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Just bought my first ever actual Mosrite. Been pining after all Mosrite models for YEARS. It’s a Celebrity III and it looks to be in really good condition and I think I got a really good deal on it. Now comes the agony in waiting for it to show up!

Sounds good, Khai. Is it one of the models that faded from red to orange?

- Austin

Congratulations!! We'd love to see pics once you've received it.

So exciting! First one is always special

It’s a 3 Tone Sunburst and the finish looks to be in great shape. I’m heavily considering replacing the smooth top pickups with “deluxe” pickups, just unsure of where to buy them since M3 is done, the C60 pickups are no longer for sale on the Hallmark site, and Dana Moseley doesn’t appear to make them anymore either. Also considering adding a trem to it but I may be getting ahead of myself

khai123 wrote:It’s a 3 Tone Sunburst and the finish looks to be in great shape. I’m heavily considering replacing the smooth top pickups with “deluxe” pickups, just unsure of where to buy them since M3 is done, the C60 pickups are no longer for sale on the Hallmark site, and Dana Moseley doesn’t appear to make them anymore either. Also considering adding a trem to it but I may be getting ahead of myself

Ah. Should be great. I'd buy an orange one myself, but that's me and I like orange.

On Pickups, you could ask Bob Shade of Hallmark Guitars, or Ed Elliott, to make you a set of pickups. Both are good. Bob has a stockpile of vintage appropriate magnets (they've been discontinued for a long time,) if you want to go that route, though I'm not sure how much of the vintage Mosrite tone depended on those magnets? I do have a set of Ed's Pickups in my Ventures II, and they have the tone down pat. I believe Ed uses modern bar magnets.

On the vintage magnets again, they were a segmented break-away variety. I've heard it said that Mosrite switched from using these in the 70s. It seems like they, along with the vintage fretwire, were discontinued years ago.

Since you'll be playing this guitar and I mentioned fretwire, I should talk about fretwire in more detail. It seems like Mosrite used Dunlop 6350 which was .070 wide, but that's discontinued. Currently, the closest spec to vintage Mosrite fretwire is Dunlop 6340; it's only just a little thicker. Vintage was .070 wide, Dunlop 6340 is .072 wide. It's still sold on eBay for $19 per 24 frets:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-DUNLOP-ACC ... 6258!US!-1

If you're unfamiliar with the height of Mosrite frets, they're going to be low if they're original. Mine on my Ventures II were .022 at the Low E, and .015 at the High E. I don't bend strings much, but I still can, even though I'm currently using a set of .13s at E standard.

- Austin

I’m not too worried about the frets. I’ve played a few actual vintage Ventures MK1s and I own a 1975 Les Paul Standard which has the famous “fretless wonder” set up that a lot of Gibsons had in the Norlin era. I may end up loving the smooth cover pickups, it’s unknown as of now, I’ve never heard those pickups in person before.

khai123 wrote:I’m not too worried about the frets. I’ve played a few actual vintage Ventures MK1s and I own a 1975 Les Paul Standard which has the famous “fretless wonder” set up that a lot of Gibsons had in the Norlin era. I may end up loving the smooth cover pickups, it’s unknown as of now, I’ve never heard those pickups in person before.

Alrighty.

I cannot say how close the smooth pups are to those with pole pieces, but, I enjoy the smooth top pups on my Ventures II pretty well. Here's video of a Celebrity III with the smooth cover pups. There's some playing, and a fair bit of talk about this individual guitar.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33BNetdcj-g[/youtube]

Edit: The YT feature doesn't seem to work here now. Please, just copy the link.

- Austin

Don't think I would go with vintage fretwire if you actually wanna PLAY the guitar. I think my '65 has been re-fretted, as it is very playable.

Dickey wrote:Don't think I would go with vintage fretwire if you actually wanna PLAY the guitar. I think my '65 has been re-fretted, as it is very playable.

The vintage style was sanded down at the factory, to make sliding up and down the neck easy. As you know, it also makes bending strings much harder. If Khai would use the Dunlop 6340 kind, he'd still have a fair bit of height if it isn't sanded down; it would be somewhere in the realm of .030 - .035, on both sides of the neck. Mosrite Speed Frets were .022 on the Low E side and .015 on the High E side, respectively, if my Ventures II with its original frets is accurate to all Mosrites of the 60s.

- Austin