1972 Fender Mustang Guitar – Competition Burgundy

Here is a gorgeous vintage Fender Mustang in the iconic and confusingly named finish Competition Burgundy.

Fender's homage to the Ford Mustang, this model was designed to go fast! Originally marketed as a student model with their small body and short scale length, these have flown under the radar of vintage collectors for decades and inadvertently became synonymous with indie rock and most famously with the grunge movement. Since Kurt Cobain's 1969 Mustang in the same Competition Burgundy sold at auction for US$4.5m, there has been a surge of interest in this model and finish which has started to push the price up, but they are still one of the best value models for someone wanting their first vintage Fender.

This particular guitar has spent most of its life in NZ and Australia being well played, and it's collected a few scars along the way that just add to the mojo - including being set up left handed at some point! When this guitar came to us, the original pickups were dead, and the volume pot and nut had been replaced. We sent the pickups off to Mr Glyn, and he did a fantastic job of rewinding them to original spec with the correct enamel coated wire - he even kept the original leads so they look perfectly original. He must have sprinkled some extra magic fairy dust in these though because they sound phenomal; the neck is warm yet chimey and the bridge has some almost tele-like bite to it but without any icepick, and the middle and out of phase tones are just incredible!

Overall, this guitar is in player grade condition however aesthetically very close to original, and in perfect working order. Aside from the pickups, we have also selected and installed a new CTS volume pot with a very similar torque and taper to the original Stackpole tone pot, otherwise all electronics and wiring are original. The original nut was replaced with an aluminium one decades ago, and we chose to install a new bone nut to restore the original look and improve playability. We have also sourced a vintage repro tremolo arm. The frets are original and have had a recent level and crown and play well all the way up the neck. Case not included.

Weight: 7lb 4oz

Available at our Wellington store.