ShortScale.org

Mos-master? Jazz-rite? Idunno.

I sold my Mosrite recently...I just couldn't get used to the narrow neck width. Lately I've been on a Jazzmaster craze, and had planned on building one to my specs, so I went ahead and bought an unrouted JM body from Allparts, and Lollar pickups. But THEN out of curiosity, I ended up ordering an Xaviere JT-100 as well. And, I miss the tone of my Mosrite, which was pretty much the best-sounding guitar I've ever owned. So, the new plan is to customize the Xaviere for my JM wants, and use the Allparts body to build a Jazzmaster / Mosrite hybrid.

I know I know, this thread is worthless without pics...but I'll have some soon, the body is arriving tomorrow and I'll be starting on it this weekend. I'm going to photoshop a mock-up tonight though, just to make sure this is what I really want. I figured I'd go ahead and start cataloging what I'm doing, in the meantime.

Specs!

Allparts swamp ash JM body

Routed for these Mosrite reproduction pickups

I'm not gonna paint this one. My plan is to hand-rub a stain on, in a honeyburst type of color, kind of like 50s Les Pauls, or newer G&Ls. Then I'll spray a nitro clearcoat over it. I can't decide if I want to use a pickguard or do an LP style rear-cavity route. The rear cavity is certainly less work, and it's cleaner...but it may look funny (i.e. too much negative space), since JM bodies are pretty large. I've been trying to find pics of a rear routed JM but had no luck...

For a bridge / trem, I'm either going to do a Bigsby, or ideally a Mosrite-style trem. The JM / Jag trem is cool, but I'm putting an AVRI trem on the Xaviere, so I want to do something different here.

Switching will be just a standard 3-way, mounted either at the top of the pickguard (where the standard rhythm circuit would be), or down below a la Warmoth. I also might try and fab up some sort of Varitone rotary switch, like certain Gibson models used.

The only piece I'm not sure about is the neck. I'm considering a Warmoth 24.75" conversion neck, just for something different. But I definitely want a maple fretboard, preferably slightly tinted, but not as vintage-y as say, Squier Classic Vibe necks. Thoughts?

There was a model built in Japan with a Jazzmaster type body with top binding and Rossmeisl/Mosrite influenced "german carve", Mosrite pickups - vibrato unit and knobs, but a Fender style headstock.

It was sort of interesting but would have looked way better IMO with a Mosrite headstock.

Here's a link to a guy describing his on a Mosrite forum.

http://www.mosriteforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7934

Sweet Monkey Jesus that's a pretty guitar.

That is one of the sexiest guitars I have ever seen....its REDONKULOUS!!!

And I even hate gold!

One day. I will recreat that guitar.

Tasty tasty!...
shame the hardware aint in chrome tho....

This might be the only example of a guitar with gold hardware that does not tweak me out. It is so fluid looking that I didn't even notice. And usually gold hardware makes my yeas esplode instantly.

Dillon wrote:Thoughts?

sounds very interesting. i think you'd definitely need a guard of some sort, even if it was a small one like the toronado deluxes had.

WOW

He raised the bar on that one

I agree it needed the Mos headstock. Didn't notice at first but it has a zero fret.

Wow, that's pretty amazing. I can't say I'm a big fan of the contour, but it's really cool anyway. BTW, all Mosrites have zero frets. Mine won't though, unless I build a neck...which I may honestly end up doing.

I haven't made any progress on this because those E.F. Elliott pickups are taking forever to get here. I also found a guy that makes copies of Mosrite trems, so it's official, it's getting one. Once both of those things are in it will be time to start routing

Bumping this because over a year later I'm finally doing something with it I decided my project won't be anywhere near as involved as that red one that was posted. It'll be more Fender and less Mosrite. It's definitely getting Mosrite pickups and a Mosrite style pickguard, though.

But it's not getting a Mosrite vibrato. I remembered I have a Mustang bridge in my parts bin, so I'm going to use that, with a GFS X-trem I bought on a whim, which is a Bigsby-type vibrato. I'm not going to use a 7.25" neck, so the plan is to drill and tap the outside saddles and put screws in them for height adjustment. If that doesn't work, I'll use a regular Jaguar/Jazzmaster bridge. And if that sucks, maybe I'll buy a Mastery bridge for it. I'll also put a Mosrite-style pickguard on it, which I probably won't design until the body is routed for the pickups.

Tonight I put a spare Strat neck I have on it. Then I marked a rough line where the bridge should go (25.5" from the nut). Then I used a straight edge to mark the body where it lines up along each side of the neck. Then I found a center point using a micrometer and began marking up other things.

Drilled a test hole in a piece of scrap wood for the bridge ferrules:



Drilling the actual holes for the ferrules:



Rough mock-up of what things will look like with the GFS trem and the Mosrite pickups:



I'm actually very pleased with how similar the GFS piece is compared to the Mosrite vibrato. Obviously it's different in that the bridge is integrated into the tailpiece on the Mosrite, but the overall design of the X-trem is far more similar than that of a Bigsby. Also I will probably move the tailpiece closer to the bridge when I actually mount it. The closer the better as far as I'm concerned...I'm just worried about the strings hitting the back of the bridge if there's too much angle over it.

Are those the Elliotts? I emailed him about making a set for a 350 I am working on. All these entities vying for the Mosrite name, but nobody selling parts.

OMG what a sexy beast.

Oh hey, I did start this thread. Damn, can't believe I've had this thing for two years...finally getting back to work on it. Next steps are sanding out the imperfections and sealing it. Then primer. I'm pretty motivated for once as I don't have any guitars with this type of trem anymore. Just a Strat.

Marking pickup spots



Used a forstner bit to drill some pilot holes...this is sort of midway, I went back and did it again after this shot



Finished product. Had to freehand the routes, couldn't find a template for Mosrite pickups. Hence why the neck pickup route looks slightly larger than the bridge

DGNR8 wrote:Are those the Elliotts? I emailed him about making a set for a 350 I am working on. All these entities vying for the Mosrite name, but nobody selling parts.

I can't remember honestly, but I don't think so. I got them from a guy on the Mosrite forums. I just looked up the Elliott ones those seem to be better constructed. Well, I say "better", but I believe mine are constructed like the original Mosrite pickups. Whereas those Elliott pickups look more modern.

Are you going to carve the top?

Nah, I don't really like the look of carved top JM bodies. So this will definitely be more Jazzmaster than Mosrite. Really, I just wanted a Jazzmaster that sounded like a Mosrite. But it will have a Mosrite inspired pickguard, and if I make the neck I'll give it a zero fret with a nut similar to that red guitar.

I saw the title and I thought of Mose