Fender / '65 Mustang

The Mustang was originally one of Fender's 'student models' but was destined for the big time; seen slung over the shoulders of icons like David Byrne, John Fruisciante, Kurt Cobain, Todd Rundgren and Adrian Belew to name just a few!

All the original features and styling is there; Two Mustang single-coil pickups, floating bridge with "Dynamic" vibrato tail-piece, Fender/Gotoh vintage style tuning machines with white buttons, vintage correct headstock and bridge plate logo, and "F" stamped neck plate.


• Body: Poplar w/ Daphne Blue Finish

• Neck: Maple, "C" Shape,(Gloss Polyurethane Finish)

• Fingerboard: Rosewood (7.25" Radius/184 mm)

• No. of Frets: 22 Vintage

• Scale Length: 24" (610 mm)

• Width @ Nut: 1.625" (41 mm)

• Hardware: Chrome

• Machine Heads: Fender/Gotoh Vintage Style Tuning Machines with White Buttons

• Bridge: Floating Bridge with "Dynamic" Vibrato Tail-piece

• Pickguard: 3-Ply White Pearloid

• Pickups: 2 Mustang Single-Coil Pickups (Neck & Bridge)

• Vintage Correct Headstock Logo

• Vintage Correct Bridge Plate Logo

• "F" stamped Neck Plate

• Fender/Gotoh Vintage Style Tuning Machines with White Buttons

• Classic Control Plate/Pickguard Gap

Mustang History:

Fender introduced Mustang during August 1964. The Mustang model brought new improvements over its Musicmaster and Duosonic counterpart.

The Mustang was designed by Leo Fender while he still owned the company. It was based on the Fender Duo-Sonic with the addition of a new bridge assembly, Dynamic Fender Vibrato tailpiece and tremolo arm.

Tim Pershing: "The redesign and introduction of the Musicmaster and Duosonic coincided with the introduction of the Mustang (August 1964). I would say that, clearly, the Mustang inspired the redesign of the other student guitars, or the change in design. The earliest production Mustang neck date I've seen is JUL 64. The earliest production Musicmaster/Duo-sonic neck date is SEP 64."

Like the Duo-Sonic, the Mustang was made available in short (22") 21 fret and long (24") 22 fret scale neck lengths.

GGJaguar writes "Fender was sold to CBS in January 1965. Therefore, there are pre-CBS Mustangs, specifically those made in 1964. In general, collectors consider Mustangs made through August 1965 to be "pre-CBS" because they had the same features as the earliest models. The features changed in September '65 and those would be considered CBS-era Mustangs."

The Mustang never featured the traditional spaghetti logo, all examples from 1964 have the transition (macaroni?) Fender decal.

The guitar was produced in colors: Red, White and Blue. The vintage market now refers to these colors as Dakota Red, Daphne Blue, and Olympic White.

GGJaguar states "they really are Dakota Red, Daphne Blue and Olympic White, these colors were only available on other models for a 5% up charge. It would look bad if Fender said they were using premium custom colors on a student model guitar so they simply called them Red, Blue and White."

The guitar neck was constructed from Maple, and for whatever reason, the fretboard was always rosewood. Maple fretboards would not be made available until the mid 1970's. The earlier Mustangs featured a Jazzmaster style headstock with a transition Fender Logo and Kluson tuners with white plastic oval tuning pegs.

During this period the Fender was decal placed above the lacquer on the headstock, so 38 years later it is a common for the decal to be damaged or flaking. Both the body and neck was finished in Nitrocellulose lacquer

Large Headstock

During 1965 the headstock on the Mustang, in line with most other Fender guitars, changes to the classic CBS size. Around this time Fender "F" tuners replace the earlier Klusons.

The large headstock appeared at the same time the slab board appeared (Sep/Oct 1965). The slab board was only found on the long scale version. CBS didn't like to waste anything so they used leftover slab boards from '62 Jaguars on the Mustangs. The slab boards were used until they were all gone around Feb/Mar '66.

1966-1968

Late in 1966, the Mustang underwent minor alterations. The "Offset Body" part of the headstock decal is removed and the Dynamic Fender Vibrato acquires a patent number.