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Does anyone have a clear idea of the differences between the various Celebrity models and what features came and went over time?

As far as I can tell, there were variations in body thickness, what fret the neck meets the body, pickups (single/humbucker, poles/no poles), control configuration (on body/on mounting plate), bridge type (vibrato/trapeze), pickguard shape... am I missing anything?

Also, are these full hollowbodies or semi-solids, or did this too depend on model?

I know there were basses and 12-strings, but maybe if we can establish the chronology of the six strings we can figure out the others from there....

Mel

MWaldorf wrote:Does anyone have a clear idea of the differences between the various Celebrity models and what features came and went over time?

As far as I can tell, there were variations in body thickness, what fret the neck meets the body, pickups (single/humbucker, poles/no poles), control configuration (on body/on mounting plate), bridge type (vibrato/trapeze), pickguard shape... am I missing anything?

Also, are these full hollowbodies or semi-solids, or did this too depend on model?

I know there were basses and 12-strings, but maybe if we can establish the chronology of the six strings we can figure out the others from there....Mel

Yes Sir.....What would you like to know?

Dennisthe Menace wrote:Yes Sir.....What would you like to know?

OK, let's start simple: how many Celebrity models were there? I believe it's three, Celeb I, Celeb II, Celeb III. When were they produced? What disguishes the different models from each other?

OK, let's start simple: how many Celebrity models were there? I believe it's three, Celeb I, Celeb II, Celeb III. When were they produced? What disguishes the different models from each other?

The ORIGINAL Celebrity MARK I came out sometime in late 1964. The first Celebrity had the V&T controls mounted right on the wood surface and the toggle switch was located at the cutaway on the treble side. The headstock was like that of the earlier Mosrites, in which it was cut evenly (symmetrical). These first GENs had mahogany necks which were bolted to the body with 2 neckscrews and the first batch of bodies (there may have been more, something to ask Adam about) came from another manufacturer (overseas?). The tops were Spruce with Maple back and sides. The MARK XIIs were introduced at the same time, but the Bass (MARK X) strangely enough, was not available until later.
ALL of the First Generation Celebrity I models were Semi-Hollow Bodies until very late in '67 in which they had grown to a whopping 2 3/4 inches in depth, equivalent to a Gibson ES-175!
Around Sept or Oct of '65, Mosrite introduced the new line of Celebrity's which now included the MARK I Celebrity IIs (CE-II) and Celebrity IIIs (CE-III) which now had the more traditional angled headstock..
In a nutshell, the CE-IIIs were your 'introductory' line with the plastic button Klusons, no binding on the neck, and the smooth pickup casings (no polepiece screws). However, you DID have the option of going from a Trapeze tailpiece to a half trem Moseley tailpiece. The CE-IIs sort of picked up where the first GEN CE-I's left off. These had the polepiece screws in the p'ups, deluxe Klusons (metal buttons),angled headstock, binding on the neck and FINALLY, you didn't have the neck sinking so many frets into the body! The original had almost 5 frets going into the body as where the new version had like only 2-3 frets going into the body. But for some strange reason, the CE-III retained the 5 frets into the body...........

....oh....BTW, I have seen a Celebrity I Bass, and a CE-III Bass, but I have NEVER seen a CE-II Bass.....ever!

It would probably be a good time to start a photo collection on this thread depicting the various differences of the Celebrity models. It will be a great resource for future reference.

Well, these would be the perfect pix to explain what they are, but I can't
seem to find a way to blow these up and I don't have a magnifying glass .

Here's a good slide show photo's of a Celebrity. I doubt that the photo's will be available for long, but I'll go ahead and post the link for now. Celebrity slide show

dubtrub wrote:Here's a good slide show photo's of a Celebrity. I doubt that the photo's will be available for long, but I'll go ahead and post the link for now. Celebrity slide show

Danny ! Where in the Devils' name did you find this!!??!?!? There's a LOT of GOOD STUFF on here!!!
IS THERE ANY WAY OF SAVING THIS AT ALL??? I would be able to disect each pic (as well as a bunch of
other members familiar with Celebritys) and be able to give "detailed info."
P.S. With the exception of the catalog pix, the rest of the pix of this one guitar is a MARK I CE-II .

dubtrub wrote:

The MARK I CE-II is THE guitar that I am looking for! What I like about it, is this is the Model that only had 2-3 frets into the body as opposed to the Original Celebrity I with 5 frets inset into the body.....I think Mel might of been curious about the differences of the Celebritys (how many frets inside the body) although I might be wrong about this.............