Semi - Mosrite?

[dubtrub]

Danny,
Thanks for the advice. There's a Lowes somewhere near here. I assume that the sealer/laquer is for the maple part of the neck and not the fretboard, right? So, do I need to coat the vibrato plate with anything to keep it from tarnishing or will the bare aluminum be ok?
Mel

Don't do anything with the aluminum. Regarding the fretboard. I would do some file work and use fine sandpaper in the area between the frets to 'break' the sharp edge of the rosewood, and then using fine steel wool, polish the board, edges and the frets. Then, (although you may disagree) use lemon oil to give the rosewood a good treatment, wipe it dry and burnish it into the surface with your fingers by rubbing it into the wood. You will then have a fretboard ready for years of service.

P.S. If you need a piece of pickguard material to make the cover for the back plate, let me knows as I have a lot of scrap material. I also have various pieces of curly maple and walnut that would also suffice.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Mel, that's Sweet. Now let me see if I got this straight.....ya' got a 3 P'up Jaguar, a 3 P'up Jazzmaster, and now a 3 P'up Mosrite. So, another words, ya' got Three 3s?? OK, so when do you go to 4 on the floor??

[MWaldorf]

Gee Dennis, now that you mention it, I do have four effects I use - echo, fuzz, tremolo and octave, does that count?

[MWaldorf]

I can't believe I didn't notice this before - some Mosrite VIIIs have 21 frets! No wonder I had such difficulty with clearance! Here's a 21 fret VIII. Notice the space behind the bridge pickup:


Here's a 22 fret VIII. See how the bridge pickup sits under the bridge:


Here are my Mosrites, both with 22 frets:


So, now I understand why things barely fit. On the bright side, they do fit, but SHEESH!!! But what was going on at the Mosrite factory that they made 21 and 22 fret versions of the same guitar?

[dorkrockrecords]

Keen eye, Mel. However, I wouldn't go making generalizations on those two examples. The black one is a production example with an NC serial number, and the California Grape one (mine) is a prototype with an AF serial. You also probably noticed that from the prototype to the final production version switch placement changed, the German carve was simplified, and the large pearl dots were replaced with small brass ones. That being said, I have seen production examples with both 21 and 22 frets. My guess is like everything else Mosrite (especially during the lean years), they just tried to make do with what they had, and make it work. I even have an Ed Elliott made Bluesbender from 1978 that has the front pickup ring cut away to accommodate the fretboard. Whatever works.

[MWaldorf]

OK, after playing the VIII for a couple of weeks, I came back around to finish up and do some fine tuning. First, I installed the side dot markers. Many thanks to dubtrub for the dot marker plastic.

First off, I marked the locations of the dots. I aim was to have them centered between the frets and half in the rosewood.


I drilled the holes, put glue on the plastic rod, and pushed it in. Then I clipped the ends and sanded them smooth. Note, it's a good idea to drill a pilot hole as the drill bit can wander and get off center. This happened on one of my markers, but fortunately it's not that obvious.


Next, I figured I'd try painting the string nut. Properly it should be plated or chromed, but I'm lazy, so I gave this a try. Of course, it wore off within days.


The next task was shaping a control cavity cover. I used a pencil rubbing to put the cavity shape on paper, and then made an outline on a piece of pickguard material (again, thanks dub!)



Here's the cover installed. Not perfect, but generally ok. Also note I added gromets to the neck screws.


Next up, another round of polishing the vibrato plate. I used jeweler's rouge and a dremel. It's better than it was but not quite up to chrome standards. I may come back to polish this more at some point.


Now, the truss rod has been a source of some grief for me. It seems that a single nut does not have enough strength to bend the rod in any useful way. I tried fitting a stew-mac dual-action truss rod, but the channel is about 1/32 too narrow to fit the rod. How do I know? I tried to force it in, got it stuck and managed to break off the fretboard at the 22nd fret in the process of removing it. Thankfully it was a clean break and with some wood glue, C clamps and time I got it back together. So... I figured I'd have to work with the initial rod. I decided to see if a longer nut would provide the necessary grip to hold the truss. I got a 10-32 thread cutter to extend the thread on the rod and a connector nut. Here's the rod with the original nut and angled washer, the connector nut and the threadcutter.


The original nut worked with an angled washer to keep the other side of the rod from popping out. To replicate that I tried to add a bit of angle to the connector nut. Here's the angled nut next to an untouched one. I used an oversized drill but to create the angle.


Here's the new nut fitted. I shortened the other end of the truss rod so there's be plenty of thread for the nut to grab. On install I was able to get the neck profile flatter than before, so I guess I'd call this a success.


Not pictured in the work was a neck reshaping, using calipers to get closer to the vintage Mosrite profile and a bit more filing of the frets along the edge of the neck. Using the calipers I measured the '66 neck at 24/32 from the first fret all the way to the heel. I was able to match that at the first fret, but mine widens out to a bit over 26/32 beyond the 12th fret. Still a closer approximation. Here are the two together again:

[sleeperNY]

The good old truss rod. I also had a lot of fun getting the truss rod to work the way I wanted it to. I found that when I tried to tighten it up ti wanted to bend the rod at the nut . My final fix was to get an allen head truss rod nut like on Fenders, I then built a spacer around it for support and also shimmed up the bottom of the rod just where it comes out of the back of the neck so it couldn't move up or down. Now it works as it should and if needed I can still remove it. It also works much easier this way and a small amount of grease in the threads and spacer makes it smooth to operate.

Jim

[MWaldorf]

Jim,
Good ideas - I'll have to give that a try. At the moment I'm happy with the neck relief so I'll leave it alone, but come time to adjust it, I'll try adding shims.
Mel

[Dantana]

So what was the story with the angled rollers on the bridge? I have a similar bridge and I'm curious why they are like that. Do the strings slip out if you hit them too hard?

[MWaldorf]

I have no idea what the design process was on the angled bridge saddles. It doesn't look like it would work but I guess it does. I'd still prefer to have a proper roller bridge.