What do I have?

[Tate98]

Hello all. Please be gentle!!! I am trying to identify what I have. I do not know anything about guitars or their parts. Here's what I know.... My dad got this guitar sometime between 1965 - 1974. I first remember him playing for us when i was a kid in 73. I was 3. It's electric. It's white, might have originally been a pearlish white color. Has a whawha thingy ( yes I'm sure that's the technical term for it ). Has Mosrite of California on 3 hardware pieces, and Moseley on the whawha base. There is not a serial number or identification of any sort externally. The 2 knobs do not have any letters on them. There are no stamps or anything on the back or on the neck.

It has been in storage for 10 years. It hasn't been played in probably 25 years or more. It has some knicks, and the paint on the base is cracked and chipped in a few places.


Now I just need to figure out how to attach pics.

[LoveyX]

Hi Tate,

Here's a link with some helpful info on how to post pix.

http://www.mosriteforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=53

We'd love to see the guitar you have described, can't get enough mosrite.

There are many experts here who will most likely be happy to help ID your instrument.

Mosrite on!

[Tate98]

Hopefully this works....

[Green Bear]

I just joined this forum as well and can't tell you anything about that guitar. But I did want to go ahead and comment to say that I love the aesthetics of it. I've always had a thing for white guitars.

[jfine]

Has the guitar been refinished? There's no logo on the headstock, and a Mosrite built at the factory wouldn't have gotten out without a logo. The tuners are inexpensive ones that Mosrite used on some guitars from the late-'60's on, usually when they ran out of the regular Klusons or Grovers, but those cheaper ones also turn up sometimes on guitars that Semie Moseley built to give to gospel performers. The pickups look right, as does the bridge and tailpiece (it's called a vibrato bar or tremolo, slang is "whammy bar", not "whawha", by the way). The guitar is basically a Ventures Model, and when the Ventures parted ways with Mosrite in the late '60's, that model got called a Mark I. It's hard to tell from the pics, but the color appears to be a normal gloss white--white production Mosrites were usually pearlescent, and I've never seen one that didn't have a brown tortoiseshell pickguard--although with Mosrites, never say never, as they used white pickguards on virtually every other color, and they could have been out of the shell ones when that guitar was built. There's also the very real possibility that it's what's called a "parts-rite"--when Mosrite went out of business, a large number of parts were auctioned off--some were assembled by ex-factory employees, some by people with no connection to Mosrite, and some got sold just as parts--they still crop up for sale from time to time. The lack of a headstock logo seems to point in this direction (unless it got refinished off at some point), but there are quite a few "parts-rites" out there with logos too. It appears to be made from actual Mosrite parts, but without a serial number and a hands-on examination, it's hard to narrow down a year. There are Japanese-made Mosrites that are practically indistinguishable from Semie's USA-made ones. I'll hazard a guess and say late-'60's or early '70's. The serial number would have been stamped into the fingerboard at the last fret.

[Veenture]

The lacking headstock logo also made me think in the direction of a Partsrite as described by jfine.
Excellent review by Jon (jfine).

[Tate98]

It has never been refinished. Never been repaired or even tuned. Dad and I actually talked about this about 8 months ago in a random conversation. Only thing that might have been done is replace the strings, which my dad would have done himself ONLY if they broke.... but hey, they might be the originals as well. As I mentioned previously, it hasn't been played in over 20-25 years, maybe more... It was kept in its original case in the house until about 10 years ago. Then it got shuffled to the garage, still in its case.

Just spoke with my mom and got a little more history.... Keep in mind this was a long time ago, and my mom is not a spring chicken any more... (note: my parents divorced in 77 and she had no idea he still had this guitar. She was a bit surprised when I called today and was asking blind questions about it.)

This is about 1973-74ish.... She said maybe 75, but she didn't think it was that late. We were huge Hee-Haw fans....
Apparently my dad saw this advertisement with Buck Owens and he was selling these guitars for ~$300 (mom can't remember $ exactly). Dad said he "sure would like to own one of those guitars like Buck Owens". My mom called the number in CA, and they mailed her all the info. She special ordered the "white (plate) on white (paint)"... She also thought it was pearl white, not plain white. She specifically remembers it being a Mosrite. (I did not mention it too her previously) She also made mention of "long neck", whatever that means. It was delivered just before his birthday in June of 73? 74? maybe 75? She referenced 1974 almost every time she spoke though.

Not sure if this helps or not, but hopefully helps identify it..... Regardless of the outcome, I'll be keeping it and finding some lessons. I'll need to try and get it tuned, and hopefully I'll be able to play "Mary had a little lamb" by the end of the year.

[MWaldorf]

The Buck Owens connection is interesting. Assuming it hasn't been refinished, I'd guess it's an early partsrite. Mosrite went belly up the first time in 1969, so there were parts floating around from that point. I know during subsequent bankruptcies some debts were paid off in parts, so maybe somehow Buck wound up getting a bundle of parts?

Besides the lack of logo, and the non-pearlescent paint, a few things that stick out to me as unusual are the white truss rod cover (I don't recall seeing one before, though it appears to be the correct shape), the spun vol/tone knobs, which were phased out before the switch from the Vibramute to the Moseley vibrato, and the shape of the pickguard behind the neck pickguard (it's got a slight curve to it; I know the 60s Ventures models have a straight line there, but I don't know about the 70s guitars - the curve shows up in 70s basses, so maybe it's right?).

That being said, it's a cool guitar with a unique history, and probably as close to being a Mosrite as could be. Learn some chords and play!

[dubtrub]

Regardless of the outcome, I'll be keeping it and finding some lessons. I'll need to try and get it tuned, and hopefully I'll be able to play "Mary had a little lamb" by the end of the year.

You can find just about anything you want on YouTube. I wish this was available when I was first learning in the 50's.

[JimPage]

Danny wrote:
>>YouTube. I wish this was available when I was first learning in the 50's.

Amen to that!

--Jim