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Well, I was lucky enough to be able to swing through Bakersfield on Monday and stop by for a visit with Danny, aka DubTrub. I had the chance to play the three Mosrite style guitars he's built, and compare them among themselves and to the genuine article. Danny's craftwork is top notch, as good as any I've seen. The target-bursts he's done look period correct - why can't Fender get it's AVRI series to look so good I have no idea. Anyway, the guitars have a slightly longer scale than Mosrites at 25" v. 24.5" I didn't find that particularly distracting. The necks are a bit thicker both in width and profile than the vintage guitars and feel really nice. The frets are on the small side of modern, and suit the guitars very well. It was most interesting to see how the pickups sound, as the sunburst has Elliot pickups, the CAR has Hallmarks and the blueburst has P-90s. The Elliots sound the most Mosrite-y, but they are all very nice sounding pickups. I'd say the Hallmarks are a bit more "polite" than the Elliots, in the zone but with somewhat less attack. I didn't get a chance to plug in the blueburst but I understand they sound very P-90 ish. In comparing Danny's guitars to mine, it was interesting to hear what a difference relative pickup height makes. We both had the neck pickup close to the level of the fretboard, but I've got my bridge pickups much closer to the strings. This gives Danny's guitars a "sweeter" middle setting, and mine more percussive with the bridge pickup more dominant in the mix.

It was a real blast to meet Danny, check out his guitars, the in progress bass (lookin' good!) and also his building facilities - he's got the cleanest garage I've ever seen! I posted this in the thread on a possible convention, but here are our guitars in repose:

Mel, it was really great to have you stop by. I really enjoyed it, but we just didn't have enough time to cover everything. I still had guitars and amps to drag out of the closet, plus I didn't get a chance try out your Showman and Twin.

One clarification on my custom clones. The necks measure the same thickness in profile as a Mosrite. Where my guitars differ is the extra 1/8" width at the nut. The wider nut and bigger frets gives the illusion and feel of a chunkier neck. They are the same width at the 22nd fret. Plus as mentioned they have a 25" scale. The blue burst in the photo has the 24 1/2" scale.

Now regarding Mel's, guitars. His '66 SB is one nice guitar both sound and finish. It's all original and I don't recall a blemish on it. The tri pickup Mo-Par(ts) is a cool guitar. I LOVE the variety of different tones that come from the multiple options of three pickups, in phase, out of phase, all together or one at a time. Problem is, I'd have a hard time finding a certain setting I like. Too many options.

I was really surprised at the feel of the neck. It is extra wide from the 22nd to the first fret, however the string guide is for a standard width neck, as is the bridge spacing. So that leaves about 3/16" extra on each side of the fretboard extending beyond the strings, but yet it has a great and unique feel that I fell in love with. I may have to try this on a furture project.

BTW folks, these are the logo's Mel is referring to. I've applied this to my bass clone but still need to get the decals made up in white to put on the black headstocks of my sunburst and blue burst clones. I've started painting the base coats on the bass clone and when it's done I'll post some photo's of the headstock logo's.



Well, actually I'll go ahead and post the picture now.

...............................SWEET!.........................

HA! That is indeed SWEET. I think those are classic logo's .

Great report, Mel, and cool pic.

I'm going to London, UK for a weekend next month and will drop by London's vintage guitar street (called Denmark Street). I'm quite sure I probably won't see more than a couple of vintage Mosrites there - and maybe some Mosrite Rangers.

Hi Mel and Danny,

What a great looking guitar-arsenal. I'm sure also great sounding!!

thanks for all this info. That raises for me the following question(s):

is the distance between the pole pieces of the Pups the same on the Elliots (which are an exact reproduction os original mosrites I guess) and on the Hallmark Custom 60 PUPs ? (-> are strings on a hallmark as narrow positioned at the bridge as on a mosrite?)

and further:
is it a big problem, if the strings are not exactly above the pole pieces of the PUPs ? (what tolerance is ok? I remember there was a hallmark or mosrite player who thought about changing his PUPs for Strat or Jag-PUPs - just can't remember in which forum this was posted)

huuuu I know a lot of questions... I fear a little bit, that the difference from my so far main guitars (JM, Jag and Hi Flyer) would be an issue...

mucho reverbs
Matze