TD's DMS-1 to Mustang

[fender3x]

Nice looking serial number ;-)

I got curious and looked at some previous DMS-1 builds to see the difference between that and a Mustang. Curious what you'll be changing? Are you adding the metal tone plate? And curious if you have found the switches you wanted...as well as where they'll go.

Are you sticking with the stock pickups? Or are you going full Cobain on it? My daughter and I built a "Jag-ish" guitar because she liked Nirvana... But the trem and pups are all Strat (albeit with a hot SC bridge pickup). Cobain, I think actually had the Mustang trem, with a SC Neck and hot HB in the bridge.

[Trevor Davies]

.... so how did you shape the foot of the neck - sandpaper?

+1 for the use of pegs to steady the headstock template... seems so obvious once I noticed it!

The foot of the neck was sanded by hand with a 180 g and a sanding block. It did not need much taken off.

[Trevor Davies]

Nice looking serial number ;-)

I got curious and looked at some previous DMS-1 builds to see the difference between that and a Mustang. Curious what you'll be changing? Are you adding the metal tone plate? And curious if you have found the switches you wanted...as well as where they'll go.

Are you sticking with the stock pickups? Or are you going full Cobain on it? My daughter and I built a "Jag-ish" guitar because she liked Nirvana... But the trem and pups are all Strat (albeit with a hot SC bridge pickup). Cobain, I think actually had the Mustang trem, with a SC Neck and hot HB in the bridge.

I have purchased a mustang style trem, a pick guard for 2 slanted single coil pups and 2 switches, a metal control plate. I will need to do a bit of routing to fit the trem and switches. I will also need to add some wood around the control plate area to take the screws, and hide the join between the guard and the plate.

I did think for a while that I should go the Humbucker in the bridge but chickened out.

I have not got any pups yet, but will see what is available from PBG.

[fender3x]

It already looks cool! ;-)

FWIW GFS makes a Strat style, dual-rail pickup. They say the vintage one sounds sort of like a PAF. I have a set of the Tele "modern vintage" version...and It's say it's more like a mini-humbucker than a PAF...but still good ;-)

https://www.guitarfetish.com/search....ord=lil+killer

[Trevor Davies]

Thanks fender3x. So much choice. ATM I will be using some st-1 kit pups, but will probably upgrade to some noiseless Toneriders.

The Mustang style bridge and tremolo arrived in the mail. Now I need to download a template and make a routing template for the trem springs and the switches.

[Trevor Davies]

Today I have managed to download a template for the mustang tremolo route and for the switches. Then transferred this to a 12mm MDF sheet. I then drilled out the ends of the tracks and jigsawed out the main shape. Tidied them up which a small drum sander.

I then carefully placed the MDF template on the body and clamped them together. Then routed out the shapes onto the body. Ineeded to use the dremel to make a channel between the switch routes and the pup routes (I should have done this on the original template first!). There was one slip with the router on the left tremolo route on the template! besides that, it all went well.

[fender3x]

I continue to be impressed by the quality of your templates/jigs. It's looking good.

I have been reading up on the trem. Cool the way it is totally top loaded and so completely different than a strat. Since it came after the strat, I am guessing the advantage may have been that there was no need to rout the back and all the trem parts are located on the trem plate.

My ulterior motive for taking a look at this is that, from the top, the Mustang trem looks kind of similar to my Fender Coronado trem. The Coronado trem also fits on top, but does not have top routs. The good news (for you) is that aside from the "cigar" and floating bridge, there's not much similarity underneath. The Coronado a big piece of flat spring steel to provide tension. Sort of a leaf-spring vs coil spring. Looking at how the Mustang trem is adjusted got me wondering if my Coronado trem could be adjusted?

I got the Coronado in a pawn shop when I was about 15 or 16. It was missing the bridge, came with a Gretsch case and had lots of chips and crazing to the finish. I put a Gibson tune-o-matic bridge on it, and then later found an original bridge. I also put a simple, solid trapeze on it because with the trem in place it went out of tune if if I looked at it hard. It literally never occurred to me until a few minutes ago that the spring tension could be adjusted. Looking at it, and comparing to your trem, I saw an adjustment screw for the spring tension that I had never noticed before. The Coronado has gotten a bit fragile to play, and so is mostly wall-art in my daughter's room...but this may inspire me to see if I can adjust the trem so that it's playable. You never know what you're going to learn here.