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Brian,
Congratulations on the Showman! It's reassuring to hear that vintage
equipment can keep on going! Yes, I bought a GPC Mosrite copy last year. The
pickups were good, but the neck was extremely chunky. Nothing like a real
Mosrite. I could barely get my hands around the neck! It also had a
bigsby-style tailpiece and it went out of tune fairly easily. Anyway, I sold
it on eBay just a few weeks after I bought it.
My '72 Mosrite arrived on Monday and, at first, I was disappointed. It
looked more beat up than I expected, the pickups didn't work, the tremelo
was loose, the neck vibrated, the knobs were loose, the neck was concave and
I couldn't figure out how to adjust the truss rod. So, on Monday night, the
first thing I did was disassemble the guitar. The neck is connected with
four screws on the back of the body and an additional two screws underneath
the neck pickup that screw a tongue at the end of the neck to the body. The
nice thing about this is that it's a bit like a glued in neck and the guitar
has a lot of sustain. I discovered a loose wire and soldered it. I also
lemon oiled the neck twice, going through six rags, getting it nice and
clean. It had really dried out, but the lemon oil did wonders. Then, I
polished the body. Everything cleaned up well and the guitar looked a lot
better than when I first opened the case! Tuesday morning, before work, I
put the guitar back together. At lunch time, I went to the hardware store
and bought the thinnest 1/4" socket that they had. Tuesday night, I scraped
away just a tiny bit of wood from underneath the nut at the end of the truss
rod. The new socket fit and I loosened the truss rod to get the neck
straight. Then, I fixed the tremelo with a small locking washer. I put on
new strings, adjusted the bridge, adjusted the pickups, tuned the guitar and
adjusted the intonation. The action was great up until the higher frets. So,
since after all my work, I wanted to see how good I could make it, I took
the neck off again (lot of work!), shimmed it with a small pick, and
re-adjusted everything. Now, it has low action all the way up the neck.
The sound is not as rich as a Jazzmaster, but not as trebley as a Jaguar.
Definitely somewhere in between. At lower volumes it sounds really clean and
has a definite surf vibe going, including that glassy sound reminiscent of a
Jaguar or Jazzmaster. I haven't played it at high volume, yet, but I've read
that it gets nastier sounding at high volumes. The pickups are very noisy. I
don't know if I need to take it apart again and look at the grounding, but
if I can quiet the pickups, I'll be very happy. Compared with the GPC
Mosrite copy that I had, these pickups have a lot more twang.
The neck of the '72 Mosrites are a bit wider than the '60s Mosrites, but
also thinner. Personally, I wish the neck was as narrow as the '60s
Mosrites, but the thinness and the low frets and low action makes it a joy
to play. When I play my Jaguar, after playing the Mosrite, the Jag seems
like it has a really thick neck! It never felt that way before. The Mosrite
has already spoiled me. The Jag neck is narrower, though, which I like. I
had read that the low frets make bending the strings difficult, but I have
no problems doing this when I want to.
The Mosrite's intonation is superb. Probably the zero fret helps. The
sustain is amazing and chords just ring out. It also stays in tune, just
like my Jaguar. After all the work I put into it, I'm finally having fun
with it. The varieties of sound are limited. With both pickups on, it does
surf and rockabilly really well. The neck pickup is not too warm and it has
a nice sound, too. The bridge pickup is OK with distorion, but too trebley
alone, sort of like my Jag. I wouldn't want to use it as my only guitar, but
it adds a nice variety to what I get from my Jaguar. I was looking for
something that I could use to play rockabilly and rock 'n' roll, and still
use for surf, and I think the Mosrite fits the bill.
Sorry for the long post. This isn't like me!
Tom
>Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 12:42:16 -0500
> From: "Brian Neal" <>
>Subject: RE: Re: Dano Hodad/Mosrite
>
>Tom,
>
>I am eager to hear what you think of your incoming Mosrite. Didn't you also
>have a Mosrite copy? What happened to that?
>
>Thanks,
>BN
