In 1969, Fender had an overstock of Electric XII bodies and necks, and decided to make up a new, quick, model to use up the parts. The result was the Fender Maverick/Custom - it went by both names - which was a 25.5" scale guitar, with Electric XII electronics, a filled and redrilled XII neck, and a sunburst painted body with the back paintted black to hide the through body string block the 12-string model required. The body was reshaped into something similar to an Alembic bass of the time - an odd choice. Why they chose the Mustang vibrato was anyone's guess, prrobalby because they had a lot of them or they were inexpensive to make - or both. Anyway, that was the second Fender model to use that tremolo.

During the course of the 1970's, asian guitar makers started making clones of the Mustang as it was a very popular guitar in Japan, due to a guitarist named "Char B". Makers included Fresher, Greco, and Fernandez. These likely were the guitars that were the ancestors of the later Fujigen Gakki and Dyna Gakki built Fender Mustang 69' reissues that started being manufactured much later. Char B made EXTENSIVE use of the Dynamic Vibrato unit.

Around the same time, in America, Todd Rundgren in his band Utopia started using a Mustang araound 1978 or so, a modified one. Todd also made extensive use of the vibrato unit. The thing is, here, that kind of whammy use on a Mustang did not catch on at all. Firstly, Todd Rundgren was more of a B-C-list guy, and not as well known for his superb guitar work, but here he is playing "Trapped" in 1979 on a Mustang and tearing it up with the vibrato unit on the same scale Edward Van-Halen was doing with the Strat vibrato at the time.

But the majority of western Mustang players were not using the vibrato at all. Not because it was maligned, there's actually an interview of Brad Gillis of Night Ranger - one of the Kings of the Whammy Bar - saying good (enough) things of the MUSTANG at one point, yes, Mr. Whammy himself said he would have been "fine with a Mustang". So this shows that this whole malignment of the Dynamic Fender Vibrato is a RECENT thing and not some old wives tale from the 1960's. But the truth was, who in the west cared at thhe time? Nobody, we were in pointy-Superstrat with a Floyd Rose land at the time. Mustangs and MAvericks were $50 guitars you'd find in the bargain bin and use in your indie band that wrote deep, introspective music, not used by a poodle haired shredder in an LA hair metal band, or a leather clad metalhead in a bay area thrash band. They did not fit the image nor the aesthetic, not that some unknowns did not try as e-bay auctions have shown.

In 1981, the Fender Mustang was discontinued, and thusly, no more Dynamic Fender Vibrato equipped guitars were on the market from Fender at that point. By then, the Mustang was seen as an "obsolete" model by Fender, and as a "student" model to everyone else.

However, in Japan, Char B had apparently inspired so many people to pick up Mustangs, as well as many others (another band with a Mustang player is the New Wave band The Plastics, who shared the scene with P-Model and Hikashu at the time). So much so Fender did a special run of US Mustangs for the Japanese market in 1984 called "Mustang 84'".

However, we did not have a Fender model with a Dynamic Vibrato until 1990, when Fender started importing the Fujigen Gakki MG-69 guitars from over seas. These guitars used import style vibratos and were wound a little hotter than original Mustangs. These Mustangs were only availible via Mail Order (mostly), so most shops had to custom order you a Mustang as they were not considered a "safe" product at the time (ie. would it sell).

In 1991, Nirvana's Nevermind was released, their first major label album, and along with it, a music video for the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which featured frontman and guitairst Kurt Cobain with a 1969 Comeptition Fender Mustang. This sparked interest in Mustangs but surprisingly Fender did not put too much effort into it at the time, they were more focused on selling to bluesmen and shredders still.

In late 1995, a new model featuring this vibrato unit was released, the Fender Jag-Stang, a collaborative joint effort between Kurt Cobain and Larry Brooks. The Jag-stang was basically a thicker, more angular Fender Mustang with a humbucker in the bridge. The guitar was released quickly, likely cash-in on Cobain's legacy, but failed to take off, with production runs in Japan running from 1995-2001, 2003-2005, and the new Mexican production in 2021-present.