Celebrity Body?

[t-bone]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133852363480?h ... SwHsdg6JWj

hope this link works. i would be damned if this was not a long, lost celebrity body. okay, maybe not. but you be the judge, please.

[Gonkulator]

The holes that are pre-drilled for the controls don't really match up with any Celebrity I've ever seen.

I could be wrong though.

[t-bone]

true enough, Gonkulator. it it my understanding that the A series Celebritiy’s bodies were sourced in batches of 25 from Germany. this listing is from Germany and a period correct time. the bracing looks unusual as well. it does appear to have a wide grained, spruce top and maple back and sides. the shape and f-holes are very similar, holes and pickup routs could have been added at any time. thank you for your response

[t-bone]

oh. but my theory would be that it escaped being sent to Bakersfield. i would not buy it myself, nor do i endorse it as a real deal Celebrity body. i found it interesting enough for discussion. thanks again.

[Gonkulator]

Hmm good point, I never took that into consideration.

Maybe it was overstock that found itself into the wild!

[101Volts]

Same shape, but since I read the bodies were outsourced, I wouldn't be surprised if other brands used the same body. I don't know which brands those could be (if any,) though.

- Austin

[t-bone]

another great point, Austin. i have tried to find a comparable model guitar with the same body for a while. no dice yet, but i am sure that one will show itself someday.

[Sarah93003]

Framus made bodies for Mosrite as well as Ovation and likely others. I've seen this bracing on a couple of Celebrity guitars. One of them I owned. This body was like destined to be an Ovation Eclipse or one of the other from their Storm Series. From the same era, Ovation made the Eclipse, Thunderhead, Tornado, Typhoon IV and Typhoon V. It looks like their control layout was the same on each.

The body on the ebay auction

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ ... n_body.png


Ovation Eclipse

https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/ ... clipse.png

[t-bone]

amazing. i had no idea that Ovation had guitars other than those space agey guitars! i had no clue. thanks, Sarah. German instrument building is a beautiful enigma. great wood and craftsmanship. i love it’s connection to the Mosrite Celebrity. Although i still have yet to meet a bona-fide American Made Celebrity in person, those A-series rock my world.

[Sarah93003]

amazing. i had no idea that Ovation had guitars other than those space agey guitars! i had no clue. thanks, Sarah. German instrument building is a beautiful enigma. great wood and craftsmanship. i love it’s connection to the Mosrite Celebrity. Although i still have yet to meet a bona-fide American Made Celebrity in person, those A-series rock my world.

I hope you get to play them. Just a quick rundown on the Celebrity. I had a great conversation with Andy Moseley years ago when I happened to find one of the original 5 prototypes for the Celebrity. Andy told me one was cut apart to study the glue joints and the remaining four were different in various ways and kicked around the factory for a while and eventually Semie gave them all away. I have one and a man named Doc Hudson near Nashville has one.

In the beginning there was just the Celebrity, the original. Some have labels that say "Archtop" instead of Celebrity. They bought bodies mostly from Framus, but also Hofner and a company in Italy. Semie also made some bodies by hand. Instead of forming the sides from plywood, like most were made, he actually cut some sides from wood with a bandsaw and sanded the outside to be smooth. I had one of these, an early Celebrity-III where the sides of the bout were about 5/8" thick and the wood was very rough on the inside.

There first batch of set neck Celebrities carried the "A" serial number. I was told that Mosrite built in batches of 25, so I have a hunch that 25 set necks may have been made. The highest serial number I've seen for a set neck was A0012. The "original" Celebrity can be spotted by a lack of a control plate on the bout, two neck mounting screws on the back, and the pick up selector in the treble side horn area. Approximately 700 of these were made. At this time they were also building the Gospel guitars has a hollow body and they were the "Cadillac" of the Celebrities. Andy said they then decided to branch into several Celebrity models. The Celebrity-I was a much thicker bout and had all of the top quality hardware and electronics. The Celebrity-II was the thinline version with the same top quality components. And the Celebrity-III was the entry level version, also a thinline. They also made 12 string and bass Celebrities.

After bouncing back form bankruptcy, Mosrite never reached its same glory, in terms of production. But Semie continued to build guitars and I think by the time he got to Jonas Ridge, the guitars had much more of his touch on them.

For me, I have one of the original prototypes that also has the prototype tremolo, a vibramute that preceded the Moseley tremolo. I also have a white Celebrity-III. Someday, I'd like to add a Gospel Celebrity, a Celebrity set neck, a 1974 Celebrity-! with the phase switches, etc., and a Sooner Celebrity.