Short Scale Goodness: The adventure continues

So a previous post covered some interesting short scale guitar goodness; I mentioned that I'd been jonseing for a short scale Fender Offset. Thankfully my wife (say it like Borat) reads my blog, went extra special for me this xmas and picked this up for me:

A Squier Mustang HH.

First off I'm not a name or brand snob in any way. Cool is cool. So I'm not put of by the Squier name. Most other retailers offered it n Black, or a shade of blue that is reminiscent of an old Shelby cobra. Musicians friend offered it this season in White or the Surf/Bel Air Green color mine came in. Colors are a personal preference, and I know where my tastes lie, and my wife knows me oh so well.

This guitar is alot of firsts for me:

First Squier guitar

First String through bridge guitar

First mail order guitar purchase

First short scale instrument

First Guitar given to me as an Xmas Gift.

Out of the box how does it play? Pretty good. First impressions: The frets could use some polishing, a decent setup and a good set of strings. But these are issues I'd have with pretty much any new guitar. Considering it's an Indonesian made instrument, and comes in at a really reasonable price point, I'm not surprised, and in some ways very pleased. We couldnt get new instruments anywhere near this quality for the price when I was starting out. I was lucky to get a used Hondo Strat copy for $100 in the mid 1980's.

Sound wise it's pretty nice, The twin humbuckers are really cool, and when used together sound really full. I look at a guitar like this as a great platform to do all sorts of mods. But If I'm going to do any changes, I'm going to wait and see after a bit of use. So far after one night of practice with my Original band, The Goodbye Theory, I don't have any issues with them, which is a great sign.

Squier stuff seems to get a bad rap in some circles, but they do offer some unusual fender style instruments that are just off the beaten path, like the P-51, or some seriously modded offsets like jaguars and jazzmasters. The price point isn't a bad place to start if you're not a purist.

I brought it to practice, and it sounded great, although it certainly needed a proper setup, which it got last weekend. During disassembly, we figured out that it was made on July 4th, 1997! It got some nice fret polishing, a truss rod adjustment, a new set of strings and a proper intonation.

After all that I brought it to practice and it played and sounded great. It's ultra light as well!The strings are still breaking in, but the setup alone made it a much better instrument!
Possible future upgrades might be, locking tuners, a better nut, some graphtech saddles. But these are items further down the road.

A buddy of mine has a 74 mustang, and comparing mine to his, It's an interesting take on a classic. Modding a vintage or even one of the newer Fender or Squier vintage versions with humbuckers fall in the "not worth it" category. I could have a made a partscaster mustang, but part of the coolness is it's an inexpensive guitar that doesn't need a lot. 

Attention is probably the biggest upgrade any new guitar can get. New strings and a setup are worth every penny.

My wife (again, say it like Borat) is the best!