguard. I also paid for a professional refret, using "medium" (StewMac #0148) fretwire, and now it plays soooo much better. The refret and new nut (performed in St. Louis) only cost $205, about 60% of what it would have cost me in Memphis, but you get what you pay for: the refret was pretty sloppy (I had to fill in the sides of the fingerboard with a paste of wood glue/rosewood sawdust, since the new fret slots were cut too deep), and there were a few scratches on the body that I didn't remember putting there myself. That said, the frets seem to have been dressed and leveled well. I never actually spoke to the person who performed this refret, so I'm really not in a position to judge it one way or the other. However, if you live in the St. Louis area and are thinking about getting fret work done, feel free to e-mail me and I'll be glad to provide more details. Lastly, I made my own transition-era-esque Fender decal for the bare headstock. I did not include a model name, and it will not fool anyone (it's actually a golden brown color, for better contrast on the headstock and also because I didn't have access to a gold ink printer). It was a pain to edit the image (from a 1000 dpi scan of a photograph of my '65 MM2's headstock), erasing everything except the decal and then correcting the aspect ratio, but now this guitar has at least some semblance of class. I mean, the majority of it is a Fender....
The neck:
I bought the neck first off eBay, as a potential replacement for my '65 Musicmaster II's neck. It had originally belonged to a '65 Mustang, but had been refinished an almost too-dark "vintage amber" by persons unknown (unfortunately costing the guitar's original decal). At ~$95, it would have been cheaper than a refret, but the original frets really weren't that high, and one fret end (12th fret, low-E side) was loose. Other than the one fret, it was a good neck. Since the refret (see above), it's been a great neck.This Mustang neck, dated October 1965, is somewhat unusual in that it has a slab rosewood fretboard. Some Fender fans had speculated that these were left over from '62 Jaguars. However, this one also has an enlarged headstock shape (almost like the late-'60s/'70s post-CBS headstocks), which didn't exist in 1962, so it's very unlikely this neck was a leftover. Another unusual feature is that the headstock was originally drilled for "F"-tuners instead of Klusons. The Mustang was one of the first Fenders to receive the Forrest White-designed F-tuners ca. 1966, but I've seen very few examples with 1965 neck dates. At any rate, by the time I got it the "F"-tuner mounting holes were sloppily filled, a new nut had been installed, and the holes for the tuning machines were enlarged to 3/8" for Schaller M6 Mini tuners (which unfortunately were not included; I had to buy a new set).
The body:
Several months later, I bought the body, pickguard, and bridgeplate off eBay for $150. I didn't buy the other parts in that '56 Duo-Sonic lot: a neckplate (#13593), the tone pot (date code unknown), and jack. The body is unusual in that it's made of ash, which later was usually saved for the more expensive see-thru finish Fenders. Unfortunately, someone had stripped it via shot-peening, so the body had plentiful pits and gouges. I refinished it with clear nitrocellulose lacquer, but the CrystaLac water-based wood paste filler used underneath it dried opaque instead of clear. The pickguard had also lost its anodization and was starting to pit on the front, and was actually missing part of its bass-side horn. The full story of this refin is summarized below, but the bottom line is you shouldn't use anything except clear lacquer if you're doing a clear refin (unless you like the look of an ash-bodied guitar with pasty white blotches). If I knew how to obtain the DuPont Ducco acrylic lacquer used on the first Duo-Sonics (a.k.a. "desert sand"), preferably in a spray can, I'd probably buy it and just re-refinish it in the "correct" color.
Electronics/hardware:
With a set of brass Telecaster "intonated" saddles, proper Fender "barrel" knobs, and generic strap buttons, all it needed was electronics. It inherited a used Duncan Hot Rails bridge pickup that came with my red late '50s Musicmaster (that pickup snarls! -- it's much more "ratty" sounding than the one in my '65 MM2), to go with a new Duncan Vintage Staggered neck pickup. A Switchcraft jack, an Allparts switch, and Fender volume and "no load" tone pots completed the electronics.
Vital statistics:
- Serial number: N/A (made in U.S.A.)
- Body: 3-piece ash, horribly refinished natural
- Neck/fingerboard: maple/"slab" rosewood
Scale length: 24"
Neck width:
at nut: 1 5/8"
at 12th fret: 2"
Neck radius: 7 1/4"
- String gauges (standard tuning):
GHS Nickel Rockers rollerwound strings, set R+RM (.050-.011)
- Electronics:
2 pickups (polarity/DC resistance):
Neck: Duncan Vintage Staggered single coil (south/6.69 kOhms)
Bridge: Duncan Hot Rails humbucker (north/14.8 kOhms)
Controls: 3-way switch; master volume, master tone ("no load")
