The "Parts-Rite" doubleneck..and discussion on "Parts-Rites"
Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:23 pm
Here's a photo of the first "Mosrite" I ever owned, bought for $300 at a pawn shop in bakersfield in 1992 (those were the days).
It's most obviously an aftermarket "Parts-Rite" guitar, most likely built by Gene Moles. I have never seen another one exactly like this where they put an octave neck on a body already routed out for a 12-string neck...and just covered up all the holes with tortoise shell pickguard material! hilarious...
I've seen some other talk on the forum about parts guitars and this is probably as good of a time as any to discuss these "Parts-Rite" guitars.
Basically, when Mosrite went bankrupt in 1968 a lot of employees got paid off in parts. Gene Moles, for his back pay, received a ton--and I do mean ton--of Mosrite bodies, necks, pickups, tuners, bridges, vibratos, etc. Gene was not the only one who got parts, but he was the main one. For years, guitars with "GM" on the headstocks were seen with leftover Mosrite stuff assembled together, and Gene also sold guitars like these which were essentially bolt-together Mosrite stuff but sometimes had no name on it.
Gene Moles had so much stuff left over that several vintage dealers, including the infamous Fatdog in Berkeley, bought boxes and boxes of stuff from Gene, and they proceeded to make some parts-rites as well. After Gene died a few years back some folks like Bob Shade from Hallmark managed to get some period correct Kluson tuners and things like that. The Mosrite factory was auctioned off in 1968 and it can only be presumed that many guitars were built (by who?) from the bodies, necks and parts sold at the factory auction.
In addition--and this should not be underestimated--by all accounts I've heard, another big reason Mosrite went bankrupt was because many employees stole stuff left and right to make their own guitars. I don't know how many times I've heard that from people. So there are undoubtedly lots of THOSE guitars floating around too.
Which comes around to the conclusion that there are a LOT of "Parts-Rite" guitars out there. Some of them are plain old Mosrite forgeries, that lots of folks probably accept as being genuine Mosrites until they start looking at them with a discerning eye. Some of them are odd one-off custom creations, that just happen to use Mosrite parts. And some of them are just odd, like this one.
The headstocks were blank when I got this one. I made some primitive paper stickers that said "Mosrite Special" only to make it look more like Joe Maphis' guitar!
Deke
It's most obviously an aftermarket "Parts-Rite" guitar, most likely built by Gene Moles. I have never seen another one exactly like this where they put an octave neck on a body already routed out for a 12-string neck...and just covered up all the holes with tortoise shell pickguard material! hilarious...
I've seen some other talk on the forum about parts guitars and this is probably as good of a time as any to discuss these "Parts-Rite" guitars.
Basically, when Mosrite went bankrupt in 1968 a lot of employees got paid off in parts. Gene Moles, for his back pay, received a ton--and I do mean ton--of Mosrite bodies, necks, pickups, tuners, bridges, vibratos, etc. Gene was not the only one who got parts, but he was the main one. For years, guitars with "GM" on the headstocks were seen with leftover Mosrite stuff assembled together, and Gene also sold guitars like these which were essentially bolt-together Mosrite stuff but sometimes had no name on it.
Gene Moles had so much stuff left over that several vintage dealers, including the infamous Fatdog in Berkeley, bought boxes and boxes of stuff from Gene, and they proceeded to make some parts-rites as well. After Gene died a few years back some folks like Bob Shade from Hallmark managed to get some period correct Kluson tuners and things like that. The Mosrite factory was auctioned off in 1968 and it can only be presumed that many guitars were built (by who?) from the bodies, necks and parts sold at the factory auction.
In addition--and this should not be underestimated--by all accounts I've heard, another big reason Mosrite went bankrupt was because many employees stole stuff left and right to make their own guitars. I don't know how many times I've heard that from people. So there are undoubtedly lots of THOSE guitars floating around too.
Which comes around to the conclusion that there are a LOT of "Parts-Rite" guitars out there. Some of them are plain old Mosrite forgeries, that lots of folks probably accept as being genuine Mosrites until they start looking at them with a discerning eye. Some of them are odd one-off custom creations, that just happen to use Mosrite parts. And some of them are just odd, like this one.
The headstocks were blank when I got this one. I made some primitive paper stickers that said "Mosrite Special" only to make it look more like Joe Maphis' guitar!
Deke
