Wrecked Mosrite CelebrityIII Restoration

[equalizerjag]

Hi everybody, here's the Mosrite CelebrityIII bass that I bought on ebay recently. I am currently repairing damage: stripped finish with heat gun (it was urethane), replaced damaged bindings.. body is ready for paint. It will be repainted in it's original cherry finish but will be done in a burst paint-job to help hide the repairs to the edge of the wood. The middle of the finish will be translucent.
The next step will be to plug the holes in the head-stock with maple and then maple veneer it front and back... then drill 6 new holes to accommodate for a conversion.











After a little bit of surgery and nervous use of a heat gun and a lot of sanding:









Will post more pictures as it progresses.

[101Volts]

Great job repairing the hole. How's the neck?

Austin

[KRamone27]

You have done one helluva job repairing that. I commend you on your work.

[MWaldorf]

Wow - I wouldn't have thought that was repairable. Looks great!

[Sarah93003]

Wow Jeff! That is amazing! Nicely done. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.

[Veenture]

I'm in awe ...what a challenge you've taken on Jeff, but great! I'm thinking that to be building from scratch would seem easier
Looking forward to your future 'instalments'.

[MWaldorf]

Jeff,

This really is impressive. A few questions - what is the thickness of the body sides? 1/2"? The piece you cut to fill in the broken section - I assume that's a piece you cut to match the shape as opposed to bent into shape the way acoustic guitars are made. Also, what did you do to repair the smashed bit of the back of the body?

Great work!
Mel

[equalizerjag]

Hi everybody!
Thanks for the nice comments!
To answer questions- The neck is straight, frets have minimal wear. I think I can save the frets.
The sides of the body are close to 1/2" thick. I had to remove broken fragments from the side of the guitar, then square up the damage
on the side. The wood broke out of the bottom side on the factory seam, so it was easy to clean up there. I carefully glued back all
the veneers on the top & back. Then I had to glue 2 pieces of maple together ( I couldn't get maple thick enough locally) Then I
inserted this piece in to the side of the guitar. Then I traced a slightly over-sized outline front & back, then removed the piece of maple
& drew the inside cut line approx 1/2" in. Once cut, it was glued in & additional pieces of maple veneer were inserted to replace broken
out wood. Back & front surfaces had cracks that had to be lifted & glued back down.
Missing pieces of veneer on the surfaces had to be patched back in. Then bindings were glued back in place. On the back side where the
veneers had to be patched, surface was about 1/16" short of new binding edge, so I used plastic filler to bring surface up to binding.
This is why I'm doing a sun burst finish.
Jeff

[olrocknroller]

Very ambitious repair, and amazing workmanship. My hat's off to you.

olrocknroller

[oigun]

Nice repairjob!! Kdo's for you man.