not yet a Mosrite owner, but... Hello from Germany

[Dennisthe Menace]

Hi Matze,

My first love has lived in Germany for the last 22 years. I'm actually on here to get advice about restoring a Mosrite Celebrity Bass for her. She used to play my old Gospel Bass back when we were together in 1980. I ended up selling it (dumb move!) to get another piece of gear I needed, but she always liked it and wasn't happy that I sold 'her' bass.

The Celebrity is the closest thing to the old Gospel I could find, and it needs Gobs of work. Semie made the Gospels for Gospel groups, but this bass was basically a thick-body Celebrity. The Celebrity bass I found has body cracks , neck-joint issues and missing parts. It will also need a refinish job.

I've owned another solid body Mosrite bass, that I traded after the neck was broken (another bad move). I briefly owned an original Hallmark, that now belongs to Teisco Del Rey. I like the refretted Mosrites I've played because the tiny original frets are too hard for me to play. The newer Mosrites are also more playable for me, but the sound and look are sure great on every model. Good luck!

Welcome to the Forum Sycamoregrove,
I saw your post in the Introduction Thread. Before you start looking for parts and replacement pieces, I would seriously check the Neck Joint and make sure it wasn't glued in there for other reasons (like just holding it together from falling apart?). And how bad are the Body cracks? Are they just surface cracks, maybe the finish has stress cracks, or were these cracks all the way through? Because that could create a "rattling or buzzing" problem every time you pluck the Bass Strings, with it being tuned low and will be very susceptible to the low frequency response. You might want to check it thoroughly before you start sinking money into parts. Maybe have a Luthier check it, kind of like a 2nd opinion....
BTW, Mosrites are not known for breaking necks with their large volute . What kind of accident was your other Mosrite Bass involved in??

[sycamoregrove]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I haven't actually seen the bass yet, just the Ebay photos, so I can't really assess the damage 'til I take a good look. This model isn't like most Mosrites in that it has an actual 'heel' as well as two bolts holding it on. There's a red one on tymguitars that's just like it. The pics are here:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26sa%3DN

Mine has it's two screw holes covered over with some black goop. The neck has pulled forward making it neccessary to have a pretty non-existent 'bridge' in order to have the action anywhere near playable. . .and it's still a mile high. The crack (it appears to have just one) is in the center seam joining the back halves, which will have to be re-glued. The other cracks are all finish checking as near as I can tell, but they look really awful, and there's lots of darkening in them. If the bass was for me I'd just fix the neck and crack and touch the finish up leaving the checking. I dig the vintage weathered look, but this is a gift for a girl, and I don't want it to look trashed.

I found a luthier out here to refinish it to blonde, the same color Her bass was. A little gold-tone in the nitro and it should look sweet, if there are no other major body issues.
I'm expecting lots of work ahead of me, it's really the parts that are my biggest worry.
Thanks again. ~ Lee