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New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:40 am
by JohnP
Hello Everyone,

I am a singer/songwriter/guitarist and I live in Utah. I recently came across an old Gruggett Custom on a classifieds site and was intrigued, so I had to go look. Well now I am the proud new owner of this beautful guitar! It plays beautiful and the pick-ups just sing! It has some knicks and dings in the finish...but is in good shape for its age...I think anyways. I am guessing this guitar was made sometime between the late 60's/mid 70's. I think frets have been dressed on it at some point and are a little on the low side, but it still plays very nice.

I know very little about this guitar. It does have some unique features, such as the awesome wood pick-up covers, real brass dot markers in a beautiful mahogany neck with binding, All mahogany body, Conn Tuning Machines etc. It is a fixed bridge guitar that has a Les Paul style bridge. It has a beautifully set neck joint with great lower fret clearance. The body has the parameter routing/chamfering like a lot of Mosrites have. I carefully pulled the pickguard and rear access cover and no where on the guitar can I find markings of any kind...no serial number, no initials, no dates. I do have the original case for it too.

Anyways, I was glad to find this forum! I suspect that a lot of you guys must be familiar with Bill Gruggett because of his involvement in Mosrite and Hallmark. I did find the Gruggett.com website and I sent an Email to Bill last weekend to ask a few questions about the history of the guitar and to see what he would charge to refret it (If he has time). I haven't heard back from him yet, but I am looking forward to learning about this awesome guitar. I hope that he checks his email regularly :)

I will see if I can figure out how to post some pics! I would love to hear your comments about this guitar and also if any of you have ever seen one like it or have information regarding production dates or anyting like that.

Many Thanks!

John

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:02 am
by JohnP
Here is a link to some pictures of it.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5 ... 81deb5d137

Let me know what you guys think and if you know anything about it or have ever seen one like it.

Thanks,

John

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:22 am
by JimPage
Hey, John--

That is a lovely guitar! Thanks for letting us look at it.

The way the bottom of the body comes to a point seems to remind me of something but I can't remember what.

--Jim

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:33 pm
by dorkrockrecords
Congrats on the Gruggett. It shares a similar shape to the 1985 Gruggett tenor electric in this thread. The neck also has the same multi-laminate construction. Probably contemporaries.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1288&p=13261#p13261

Adam

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:44 pm
by Strat-o-rama
JimPage,
would it remind you of an Alembic? ;)

Cool guitar. Welcome to the forum, John.

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 12:51 pm
by Veenture
Welcome John. You have an interesting as well as lovely guitar; congrats!

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:19 pm
by JimPage
Strat-o-rama wrote:
>>would it remind you of an Alembic?

YES!!! Thanks; that was driving me nuts.

It reminded me of a bass I had seen about ten years ago.

I could remember the pawn shop in Arlington, VA, that I had seen it in, and I could remember that it was so dried-out that the frets would saw your fingers off if you ran them up and down the sides of the neck, but I couldn't remember who made that bass.

Alembic.

--Jim

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:41 pm
by JohnP
Thanks Guys! I'll have to look up an Alembic bass! That 1985 Tenor Bass does share a similar design. Cool, thanks or your responses everyone!

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:56 pm
by MWaldorf
Welcome to the forum John - cool guitar!

Re: New Member Here...and new owner of a vintage Gruggett custom

Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 2:41 pm
by EFElliott
Hey John,
Welcome to the Mosrite Forum!
Cool Custom Gruggett! Billy dose beautiful work.

Ed Elliott