My Mosrite Combo -- Showing Off and Asking Questions

[GuyaGuy]

I'm a bona fide Mosrite guy now! A few weeks ago I was getting more and more into the Mosrite sound and looking into M3 pickups. Fast forward to Friday and I get a Mosrite Combo delivered! It was on eBay and I fell in love so I went to play a Combo 12er and Mark I locally to see if I'd like the necks and I loved them. I've been playing the fudge out of this thing all weekend. The pretty pictures are below (the first 2 from the seller). But I have some questions I hope you can help me with.

1. PICKUP OUTPUT: Mine are about 7.25K and 10.60K. (I actually swapped the neck and bridge so that the higher output pickup is in the bridge now.) Is 7-10K about average for Combo pickups?

2. PICKUP PHASE: The guitar arrived with pickups out of phase in the middle position. So when I swapped the neck and bridge pickups I reversed the leads. But then I was hardly getting any reading on the multimeter--about .05K. I tried resoldering and got the same results. So for now they are wired out of phase in the middle position unfortunately. Does the lead/ground reversal not work for some reason on Semie pickups? Do I need to flip the magnet?

3. DATING: I'm very much in love but that's not the dating I mean. The pots are non-original so it's hard to date my Combo. However I found this list of serial numbers: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mochizuki/kiyosh ... rlist.html. Someone there has SN H0555 and someone else has H0642. Both are 1967. Mine is H0575 so falls in between those. So I'd assume mine is a '67 too? Or was Mosrite numbering more arcane than that?

[GuyaGuy]

[101Volts]

Wow, Many pictures, Thanks! It looks like a vintage car! How does it sound? Like an ES 335 compared to a Les Paul, But as a Mosrite?

Austin

[GuyaGuy]

Never thought of it like that but yeah, there are similarities with race cars from that time!

The sound is definitely Mosrite-y but I feel like it can it get a bit smoother. The body is is thick--more like a Rickenbacker than, say, a 335. So a closer comparison might be a thinline Tele vs a fully solidbody Tele. This video gives a pretty good impression of the sound:

http://youtu.be/eB0RBniqTb8?t=1m

[GuyaGuy]

No one can help with my questions?

[FritzCat]

I love Combos! I'm in the process of building one myself. As to the pickups, 7.25K sounds real low to me, I always thought they were all 10K and above. Maybe they were in the correct positions and something happened to the one that's 7.25? I'm don't know about the phasing. As to the dating it's often written or stamped in the neck pocket, that would be the surest way to tell.

[GuyaGuy]

Ah, good to know about the neck pocket date. I'll check when I change strings.

And yeah, the 7.25K surprised me too. I just don't know if it's normal for the hollowbodies or if mine is an oddball. Sometime magnets can lose their strength. Theoretically it's also possible that someone had removed some winds on it but I didn't see any signs of a rewinding.

Are you making your Combo from scratch or parts?

[wombat]

Hey! Congratulations, and thanks!
I love the guitar and I love all of the pictures!!


..............and no. I don't have any answers.

[FritzCat]

I bought an unfinished body from a luthier school in Arizona, somehow they got a large stock of bodies from Moseley. I have most of my parts collected, now I'm waiting for a neck to be finished.

[GuyaGuy]

Hey! Congratulations, and thanks!
I love the guitar and I love all of the pictures!!

..............and no. I don't have any answers.