These are great guitars, I mod every guitar I get my hands on and this is no exception, but I only spent about $100 on new pickups, nut and bridge saddles (If the electronics go I'll swap them out too). It's fantastic! edit: I also have the Squier CV 60 mustang and I love both of these. I put a JB JR in the bridge(semi kurt cobain tribute) as the only mod and it's unbelievable how good these things are for the price. Should note that these necks were both bone dry when I got them so some lemon or mineral oil is essential. I also polished the frets with 8,000 grit wet and micro fiber cloth.
I have one. Mine came with amazingly smooth frets, properly installed tuners, good set up. Really lucky I guess! Really crappy bridge though. Hard to string it up! Gotta bend the ends of the string. Great value though!
I think mine was bad due to traveling across the country to get to me. Throws the neck outta wack and the fretwork is really hit or miss. Glad ya got a good one thou!!! I totally hear ya on the restring. Had to bend my a bit too to get them up over the saddles
@@DominickArena so after having the bullet for a while could you say you would recommend one? Granted I’ve heard about them being hit and miss but as a nodding platform I’ve seen guys nodding the hell out of them Regards Matt
You’re wrong about no finish. They do not sell guitars with “raw” wood. When you brought the guitar to a dryer climate the fingerboard shrunk and the frets sprung out the ends. What you did to the guitar wasn’t very difficult, just basic stuff. Pickups are not “hot” unless they are connected to a battery. The squire mustang is an amazing guitar for the cost.
I replaced the pots with 500k ones, with a PIO capacitor. 22. 250k pots originally installed . Stainless Steel saddles fitted. Nut replaced. £50 spent to upgrade, worth it . I paid £90 for it
@@DominickArena , a guitar tech I know recommended trying high quality pots first before changing the pickups. However, I’m going to put Artec Alnico V into them. £40 a set and will do
@@decdel77 Now that I have a decent amount of time on this guitar I do think the pots are pretty poor. They are already scratchy and seem to do nothing until turned at least 50%. I may throw new ones in myself and even go split coil with new pickups as well.
I just bought a used '21, and I'm absolutely amazed. No sharp frets. I was worried about the intonation with it being a 24" scale, and it was pretty much fine when I got it. No problems with the pickups - I've got hotter and cooler on other guitars, but they actually get a good tone! Not super crazy about the re-stringing process, but it's not that bad. Was also a little worried about how a short scale would stay in tune, but just like all guitars - if you stretch the strings out enough, it stays in tune great! I was really expecting the strings to be a lot more slack with the reduced tension of the shorter scale, but honestly - I didn't really noticed as much difference as I thought I'd get. Still - it plays really good. Did have to work with the neck a little. I like my action pretty low, and I was getting a little buzz out of the top frets. Adjusted it about 4 times over the last couple of days, got it decent last night, and today it settled in and is absolutely perfect! I paid $100 for it, and it still had the plastic on the pickguard. Probably the best $100 I ever spent. I'll play it live, too! I love playing cheap guitars in front of gearheads. :D
That's awesome man! Great deal on it too. I'm looking into getting another one with single coils. They make great project guitars and fun to play as well
@@DominickArena The people across the ocean are making better and better guitars. It's just something that can't be ignored any longer. I had a 1981 Les Paul Standard. Really was a great guitar, but now this Mustang sounds every bit as good, plays better, and is about 7 lbs. lighter. Plus - I don't have the anxiety of people stealing the Mustang at shows, and that's major!
Bought one as a travel guitar, neck off will fit in a case. Needed to set up, and replace the jack input. Dont need to change anything else, sounds and plays awesome! Havent put it down since. Future classic!
The original 69-73 Fender Mustang Competition run and Japanese M-69 reissues have a similar contoured body. Perhaps why these Squier Bullets carry that design feature and one reason why I chose a Bullet FSR over a Classic Vibe last year. Keep up the good work.
@@DominickArena The contours make all the difference for me. With the Bullet costing so much less I went and spent some of the excess that would have gone toward the Classic Vibe on some bent steal Fender saddles and a pair of handmade scatter wound single coil pickups. Such a great instrument to modify.
@@fransaacs Nice!!! I wanna buy another one now so I can do a single coil mod myself. I'm enjoying the light ness and small frame of this guitar alot more now
It has a very good sustain, exceptional sustain, so who cares if the strings don't go thru the body. It's was supposed to have a 12" fret radius but it's 9.5". Check and measure your radius.
Got the black one, super cool and very under rated guitar, also a brilliant modding project guitar, i love mine and im in the middle of modding it, about to install covers, i just got the shielding to do first :)
Very nice! I find myself playing it more and more. Thinking of grabbing another one to convert to single coils. Great mod guitar like you said. Thanks for watching!
