MOS it the RITE thing to do ?

[kodiakblair]

Continuing my trend for slightly off-kilter basses 🙂

 

No idea why Mosrites appeal to me but that appeal does not run to £1100+ for an original, £600 for an Eastwood copy nor £400 for the Aria 😄

 

Was very disappointed with Thomann last year when they launched the MR-60 but ignored us bass players 👎 To spite them I started a build though never got passed the rough cut 😔

Rough cut taunted me for months then I thought about the Retrovibe short scales David Konig was doing, guitar bodies/bass necks 👍 

 

Trial run using a cheap Fazley with a baritone paddle neck went OK so Thomann got cash from me after all 😁

 

MR-60 guitar.

 

 

Baritone neck from eBay.

 

[kodiakblair]

Had some teething problems with it.

 

Heel was wider than the pocket, not a huge problem. Finding a bridge as tall as the TOM and with narrow spacing , that was a bigger problem. 

 

Bought this big chunky Sung Il, it was tall enough and I could shave the sides of the saddles for a tighter spacing.

 

 

Wound up with this.

 

   

[kodiakblair]

Set up was OK, intonation easy to do, balance was fine.

 

Major problem.

 

 It didn't look very Mosrite 🤣

 

[kodiakblair]

Early Mosrite basses had 20 frets and the baritone had 24.

 

Solution, remove the excess neck.

 

 

You'll note, removing this much from the heel exposed the TR channel. Had scrap maple from the peghead reshape, handy material for a plug 🙂

 

Next thing was that massive bridge.

 

Spotting a Guyker copy of the Gretsch Space bridge gave me hope 🙂 Only issue with that bridge is position, mess that up and you're stuffed 🙁

One way round this would be use a floating bridge so I made a cradle from scrap rosewood. Sorry, no photos; I was on a roll this afternoon 😁

 

Tail piece or string anchor was up next. Grabbed an old base plate and cut it down to size.

 

 

 

Part 2 was shaping a block. The 4 screws hold it in position while drilling the mounting screw holes. 

 

[kodiakblair]

Not a bad afternoon's work 🙂

[kodiakblair]

Still to do.

 

Matching black peghead veneer.

Swap the W/B/W scratchplate for tort.

Hide the TOM threaded inserts with a sticker, probably this one 😀

 

 

I'll likely have some 4 pole P-90s made but things are pretty good as is👍

[Maude]

On 28/12/2023 at 18:57, kodiakblair said:

Early Mosrite basses had 20 frets and the baritone had 24.

 

Solution, remove the excess neck.

 

 

 

 

I love the seemingly rashness of this 😁. 

I'll just chop the excess off! 

 

It's looking great now though 👌

[kodiakblair]

14 minutes ago, Maude said:

I'll just chop the excess off! 

Fact that the back of an axe head can be seen in the photo is just pure coincidence 😄