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Recently purchased a 1966 Mosrite Ventures Mark V, serial # B1027, off eBay.

Looks like the body is refinished, missing original pickguard screws, missing original tremolo arm and spring. As well as the original knobs. I suspect the pickguard is an original Mosrite pickguard, but perhaps not original to this guitar, I'm not sure.

The guitar came with the original tuners, but they feel quite brittle, so I swapped them with exact replacements, I put the tuners away to preserve them. I purchased a new tremolo arm and pair of springs (Light and heavy) from Bob Shade (Thanks Bob). When I acquired the guitar some of the leads from the pickups were either soldered in the wrong place, or not soldered on at all. Whoever refinished this guitar must not have known how to solder the pickups back in. Wasn't a hard thing to fix. The guitar was also missing a ground from the bridge. I did a reading of the pickups residence.

Bridge Pickup: 10.6K
Neck Pickup: 8.19K

The pots, jack, and toggle switch are all original and work fine. The pots are a little scratchy but thats all.

Here is the headstock right out of the box when it arrived. Still dirty, original tuners (I replaced those later on to preserve them). 0 Fret looks a little worn.


The neck was not dated, unfortunately.


The neck pocket was painted over, so also no date.


The body with the pickguard (with original wiring ((crap solder job on the pickups)) ) as well as the pickups and tremolo removed. (Note only 2 of the 4 holes drilled for the neck pickup ring. Never seen that before.


Another shot of the body, pickups moved aside, can also see just how filthy this guitar was.


Here are the undersides of the pickups.


Got the body cleaned up nicely. Added a ground wire for the bridge (Yellow wire).


Here is a shot of the fixed wiring. My wiring isnt great, I know. I was trying very hard not to undo any of the original solder points. (Thanks to Forum member Volts101 for sending me photos of the inside of his 1966 Carved Ventures II).


Heres a shot comparing the old tuners (left) and the new replacements (Right)


Here is everything put together, with the new tremolo arm. (Thanks again Bob Shade).


Here are a few shots of the guitar with strings on it.





Overall I'm very happy with how this guitar cleaned up and how it plays.

Special thanks to forum member Volts101 and Bob Shade of Hallmark Guitars for the help!

Glad to be a Mosrite owner.

Forgot to add, here is a video of the guitar in action. Playing the RAMONES' "Judy is a Punk"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhDjlPVekxE

Love it! Brought back to life

Very good, and welcome to the club! Glad you were able to get everything done!
Dennis

Good seeing it in such good and functional shape. I know you're not sanding the paint in the neck pocket now, but as I said before, there may still be a date under the white paint.

Anyone else reading, note that B1027 is an outlier with the truss rod adjustment still at the body. I still expect this to be an October 1966 instrument (except for the neck, which should be anywhere from late 1965 - June or July 1966) since B1050 is later October, and it's supposed to be the "no more dates stamped" number.

- Austin

Nice work, enjoy it!

Thanks guys!

I've found that the tone pot doesn't really function properly (Kind of expected for a 50 year old guitar) so I've gone ahead and ordered some new electronics. I'll make sure to take photos and share when the parts come. I've even had a pair of spun knobs like the ones that went on the Ventures II slabs but they didn't fit on the original pots. So hopefully with the new parts I'll be able to fit those knobs and complete the look I was going after.

Update:

Got the new parts the other day. Bought brand new pots, jack, pickup selector, wire and capacitor. I wanted to remove the original electronics in one piece all together.

I got a standard jack, standard 3 way switch just like what came out of the guitar, standard cloth wire and an orange drop capacitor.

I went with a pair of 250K pots. I get a lot of bad 60 cycle hum where I live so I figured the 250K pots would roll off a bit of that high end and help keep the screeching a bit lower, and it has! It sounds great and now I've got a tone pot that actually works in between ON and OFF.

To top it off I put on a pair of knobs like what would be found on a Ventures II Slab, from Bob Shade of course haha.

Photos below:

Original wiring harness.


Close up of the original harness' corroded pots, capacitor and jack.


New parts installed in the pickguard before soldering.


The front.


Here is everything wired up. This was probably my best wiring job, still not the best in the world, but for me its pretty okay. Besides... It works.


The guitar back together, with the new knobs!


The guitar still sounds amazing and I'm super happy with it. Having to work on it has made me like it more as well!

Thanks for viewing, I'd be happy to answer any questions!

Here are some more shots of the guitar.





Don't mind the strat in the back haha. I should make a thread for that one. Just a Squier strat with a Dana Mosely wound Ventures I pickup. Plays and sounds great. I find that the Ventures I pickup has a different sound from these Ventures II/Mark V pickups.


Heres a close up of the serial number. B1027






Here are some shots of the back of the neck. This one doesn't have the case rash. This one may have never had a case.


Here's a look at the high E side of the back of the neck. Interesting wear. Previous owner must have worn rings while playing guitar.


The neck bolts are a bit stripped, would like to replace them with new ones. Not sure where I could find them though. If anyone knows please let me know! Thanks!


Here is the Moseley Tremolo unit. This one has a patent number. I've seen that some of these units have a patent number and some don't. =




One of these days I will record a video of the clean tones I can get. As well as some overdrive tones.


I have a list of things I still would like to do to this guitar.

Aside from the new neck bolts, I'd like to drill and add the 2 missing screws for the neck pickup ring. I'd like to fill and re-drill the pickguard screw holes and replace the current screws with something more correct.

Perhaps another refin? Not sure. If I do refinish it, I'll probably make a new single ply white pickguard for it.

If I don't refinish it, I might get a tort pickguard, would be a little more original than this all black pickguard which I don't think is original to the guitar.

Is your pickguard spray-painted? It looks kinda like it on the underside.

Also, is there an indication of a previous Sunburst finish on the side, near the output jack? I think I might see some Red in one of the scruffs on the side near the output jack.

I'm not sure when the patent numbers showed up on the Moseley Tailpieces, but yours is the earliest I know of.

- Austin