MWaldorf wrote:Hey, this bass seems to be on the Japanese Mosrite serial number list:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mochizuki/kiyoshi/kiyoshi/mosriteowner/ownerlist.htmlIt's near the bottom of the page, the first bass on the list:
Serial: 0001
Model: Bass
OwnerL Zunz, I
Info Date: 97-11
Notes: With original shoreline gold finish & matching gold headstock. This bass was purchased by Ron Meagher of the Beau Brummels ("Laugh Laugh") in 1964.
Ivan, did you send in this entry to the list? If so, how did you find out it was purchased by Ron Meagher? Any pictures of him with the bass?
Mel
Hi Mel--
It's been a while since I've checked back on here; sorry. Yes, that was my entry onto the Japanese website back in '97. I've emailed that guy 2 or 3 times since then with photos of my two Mosrites, and I've asked him to take down the Beau Brummels thing. Each time he's emailed me back to thank me, but he never adds the photos nor makes the correction I requested.
Here's the story. I got this bass from one of the original vintage guitar dealers in L.A. a long time ago. I had a frankensteined P-Bass that consisted of a '65 neck & parts, attached to a 1971 Lake Placid Blue body that was chipped up pretty badly. The Mosrite had a $1,900 price tag on it at the time, and the dealer (now out of business) agreed to do a straight swap for my Fender. He told me that this Mosrite came from a guy who had bought it from Ron Meagher.
I'd actually emailed Sal Valentino from the Beau Brummels shortly after posting this a few months back to see if he could recall Meagher with a gold Mosrite to substantiate the story. He replied that in the band's early days they were staying at the Saharan on Sunset Blvd (less than a mile from me, coincidentally) one night after having played a show in Hollywood, and they discovered in the morning that their gear had been stolen out of the station wagon. In a pinch, they went to Mosrite to buy two 6-strings, a 12-string, and a bass for Meagher; all blue. He says that the blue bass is the only Mosrite that he recalls Meagher ever having owned.
After receiving this email, I did a google search on the guitar store owner who I'd known a little bit & who I'd heard went out of business under something of a dark cloud. I discovered that he's the guitar tech at a mom & pop music store in the Valley; I called him, though he didn't remember me or the bass.
Someone earlier mentioned Ronnie Sessions. Six or 8 years ago I put my Fuzzrite frog-in-the-blender-tone fuzz box on eBay, and the high bidder was none other than Andy Moseley in Tennessee. I emailed him about this bass, and he said that in '64/'65 they made 6 instruments--3 basses & 3 guitars--for Sessions, Eddie "The Singing Cowboy" Dean, and his son Mark, out of a can of DuPont goldflake paint. He couldn't recall who the basses went to, but asked for a photo of mine. I then sent him a picture of my bass, and I heard nothing back until a month or so later when he finally responded with a one-sentence reply just saying, "Sorry, don't recognize it."
My apologies for the long-winded entry. I don't really doubt that this bass is authentic, but it would be interesting to know the provenance of it. At the same time, the same sense of mystery that surrounds it has always been a large part of what has curiously attracted me to Mosrite in the first place.
......