I have two of these, a blue metallic '18 model and a '20 in surf green, both from Indonesia. Love the slightly shorter scale length, really fun and easy to play. Mine are fantastic in general fit and finish and the hardware and electronics are plenty good enough for a guitar in this price class. The paint jobs are as good as anything I've seen on a Fender, especially the green one. Gave $150 for the green and an amazing $14 (yes, fourteen) on a clearance sale for the blue at my local pawn. Bought that one for parts, left it as-is to play because it's so good. They each needed proper setup and a little attention to a couple fret ends so I also polished the frets and oiled the fretboards while I was at it, no problem doing this 'extra' work, I enjoy it. I added foil shielding throughout to the green one and it's absolutely silent until you play- no hum or interference. The stock switches and pots are also smooth and silent in operation. No grounding issues whatsover. I may change pickups someday for fun but really they sound great as-is. I recommend the Bullet Mustang, or I suppose the Sonic model now, to anyone who already has a few guitars and wants something inexpensive for some fun and variety or, as you know, something easy and low-risk to mod. I'd gig my Bullet Mustangs anytime without worry.
Great video, thanks for taking the time. GC/MF has these in both Oly White and Surf Green and oddly they list them as basswood bodies. I don't necessarily believe them. Seen many retailer errors over the years. I have a hunch they are poplar like most other listings. I got an Oly White one earlier this week. I do think there is a VERY thin satin finish on the neck but it feels darn close to raw wood. The Fender spec page shows it as satin also. My frets were rough as sand out of the box. Hit all of them with Stew Mac fret erasers and it's a player now. One other minor change they made- the newer iterations have a far smaller "Mustang" logo. I prefer the older, larger ones as it's closer to the originals, I think. Again great job on the video!
Thanks for watching! Yeah the Oly White is a limited run and exclusive to GC/MF. I may order that and mod it for single coils. Not sure if they did anything special for that "Limited Run" or just the exclusive color for them
@@DominickArena Likely just the color change for the FSR thing is my guess. I emailed Fender asking for clarification on the body wood and, in a nutshell, they didn't know. I find that a little hard to believe. They replied with some BS about Squier serial numbers not being entered into their systems. At any rate these things are a fkuckig blast to play!
I have the yellow Squier Bullet Mustang Competition, thoroughly copper-shield it, its adjusted to perfect intonation, and swapped pick ups to Warman P-90 Humbuckers. The frets has been tested, polished and oiled, and some matching black tuners. Im over the moon happy for it! So very easy to play, super lightweight and sounds like Nirvana! (If people only knew how good these guitars really are with just some mods and a little TLC)
@@DominickArena Brilliant! Upload it! Have you ever heard of Bartolini pickups? Theres a video "The Kurt Cobain Ferrington guitar" I highly recommend you to watch Good luck!
I scored a black one. Okay out of the box, easy setup, but the tone pot wiring was screwed up. I ended up getting some Gotoh 500k pots I wired properly which made a HUGE sound difference. Shielded then swapped the scratch plate and knobs for a cooler look. The only thing I'll do next is change the cheapo switch. Same scale length as my Jag, but the flatter radius makes bends a little more controllable [for me!]. It's a fun thing.
Fun fact - today (10-9-2023) Musician's Friend's Stupid Deal Of The Day is the Olympic White version for $129. If this wasn't the one I already have, and the fact that I also own a Fender Duo Sonic and an IYV Mustang which are very similar, I'd jump on it. Mine is the Indonesian one and arrived literally perfect - unlike my Duo Sonic which had awful fret sprout and neither nut on the volume pot threads. P.S. The fretboard is flatter because it's faster and cheaper to make - less milling. Nothing to do with shredding.
Just bought one in black on reverb .They have a Sonic Mustang HH now but it's a slab body and once you've seen a Mustang with belly carve and comfort cut there's no going back so a 2017 Bullet for me .Looks so much better with the pick up covers but dont trust myself to cut out the pick guard .I wonder if anyone makes a custom pick guard for covers like that ?
I hear ya the cuts on the mustang are a welcome edition for sure. Haven't found a pickgaurd yet cut big enough for the covers. I did change mine to a pearloid cover and had to trim that one as well. Spent some more time on that one making it look cleaner 😉
My son just got one of these friday. his is lake placid blue with frost blue stripes, he loves it! he says the neck is fast and the fets are fairly smooth on the face but the ends need some work. also, it is buzzing horribly on the low E string. in all, he's pretty happy with it.
