1964 Mosrite

[Trocchi]

Hello, This is my first post. I recently purchased a 1964 Mosrite from Guitar Center. The guitar is pretty roadworn with a lot of scratches an nicks as well as some severe buckle rash. I love this guitar , however. It plays and sounds terrific. There are no other issues or damage other than the wear. Its a candy apple red. The guys at guitar center said that they were told that this guitar may have been owned by the Ventures at one point. I think that this is a bit of a stretch but who knows. The serial number is 1604. I guess what I would like to know is should I have this guitar restored and if I do would it affect the value? I have pics but not sure how to attach. Thanks, Trocchi

[Trocchi]

I apologize for no pictures but I can't seem to get them sent thru photo bucket. I get a message that the pixels are too high. Any advise on how to do this?

[SASouth]

Was this the one at the Columbus, OH store? I was trying to sell enough stuff to get my hands on that one and now it looks like someone beat me to it.

Oh well, in any case congratulations are in order!

To answer to your question concerning restoration, anything you do to the guitar with regard to restoration will likely diminish its value. If you refinish it you'll devalue it by about 50%. If it needs a fret job to be playable then that is acceptable and won't hurt value too much. However, try to use frets that are as close as possible to the originals.

If you want it to retain its value, other than a good clean and polish, leave it alone and enjoy it the way it is. If it is missing parts or has non-original spec parts, then replacing those with the correct vintage parts would help it retain value and perhaps increase it. Otherwise, don't do anything to it other than play it.

[Trocchi]

Yes, SASouth, i bought it at Guitar Center in Columbus. Thanks so much for the advice on refinishing. I agree completely. The wear and tear is part of the history of the instrument and should not be altered. As I said, it is very playable and sounds great. I'll be mostly cleaning and shining. I wish I could get the photobucket to work so you could see it but when I paste the link it doesnt come on as a "click on" link. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Anyhow, Thanks again for your advice and I hope your guitar comes along soon. I've wanted a Mosrite ever since my friend who helped me learn to play got one back in 68. My wife was well aware of this and while I was in the room playing this guitar at GC, she was at the register buying it. Early birthday gift she says. Good talking with you SA.

[Trocchi]

http://s95.photobucket.com/user/Trocchi/library/
Not sure if this will work, but this is the link to the photos.

[SASouth]

Yes, SASouth, i bought it at Guitar Center in Columbus. Thanks so much for the advice on refinishing. I agree completely. The wear and tear is part of the history of the instrument and should not be altered. As I said, it is very playable and sounds great. I'll be mostly cleaning and shining. I wish I could get the photobucket to work so you could see it but when I paste the link it doesnt come on as a "click on" link. Can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Anyhow, Thanks again for your advice and I hope your guitar comes along soon. I've wanted a Mosrite ever since my friend who helped me learn to play got one back in 68. My wife was well aware of this and while I was in the room playing this guitar at GC, she was at the register buying it. Early birthday gift she says. Good talking with you SA.

If you want to post pictures you have to enclose the link to the picture with the Img HTML code. Like this:

[SASouth]

Thanks for the link. I see now the reason they won't post is because they're too big. You can go to Photobucket and resize them to be less than 1100 pixels on the vertical. I've done a few for you from my bucket.





I wasn't expecting that amount of wear on the back! (I never got to see it in person.) No wonder Guitar Center didn't post pictures of the back. I don't know that I would have paid the price they were asking. Hopefully, you were able to get them to come down some.

It doesn't really matter, it's still a cool guitar. Maybe I'll join the ranks soon. I'm really tempted by the Hallmark Custom 60. Everything I've seen and heard says they capture the Mosrite vibe. All for a very affordable price.

[Trocchi]

Yes I got it for less than they were asking. The wife drives a hard bargain. Thanks for the help with the pics. As you see its down to the bare wood in the back. This brings the question is it possible to fix the buckle wear without ruining the overall worn appearance and would a fix de-value the guitar. I guess the good news is that I really don't have to do anything to enjoy it. Oh, by the way, i got a better look at the serial number in the morning light and its actually 1694. This falls in line with a post describing the different Mosrite model timeline and ID chart in the section for the vibramute model 64/65. The thing is, I didn't buy the guitar as an investment. We all know why we have to have a Mosrite without anyone saying it out loud. My concern is that I don't want to screw this up. So I think I'll just clean it up and let it go at that for now. Still very interested in any opinions and info that anyone has to offer.

[ElTwang]

I just love the looks of vintage red Mosrite Mark I' s. The way they age is just fantastic.
Congrats!

[SASouth]

Yes I got it for less than they were asking. The wife drives a hard bargain. Thanks for the help with the pics. As you see its down to the bare wood in the back. This brings the question is it possible to fix the buckle wear without ruining the overall worn appearance and would a fix de-value the guitar. I guess the good news is that I really don't have to do anything to enjoy it. Oh, by the way, i got a better look at the serial number in the morning light and its actually 1694. This falls in line with a post describing the different Mosrite model timeline and ID chart in the section for the vibramute model 64/65. The thing is, I didn't buy the guitar as an investment. We all know why we have to have a Mosrite without anyone saying it out loud. My concern is that I don't want to screw this up. So I think I'll just clean it up and let it go at that for now. Still very interested in any opinions and info that anyone has to offer.

Good for her! As long as you got a commensurate discount for the wear, I'd say you did good. The buckle wear is part of the guitar's history. Fixing it will devalue the guitar more than the honest wear ever would.