Celebrity Avenger?!?

[MWaldorf]

I was passing through NY this week and popped down to 48th Street. No Mosrites at Rudys, but there were two at Sam Ash. One was a '66 Mark I in the "vintage" room, in sunburst, pretty heavy finish checking, priced at $4999. About what I would have expected to find there. However, out among the riff raff, I saw this Celebrity Avenger. Really bizarre - the body looks like a generic ES-330 copy, but the pickups and knobs/switch plate looked right. The headstock said "Mosrite Avenger" on it. The volute on the back of the headstock looked properly Mosritely, but the frets and the rest of the neck looked pretty generic. Come to think of it I don't even recall if it had a zero fret.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get close enough to properly check it out as some shredder-head was sitting right in front of it, demonstrating his hammer-ons and no doubt moments away from being discovered and getting a record deal.

Anyway, here are the pics.




For the record, here's the '66 Mark I

[dubtrub]

Mosrite Avenger as in made in Japan? That would be neat to have especially if the neck was a little wider than the vintage models. What was the price tag like?

I like that Epi behind it.

[GTSP]

I thought Avengers were made in China.

[Sarah93003]

I didn't even know they made a Celebrity type of Avenger! There are several obvious differences. I would sure like to see that one up close.

[MWaldorf]

I wonder if this is from the same time period as the Mosrite Les Paul, Strat and Tele styled guitars. What I find interesting is how, unlike the knock-offs, this one has some Mosrite features. As I said, I didn't have time to ask details and I couldn't get near enough to see the price. However, I suppose someone enterprising could call Sam Ash in NY to get more info.

Here are links to the full resolution versions of the pictures for any completists out there.

http://www.mosriteforum.com/mosrite/CelebAvenger1Big.jpg

http://www.mosriteforum.com/mosrite/CelebAvenger2Big.jpg

[Sarah93003]

Thanks for the additional hi-res photos. I can see the zero fret on the first image. The 1969 Firstman catalog does show a CE-220 Celebrity and a CE-211 Celebrity. I don't know the Mosrite/Firstman story at all so maybe someone else will pitch in. Incidentally, I did try to call Sam Ash right after you posted the thread but they were closed. I'll try again!

[rynaro]

I've played a mosrite (firstman) avenger ventures copy and it was great!! Except the pickups but I think most MIJ guitars are lackluster in the PU dept.
Did you go back n buy it????
--Ryan

[oipunkguy]

just stating this in case anyone wasn't sure. mosrite avenger or firstman were made in japan in the 1970's. if anyone wants to add to this, go for it

awesome find mel, I had never seen a celebrity avenger either. it's always cool to find something new in the world of mosrite, even if it is based on a copy, which these were done quite well i thought.

[MWaldorf]

The odd thing is, this didn't look like an old guitar. If anything it looked new to me. I'm pretty sure the others guitars on that wall were new.

With a bit of googling, I was able to come up with two other images of Avenger Celebrities:

[Sarah93003]

From my website I have a couple of scans from the Firstman 1969 catalog. There are a few pages of "Mosrite" guitars. I would love to understand the relationship of Firstman and Mosrite a lot better. Does anyone here know? Did Firstman make Mosrite copies, or did they distribute actual Mosrite guitars?

As for the Avenger Celebrity, I spoke to Sam Ash where this guitar is currently for sale. They are going to email me some detailed photos of it so we can get up close and personal with it. On my website I scans of the 1969 Firstman catalog where there are Celebrity guitars listed. Have a look.

http://www.mosritecelebrity.com/_wp_gen ... a6b_0f.jpg

http://www.mosritecelebrity.com/_wp_gen ... b36_0f.jpg