1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

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SneakyT
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1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

Post by SneakyT » Tue Sep 08, 2015 6:48 pm

Alright I have a customer that brought me a 1965 Mosrite in pieces that he wants restored. Here are some pics.
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Most all of the original parts are there including the vibramute. It was obviously refinished, which he confirmed as his dad was the previous owner who did it. The truss rod was broken but these can be removed without having to remove the fretboard. The actual truss rod looks as though it can be re-welded easily enough. One pickup is operational but the other has been taken apart. The frets are toast so those are getting replaced for sure. One pot looks to have been replaced at some point but both are bad anyway.

Here are the questions I have.

1. The pickguard doesn't look to be original to me as it hangs over the edge of the body and looks very thick compared to all the pictures I've seen of vintage Mosrites. Can anyone confirm this for me?

2. Does anyone have a suggestion on who to have re-wind the pickup? I'd like to find someone who has some vintage Mosrite pickup knowledge.

3. Anyone have any idea how to find a paint code for Ink Blue? Thats what it originally was. Its a real shame that this was refinished since it seems Ink Blue was the rarest of the finishes from that era.

4. What were the original pots rated? 500K? What brand were they?

5. Faily sure the cap is not original. Can anyone confirm? Original value?

6. Any other details I should look for when trying to get it back to original form?
Last edited by SneakyT on Sat Dec 12, 2015 5:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Sonichris
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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by Sonichris » Tue Sep 08, 2015 7:03 pm

I can offer some help. I recently re-built a '66.

I don't know if your pick guard is original or not, but I think yours isn't probably isn't original. They did overhang the German carve. It looks like it has a bevel, which the originals didn't have.. And I don't think they ever used 3 ply material. Plus, it looks very white.

Mosrite guitars have crazy low frets. Those look about average, believe it or not.

I think 500k is right.

Fun project!

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Guy Guyatone
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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by Guy Guyatone » Tue Sep 08, 2015 8:02 pm

Re: Pick up restoration

http://tombrantleyrewinds.com/
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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by ludobag1 » Wed Sep 09, 2015 8:35 am

for the pups you can contact ed elliot (he remade Mosrite in the old way )
or bob Shade of hallmarks guitars he have lot of Mosrite spares
check Mosrite forum you will have lot of help ;)

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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by MT » Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:39 pm

If you want some expert opinions on authenticity / values etc, email Tim at Tym Guitars. The man is a Mosrite obsessive. :)

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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by SneakyT » Thu Sep 10, 2015 10:13 pm

Thanks for the replies guys
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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by Hellion » Sun Sep 13, 2015 6:23 pm

Killer project. That birdseye maple neck is a stunner. I love their slinky frets and vibrato. I have restored a few Mosrite models. Even a few years ago there weren't many photo references, so I had to do a lot of digging.

This forum page pretty much sums it up. Your pots look right—I think they are Centralab. Caps are generally rust color ceramic. Their signature wiring trick connects the pots with the cap arm and also spaces them at a fixed distance. This is most helpful with hollow body harnesses, but is also a good way to recall how the pots go together. Wires are mostly black or white, thin (almost flimsy), and coated.

It looks like you have all the parts, but you can find decent repro guards on ebay, and other repro parts at Hallmark. For pickups I would pop over to Curtis Novak and see what he can do. Mosrite covered them in epoxy to drive us all mad. I can't offer paint info. LPB would be a decent nitro substitute, but isn't as sparkly.

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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by SneakyT » Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:39 am

1) The top of the shaft on the tone pot is broken off. The volume pot shaft is broken on the bottom side and doesnt stay in place. Neither is really repairable.

2) It was sanded everywhere except the cavities. You can see bare wood under the bridge and the grain comes through the paint on most of the body as it wasn't sealed properly.

3) Novak was one of my first thoughts. Unfortunately the original pickup was completely unwound before I got it.

4) I don't specialize in Mosrite but have restored other vintage Fenders and Gibsons. I'll do all the proper research before any doing anything which is why I posted this. I do all of this guys work and he trusts me to do it right. You have to actually work on one before you can add it as a specialty right?

Thanks for the follow up questions. I'm going to take these questions to the Mosrite forum as well.
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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Need some help….

Post by SneakyT » Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:27 pm

Will do. Still waiting to hear back from some more guys on the Mosrite forum but so far I've gotten some good info. Looks like the consensus is that vintage Mosrites had very thin frets. I'll have to get the truss rod back in to see how level they are but they may not be as bad as I initially thought. I'll post back as get a better overview from those guys. This should be fun.
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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

Post by SneakyT » Sat Dec 12, 2015 5:25 pm

Haven't had time to get any good pics (and unfortunately may not) but she is all done. Was quite a bit of work. The customer didn't want to wait to have me do the body refin so I had him send it to Hallmark guitars who work with Mosrite guitars all the time. I'm kinda glad he didn't as I'm a bit spent on doing refins for a bit. The new finish really matched the remaining color in the neck pocket. He did a really nice job.

Man the frets on these sure are low to start with but there was enough fret left to just do a level. The truss was a bit of a pain to have welded. You have to take the entire thing apart to get a good flow but it's back to operational. It plays and sounds fantastic.

Here are some cellphone pics.

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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

Post by zakmaster » Sat Dec 12, 2015 6:59 pm

That color is beautiful. Really nice job. I think some more details are in order when you have some time. Great job! ;)

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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

Post by tealsixtysix » Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:54 am

That is GORGEOUS. Very nice work.

What is Hallmark's name for that color? I'm tempted to order one of their replicas in the same shade.

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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

Post by SneakyT » Tue Dec 29, 2015 10:37 am

tealsixtysix wrote:That is GORGEOUS. Very nice work.

What is Hallmark's name for that color? I'm tempted to order one of their replicas in the same shade.
It's Ink Blue just like the original color.
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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

Post by druunkonego » Tue Dec 29, 2015 10:59 am

:w00t: Wow. Looking good!

I've never had the opportunity to play a Mosrite. Based on what I've read, I'm led to believe I wouldn't really like it but they're some cool looking guitars. Would love to try one anyway.

Good work!

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Re: 1965 Mosrite Restoration. Finished

Post by SneakyT » Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:31 pm

druunkonego wrote:Wow. Looking good!

I've never had the opportunity to play a Mosrite. Based on what I've read, I'm led to believe I wouldn't really like it but they're some cool looking guitars. Would love to try one anyway.

Good work!
They are quite different than I expected. The low frets make the feel quite different. Very nice guitars but so different.
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