Mosrite Clone: Project # 2 Candy Apple Red

[dubtrub]

I started this project several months ago and had to put it on hold due to family member health crisis and have not yet started work on it again. Hopefully I can get re motivated before long.

This is a guitar that I built using templates I made from a 1966 Mosrite Ventures Model. Unfortunately I no longer have the guitar as I sold it to Desert Surfer. Creating the templates was just about as difficult as building the guitar as everything has to be precise. The good thing about a template is, I can make multiple guitars and the parts will inter change with each other. The bad thing is, why would anyone want to go to all that trouble just for a couple of guitars. My only answer is, I don't do anything the simple way.

For the neck I used curly maple, and for the body I used Alder. I cut the pickguard out of aged white pickguard material. The rosewood fret board and fretwire, I purchased blank materia from Stewart McDonald http://www.stewmac.com/ The pickups and vibrato are from Hallmark Guitars http://www.hallmarkguitars.com/ and the bridge is a Japanese Mosrite purchased from Zamminc http://stores.ebay.com/Zamm-Inc

As you can see, the guitar is still in the unfinished stage and hopefully it will be sunburst. Since I am building two of theses at the same time I will be finishing the second one in candy apple read with a clear natural finished neck.

This is a photo of the templates I made.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/ ... 1210016561

Guitar is assembled in the rough form to make sure everything fit and was aligned up properly.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/ ... CN0242.jpg





EDITED: Scroll down to the bottom of page to finished guitar.

[dubtrub]

A friend of mine designed a set of 'Ellison of California' logo's to resemble the 'Mosrite of California' and the 'Ventures model' logo's (however with different lettering) that I would like to apply as a decal on the headstock of my Mosrite clones. I haven't yet found anyone local that can reproduce them in white. I can produce them in black letters with a clear background but not white letters with a clear background. I already have the art work completed. Anyone have a source to create decals in white letters?

[jramonitos]

hi Danny,

This is a fine looking clone. I can't wait for the finish product. Are you planning to keep this guitar? By the way, i would like to ask you if what instrument did you use when you started doing the carve on the body?it looks so smooth.

[dubtrub]

hi Danny,

This is a fine looking clone. I can't wait for the finish product. Are you planning to kep this guitar? By the way, i would like to ask you if what instrument did you use when you started doing the carve on the body?it looks so smooth.

The first cuts were made using a 1/2" concave router bit. Although you can not see the router bit, here is a picture when I was routing the German carve on my first (the blue guitar) project.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/ ... CN0183.jpg

Next, I used a 1/4" concave hand carving chisel to widen and deepen the carve on the upper portion of the body. If you look close in this photo you can see the individual chisel marks and the pencil line drawn to the distance the carve will be applied. Once I have it carved pretty close to the desired shape, I change to a 1 1/2" round sanding disc attached to a variable speed power drill. After dressing out the chisel marks with the disc sander, I change to good old fashion hand sanding.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/ ... CN0186.jpg

To answer your question about keeping the guitar. Well, originally when I made my templates I was planning on building several of these to sell. However due to the cost of components, the time and labor, the price would be astronomical. I think the average person would rather spend $899 and by a Hallmark 60s Custom or spend another grand and get an original. I already have one sold. I have two more in the making and will probably keep them. I also started building a Mosrite clone bass, but had to put everything temporarily on hold. Hopefully soon I will be able to get back to finish building those three guitars.

[dubtrub]

Well, today I took advantage of some slack time and started working on one of the guitars. I cut all the fret slots, shaped the fret board and fitted the blank neck to the neck pocket of the body. This is the critical stuff and it really gets nerve racking trying to get everything to line up perfectly with the bridge, so that the 1st and 6th strings are in the right place on the neck.

[dubtrub]

Progress report.

I'm finally getting close to completion of a the two guitars. I've been holding off on spraying the finish anticipating finding someone who can produce my logo decals but that never happened. I can make in them with black lettering on a clear back ground, but I cannot figure out how to make them with white lettering with a clear background. Plus the clarity of the finished sized logo wasn't all that great when transferred to decal paper. So, it looks like they will be logo-less, Here's what I had designed.
1.
2. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/ ... es2b-1.jpg

[Dennisthe Menace]

I'm not sure if it's possible to do white lettering w/clear background. BUT , what about doing white lettering on Black Background, and just paint the Headstock in Black, like most of the '64 on up were done?.....

[dubtrub]

I'm not sure if it's possible to do white lettering w/clear background. BUT , what about doing white lettering on Black Background, and just paint the Headstock in Black, like most of the '64 on up were done?.....

I tried that. The white lettering on the template becomes clear when transferred to decal paper. It would require air brushing a white area under the lettering on the black headstock before applying the decal. Too much work. I found one place that would make a minimum of 100 decals for $100. heck, all I need is one . I think they'll look just fine left 'blank'.

[sleeperNY]

Danny:
Do you have any local independent auto graphics people in your area? Most of the people doing this type of thing make there own decals. One of them may be able to make what you want in the number you want. Worth looking into.
Jim

[dubtrub]

One down, two more to go. I just wrapped up another one of my custom built guitars this evening. This one as you can see has tiger stripe maple neck, the body is Basswood, it's painted candy apple red using a white sealer, silver under base then topped with 12 coats of clear lacquer wet sanded between each coat, then hand polished to a high gloss finish. I had a heck of a time photographing this thing because the finish is like glass. Regardless of lighting and setting ( I'm not camera guru) I could not capture the candy apple effect on camera. It has Hallmark pickups, bridge and vibrato. The pickguard shows up as bright white but I cut it out of aged off white colored material.

BTW, this is not the guitar depicted in the first photograph of this topic, well the neck is but the body is diifferent. That body is on a sunburst one I'm building, it's Alder.