I have an old 1970s mustang, and it has forearm cut and belly cut. it is not a weird feature in mustang bullet tho. except if you only compared this to the modern mustang, then it is correct.. =)
The spacing between the strings was not smaller on the Mustang, it was LARGER than the Strat or LP! And that right from the first models! The most unfortunate part about this Bullet is its simplified hardtail. To avoid extraneous sounds, it is useful to replace it with a through-the-body variant. Among other things, after the replacement, I no longer blame the tuners for instability! Btw, the instrument cannot be blamed for the missing of shielding, the graphite paint works absolutely well! I have 35+ years of positive experience using it.😁
I wish it had a Mustang tremolo. Fender is a huge douchebag now everything is to expensive. The MIM Strats were a cheap alternative, they are now $800 to $110 that in no way is cheap in fact those are pro gear prices.
how exactly did you replace the hardtail bridge? did you convert your bullet mustang to string through? or did you just buy a classic vibe body and put the neck on it
Walks over to japanese mustang their room, sees it has contour bevel, works at guitar shop for over a decade, remembers bevel on all mustangs.. not sure on that info friend.. also not correct about string through body thing. so half is correct, but cobain custom comes with hbs so 1.5 true out of 4. Review about this guitar is correct but basic information about all other comparisons is not.
This is why I don't like reviews from self proclaimed experts. Even though I have read review after review that says its pretty nice out of the box, this guy makes you think you have to either spend HOURS working on it or spend more for a setup than the guitar costs. Just about enough said to talk a non pro right out of buying it !
I love this comment. This is a fantastic beginner guitar. Short scale, light weight is absolute must have If you are a beginner , just buy it. If you are a pro just don't buy it and be grumpy about it, but something better. If you can't buy something better listen to this video and hopefully you get what you are looking for. ❤
Mine came out of the box in pretty good shape, but I changed the strings to Elixir Nanoweb, which improves the sound and overall playability and is easier on your fingers. For playing out, I'm gravitating to lower weight guitars. The Imperial Blue has some sparkle in the finish, and as far as I know, is the only Fender guitar in this color. Sonic grey looks green to me in person, just in case a grey guitar puts you off. I bought the blue and grey and I'm happy with both.
So a review on my 2023. My neck was dead on strait. Tuned to pitch and intonation was VERY close. Finger board was very dry. The fret ends were atrocious. Expect to spend some time on them so you don't cut yourself. Not my 1st rodeo. But I'm not complaining. I knew I would replace the pick ups before I even plugged it in. The one I received is a good platform for modding. I bought this new for $170.00 US specifically as a platform for PUs from Dylan Talks Tone. So I chose my pick up, then found a guitar to put them in.
I re read my post so to clarify: The neck was dead straight out of the box. It was way out of tune out of the box, but after I tuned it to pitch, the intonation was very good without adjustment. Again, no complaints. I don't think anyone should expect correct tuning out of a box.
You're right! I should have elaborated by saying the current manufactured Stang's are still flat bodied where the bullets are using the forearm and tummy cuts 😉
Interesting, I decided to look up “squire mustang” and you posted this 6 hours ago lol. Cool pickups though, I bought a relic’d squire mustang that is pretty awesome
Just to clarify, the pawnshop mustang has wide range humbuckers, not standard sized ones. Fender put out some crapo WRHB for a long time and I hate them with a passion lol
It's awesome that it has a comfort cut. I love that. I think I'm gonna get one if I get any extra money soon. I definitely want to get those pickup covers too
Great guitar... it's the perfect junkie- or weak skinny guy- guitar... Thats probably why Kurt Cobain used it. I'm using it for e Standard tuning so i don't have to tune my les Paul which is in c Standard up and down... I'm thinking about replace the humbuckers with a Seymour Duncan SH-6 distortion mayham set... But I'm not sure if the sound will change a lot if I change the pu's
Looks awesome ! Have the same color . Looking to modify mine as well. Looking for a new stock for the bullet .. What was the neck scale? 24 or 24.75”? Would a Jaguar 24” neck work on the bullet?
It's just for looks. More of a PAF look. Just keep in mind if you do add metal or brass covers to be sure to solder it to the back plate of the pickup to ground it. Otherwise it can cause squeal or add microphonics to the pickup. But again it's just for looks
After buying this one I want a single coil version now! Yes the Sonic Series looks great. Fender has a limited neon green one on their website currently that's calling my name!
@@DominickArena yeap, I have mine for almost 10 years. I guess it's almost the same specs, but with additional coils split switches and string true body with the same hardtail strat bridge
It's not a "trust" rod, but a "truss" rod. Bullet necks do NOT come "unfinished! No Squier comes with an unfinished neck! Fender would have all kinds of warranty issues if they didn't seal them. You are not the only person wrong about that, but you are wrong.
