Fender Vintera vs MIJ Mustangs

[Life Is A Dream]

I've been listening to Youtube demos of the Fender Vintera '60s Mustang
and am surprised at how lackluster the pickups are. I owned a mid-'90s
MIJ Fender Mustang that was a supposedly faithful replica of a '60s
'stang and don't remember the pickups sounding muddy and lifeless like
that. The pickups on the Squier Classic Vibe '60s Mustang sound closer
to those on the MIJ, if a tad brighter.

Has anyone tried all three guitars, and if so, which comes closer to an
original Mustang, the MIJ or the Vintera?

I notice the nut width on the Vintera is a little larger than on the MIJ
ones, 42mm instead of 41mm. I haven't been able to find out how wide the
nuts on the originals were.

[Abandoned_Trolley]

As a general observation I would say that using a youtube video to
assess the tone of any guitar is pointless and likely to be misleading.

Having said that, I would agree that some of the pickups on MIJ / CIJ
Fenders are a bit lifeless.

I have a 54 Butterscotch CIJ reissue from about 1998 and a 63 Tele
Custom reissue from around 1994 and I have replaced the pickups on both
of them with Seymour Duncan products - the original neck pickup on the
'54 was especially dull.

If anybody out there is thinking of doing anything similar then I would
advise them to make sure they do both pickups, as the Duncans seem to be
wound out of phase.


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[Life Is A Dream]

On 11/24/22 04:25, Abandoned_Trolley wrote:
> As a general observation I would say that using a youtube video to
> assess the tone of any guitar is pointless and likely to be misleading.
>

If the Vintera sounded muddy in only one or two videos, I would agree
that it could be down to factors other than the pickups, but when it
consistently sounds that way across a dozen videos produced by different
people in different years, it's probably the guitar.

> Having said that, I would agree that some of the pickups on MIJ / CIJ
> Fenders are a bit lifeless.

The Vintera line is made in Mexico, not Japan. I quite like the sound of
the MIJ Mustangs and of Fender Japan instruments in general. It's a
shame they're no longer available in North America.

I'm not dissing MIM Fender, either. The Mexican Fenders I've played were
generally good, and I like the sound of most of the guitars in the
Vintera line that I've heard or tried. The Vintera '60s Mustang is an
exception. Some would describe the sound as warm, but to me it sounds
lackluster.