Bass Restoration

[dubtrub]

How pickup stay in his place if the springs are not there to hold it to the frame? All pickups use spings hmmmm


Danny...what you think about pickguard? Its normal for a mosrite bass to have a pickguard going out from the body? It looks original.....but I dont know. I couldnt find a pic of another bass with a pickguard like this.

The screw head fitting tight in the recess is all that keeps it in place. That the worst part of Semie's design on the pickups. It you look at the way it is constructed and think about the mechanics of it, you will see why that bar across the bottom broke loose from the foam. There just isn't anything holding it all together but a little bit of epoxy or better yet Bondo. I'm not familiar with later Mosrites, so I'm not sure if Semie ever used springs in his later guitars, but I've never seen a pre 1967 with springs.

As for the pickguard hanging over, yes that was common on a non production guitar. However your guitar is a production guitar, although a very early one. The problem I see is the 3 ply construction appears to three layers being the same thickness. The early 60'2 pickguards were a thin white, thin black, and a thicker layer of white. I can not tell from the photo but it looks like a replacement pickguard. It should be made of a nitrate material and have a little wavy effect as you look flat across it. If it's nitrate it would be correct for the time era.

[IguanaKahuna]

Nitrate pickguards are those that become smaller with the age? I had that problem with an Eko Cobra I bought time ago (now owned by my brother). I have to make a new pickguard and do it in a 10% bigger scale! Then was cuted up with laser.

My bass pickguard shows a regular surface without any wave. As I said before, holes on the pickguard and body match perfectly.

What can you say about colour. It that a Candy Blue or what? We can find lot of colours here.

[JimPage]

That is going to be a wonderful bass when it is restored, no matter what the color ends up. I like that inky-blue, which I think is what Danny calls candy-apple blue.

Now, according to an earlier post, IguanaKahuna indicated:
>> So you can see, white-gold-red-gold-blue on it . . .

There are folks here who will surely know how Semie Moseley painted these instruments. The paint on this example, though, seems to indicate a refinish somewhere in the past. But I have seen Fenders that had been painted at the factory over the original color, evidently to satisfy a special order quickly.

The one I had was a sunburst and it was very pretty. But no matter what it becomes, it will be a treasure, that much I know. And the folks on this forum are the ones who can steer you in the right direction, IguanaKahuna.

--Jim

[dubtrub]

What can you say about colour. It that a Candy Blue or what? We can find lot of colours here.

Yep, it's candy apple blue. It was candy apple red originally. The usual process is to spray a coat of clear sanding sealer on the bare wood, next spray a base coat of white, then spray the under coat of either silver or gold, then spray the translucent color of red or blue. Last spray several final coats of clear. That process I just described is what gives it the candied apple effect.

Although you didn't mention it, pearl white is a different process we can discuss if you decide to go that route.

[IguanaKahuna]

nice, the process have a lot of logic.

I will talk with my luthier to make it this way. He have decades of working, may be he know this process.

Thanks Danny

[dorkrockrecords]

Yep, it's candy apple blue. It was candy apple red originally.

The Ink Blue / Candy Apple Blue is actually the original, factory finish. It was very common for there to be an undercoat of red, just like on this eBay example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1967-Mosrite-Guitar ... 20af0bca98

[dubtrub]

Keep in mind that the red has no bearing on the color candy apple blue. The logical explanation would be, there was a flaw in the red, or, there was a need for more candy blues during a production run. Or any solid color for that matter. For the short time I worked painting the clear coats at the Mosrite factory, occasionally a solid color was painted over an existing color for various reasons. Usually because there was a flaw that needed to be sanded out and the painter was already spraying a different color.

[IguanaKahuna]

I sent the body to my luthier. He will paint it after clean the surface. We decided to do it old fashion I mean, gold and then blue.

I will post pictures as soon it will receive some paint.

[dubtrub]

I sent the body to my luthier. He will paint it after clean the surface. We decided to do it old fashion I mean, gold and then blue.

I will post pictures as soon it will receive some paint.

That's great! Looking forward to seeing the photo's of the finished product.

[IguanaKahuna]

Question

There is a replacement for this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/MOSRITE-BASS-GUITAR ... ccessories

I dont want to pay that price. Can I use Gibson or another compatible part?

I have to pay the price of the part, then Express Mail service to get a tracking number (other way I will never receive it), and then pay 50% in taxes over all that. So I should be paying about 60 dollars for two single inserts (BTW 60 dollars its a lot here).