Menu
Hi. I had a Dano Hodad with tremelo for about a year and then traded it for
a Fender MIM Strat. I liked the Hodad a lot and I agree with all of the
positive things that have been said about it, but I also had an issue with
it, which is the neck joint. Just like on most cheap guitars from the '60s,
there's really not much holding the neck onto the body. Compare the Dano
Hodad with a Fender Jaguar. On the Jaguar, the neck fits into a substantial
pocket of thick, solid wood, on the Hodad, it's a comparatively thin piece
of wood and not much of a pocket. When I bought the Hodad, the action was
fantastic all the way up the neck, but it slowly started raising. I realized
that it wasn't the neck that was bending or warping, it was the thin body
wood. Using the Bigsby-style tremelo puts a lot of stress on the neck pocket
and I feel that the Hodad doesn't have a substantial-enough pocket for this.
Anyway, don't be dissuaded by my solitary issue with the Hodad. I loved the
flat radius of the neck and the pickup tone. Besides, I eventually traded
that strat for a second Jaguar and I admit to having had regrets over
selling the Dano!
Now, to tie Mosrite in with this discussion, I mentioned my second Jaguar.
Until two weeks ago, I only had 2 guitars: a white MIJ Jaguar and a sunburst
CIJ Jaguar. Last year, I put Seymour Duncan pickups in the beat-up white Jag
and it sounds incredible. Consequently, I never played the sunburst Jag,
which was in good shape, and it just sat in my closet. I've been wanting to
buy a Mosrite for a long time and I finally decided to do it. So, I had to
pick one of the guitars to sell. Although my white Jag is beat-up, I've had
it the longest, taken it apart a million times, have cool stickers on it and
love how it sounds with the Seymour Duncan pickups. I know it inside and out
and have strong affection for it (at least as strong as you can have for a
guitar). So, two weeks ago, I sold the sunburst Jag on eBay.
Then, last week, I bought a '72 Mosrite on eBay. It's similar to the
Ventures Mosrite, but was made when Semi Mosely bought the Mosrite name back
and was after the Ventures stopped endorsing the guitar. So, it doesn't say
"The Ventures" on it. In '74/'75, the Mosrite necks got chunkier, but in
'72, when this one was made, the necks were thinner than ever before and
just a little wider. It should fit my hands perfectly! I should be getting
it on Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll let you know how it works out. I suspect
that the Jaguar will always be my favorite guitar, but the Mosrite has such
a different sound from the Jaguar, it will be a lot of fun.
Tom
www.oberlin.edu/staff/thinders/ (new address)
wobc.org (Tsunami Soul Show, Thursdays, 6-8 p.m., EST)
> >
> > I am wondering about the Hodad.
> > >
> > > Harmony Central gear reviews aren't the gospel, but the
> > reviews for
> > the Hodad were mostly very positive.
> > > Is it really a decent guitar, or were the reviewers all
> > on the
> > Danelectro payroll?
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
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
Tom,
Thanks for the report! It was good reading. Thats great that you could do
all that work on the guitar yourself and get it setup how you liked it.
Best,
BN
