I need a tip for buying a new guitar

get a guitar YOU like.... don't worry about whatr its usually used for, be an innovator and not an immitator

you can play any kind of music on any guitar..... even a floyd rose equipped, 80s poodle-metal axe can be employed to play some jangly shit if you set your amp right (in fact, floyd guitars are really good at that, they just don't look the part)....

okay, nitty gritty on mustangs and strats etc.... first off the mustang pickup is a flat-poled strat pickup so tis very similar in response to a strat used individually. Used in series or out in or out of phase you willg et some brian-may like tones instead of the strat 2 pickup 'quack'. They are less iconic but more useful fender soudns especially if you use a 1 channel tube amp and want thin and clean, light-dirt and thick solo tones controlled just from your guitar. Electronically the msutang and strat have differnt 'gimmick' soudns but the core tone is the same with just a little elss emphasis on the D and G strigns from the msutang. Where the BIG difference is is the bridge and scale. The mustang bridge lacks the strat's sustain block and while its a better design to me than the strat I have to say the strat bridge with the steel block anchoring the strings and the springs that resonate in sympathy with body produces a sound that's not imitated by another bridge assembly. If you get a mustang with a strat bridge it will be stratier when using just 1 pickup at a time. But it will never produce the steely twang of a strat ebcause it is a tiny 24" scale and can't produce the breadth of harmonics the strat is capable of. Without the 25.5" neck scale of the strat the information those 2 strat-like pickups get from the string will just be less compelx. I find the fender short scale is less tight and focused on the fundamental than a Gibson too. So don't expect the sustaining fundamental of a single-equipped gibby either, the gibby is still a longer neck. However, the fender short scale neck does have a cool 'plunky/rattly' quality with the mustang and jag/jazz bridges that's a sound all its own.... if you can fit your fingers in the frets of a mustang or jag then I gotta say they are a unique thing because of the little necks.

food for thought

Try a telecaster or jaguar or jazzmaster while you are at it. Fender also

I suggest you get 1 or 2 of everything you're into, one very traditional, one more hot-rod of possible. That's what I always do. Which is probably why I have a whole huge clsoet that's mostly filled with guitar cases....

go used, be a bottomfeeder and try to get 2 at once... HAGGLE ;-) Last time I helped somone pick a 'stang was over a decade ago but we got a great deal on a very nice used japanese fender reissue in fiesta red for very little money and even today I think if your budget is over a thousand euros you may be able tog et an older, used japanese mustang and maybe still swing the new hotrod with the strat bridge or something similar. Also, if you don't have to have trem, the duo sonic is almost the same guitar just with a fixed bridge. The bridge design is loosely based on the tele and it sounds good. You can often find duo jet reissues for a pittance because they aren't associated with Kurt Conain (the #1 reason mustang prices remain shockingly high for a teenie bopper guitar). You can then mod the duo sonic to your hearts delight. I can't remember if its the musicmaster or bronco thats the guitar or the bass, but one f those is just a rebranded duo jet from the 70s, still pretty cheap, great guitars if you like 'stangs.

Try a telecaster or jaguar or jazzmaster while you are at it. Fender also

Sure thing. I tried a Telecaster a few of months ago, and it doesn't really like me. Great guitar absolutely, but to me it sounded to much thin and sharp.

thats a abd tele, bridge probably doesn't have the vintage correct baseplate.... a tele should be fatter in the mids and bottom than a stock strat, even a strat with modern overwound pickups. It will also have more upper mid cut if that's what you mean by sharp, but its got less true high over that upper mid fcus and even the sot udnerwound 60s style tele bridge pickups are still pretty full. Fender's thickest sounding vintage singles, hands down. the old style bridges cotnributed soem too and I don't know the new american and mexis tandard bridges itneract with the bridge pickup's magnetic field the same way.... brass saddles will also thicken the tele up, but even my 60s type tele with steel saddles and underwound pickups is still fuller than a stock strat with classic specs. Maybe we define our words differently. A strat is definitely better balanced in tone than most teles, but thicker? I am not seeing it unless you played an off the shelf mexican standard or soemthing else that fender just throws together for beginners. I sued to prefer the strat to the tele, but the more years of professional playing I put in the more I liked the stock teles focused and cutting sound in the band and the more I favored its ultra stable tuning. Its something people are drawn to aesthetically early on or that they have to grow into as they gain more playing experience. Its not for EVERYONE, but it for msot people if they give it a chance.

if i were you id shop used, a mexican stratocaster is insanely versatile and i can't praise it enough. I am not a stratocaster guy i like them but i like tele's and jazzmasters more but the stratocaster gets me a good The 1975 sound, the neck pickup can nail Jimmy's stuff for Foals, and the bridge gets some good poppy sounds it could definitely get you a close sound to bands you like most of them use a stratocasters

id also look at the J Mascis Jazzmaster by Squier its a solid guitar and sounds incredible for the price, and the upgraded bridge holds tune like a mother-f*cker, also invest in a good cheap reverb, delay and drive

love the j mascis.

based n so many reviews and now 2 of you EB kids raving abut the squire j mascis I am hovering my finger over the buy it now on one on ebay.... buy it?

YES! ugh the neck is so nice and i am obsessed with p90s

i actually agree with indieman here. the strat has always sounded thicker to me, fuller in tone and less twangy. Not lacking twang, but less than the Tele. i really dislike Teles, as I find them uncomfortable, but when I need a country ass tone or some blues shit you will find me asking the tallest GC guy to please help me reach that Thinline up there.

every person who speaks english as a second language on this site speaks better than I do.

i say yes, but ill admit its pick ups tend to get a bit muddier quicker being its geared more towards shoe gaze and alternative but its got an adjust-o-metic bridge stock in it which is night and day, i just wish it was alder instead of basswood but its not a huge difference

and i feel the tele bridge sounds a lotstronger where as the strats neck pick up sounds a lot more rounded and present and fuller

I definitely wouldn't turn one away.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/squier-j-mascis-jazzmaster-electric-guitar

I'm waiting to see one show up on craigslist and ill probably use it as my first guitar i mod myself

the new mustangs are good just not the same as a traditional mustang