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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Mosrite pickup replacement options

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dannylectro
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Joined: Aug 18, 2008
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Link Posted on Mar 08 2019 11:47 AM

I'm looking for a set of good Mosrite replacement pickups and was wondering what options are out there and what you guys would recommend. I've seen Ed Elliot and Danamo pickups available. Which one of these is closer in tone to the original Mosrite pickups?

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TomH
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Joined: Mar 15, 2006
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Link Posted on Mar 08 2019 12:11 PM

Over the years, I've replaced MIJ Mosrite pickups with Ed Elliot pickups and with M3 California pickups, and I also had one set re-built by Curtis Novak.

In my opinion, the set re-wound by Curtis Novak sounded the best. The ones made by Ed Elliot and by M3 California were too warm for my taste. Of course, vintage Mosrite pickups were warm. I just like more of a trebly twang with my Mosrites. That said, I used different value capacitors in the circuits and the Elliot and M3 pickups ended up sounding more to my liking.

I currently have 2 Kurokumo Excellent Mosrites and I like the pickups they came with. They're definitely more trebly than the pickups mentioned above, but, like I said, that's more to my taste nowadays.

I also had a Hallmark guitar for a while and those pickups sounded pretty good to my ears. They had some of the clarity that I felt the Ed Elliot pickups and the M3 California pickups lacked.

I don't have any experience with Dana Moseley wound pickups, but from what I've read on the Mosrite forum, everybody likes them a lot. Makes sense that they might be the choice if you want vintage-sounding, considering Dana's heritage!

One note about the Curtis Novak pickups, I was disappointed that he had really thin wire coming from those pickups. They sounded great, but the wires were almost thread-like. I sent him an email asking why he used such thin wires, and he replied that that's what he had laying around. That seemed rude and I didn't appreciate having to work with those extremely thin wires. Other than that, they sounded amazing. So, I cut Novak a break!

One final note regarding the MIJ Mosrite pickups, I had a Fillmore Ventures model Mosrite back in the 90's and the stock pickups sounded a lot better than any of the Kurokumo pickups I've had.

Hope that helps!

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taijiguy
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Joined: Mar 27, 2006
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Newington, CT USA
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Link Posted on Mar 09 2019 06:07 AM

I'd go with the originals by Dana Moseley. Dana hand wound the originals and she hand winds these. I have them on my Hallmark 65 Custom and they sound perfect in every way.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mosrite-Guitar-Pickups-vintage-Guitars/273736211326?hash=item3fbbf31b7e:g:LIoAAOSww85aVM95

Last edited: Mar 09, 2019 06:10:30

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dannylectro
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Link Posted on Mar 11 2019 12:29 PM

TomH wrote:

In my opinion, the set re-wound by Curtis Novak sounded the best. The ones made by Ed Elliot and by M3 California were too warm for my taste. Of course, vintage Mosrite pickups were warm. I just like more of a trebly twang with my Mosrites. That said, I used different value capacitors in the circuits and the Elliot and M3 pickups ended up sounding more to my liking.

What value caps are you using with these?

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TomH
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Link Posted on Mar 11 2019 01:38 PM

What value caps are you using with these?>

It's been a while since I had those Mosrites and I'm not remembering the exact cap values that I ended up using. The traditional Mosrite circuit used a .05uF tone cap; however, I seem to remember that wasn't the value of the caps that came on those Mosrites I had. The lower the pot value the darker the tone. So, I probably went slightly higher than whatever the cap used was. Hope that helps!

Now that I'm writing this, I remember that one of those MIJ Mosrites also had a resistor bridging two of the tone pot posts. I think that I removed that resistor at some point and then just went with the higher value cap. It did work and it added more twang and clarity; however, I wasn't real satisfied with either of those pickups. I wish I had never sold the first Mosrite I had, which was a Japanese Mosrite made by Fillmore. It sounded really good. Oh well. About a dozen Mosrites later, I'm happy with the two Kurokumo Mosrites that I have; however, if I ever get some extra cash, I'm sure I'll be checking into those Dana Moseley pickups Smile

Last edited: Mar 11, 2019 13:41:50

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