Let the fun begin

This week I got the body and neck as well as a few miscellaneous parts for this project. A little more detail about this body. After getting the body in, I photographed it and put a pic on Facebook. Dana Moseley, Semie Moseley's daughter, sent me a message letting me know that she recognized this body to be one her dad had made. It has a "flaw" in the carve where the router slipped therefore making this a "factory second". Body was made in or around 1992 at the Booneville, Arkansas factory. This is special to me because my dad grew up there and I grew up visiting grandparents in Booneville. Semie's brother, Andy had kept this body in hopes to finish it one day but saw that wasn't going to happen and I am the lucky recipient of that decision. The body is still quite rough so it will require a lot of sanding before I start doing the planned sunburst finish.

The neck is also a great addition. It is an actual Mosrite neck that is complete with binding, fretboard and frets from the Bakersfield, California factory. I'm not sure of it's exact age but it appears to be fairly recent.

In my research, I also located an original mid-60s tortoise shell pickguard loaded with the pots and switch. My plan is to change that out for a white one.

 The heart of Mosrite sound is the pickups. I have a brand new set of Dana-Mo Mosrite pickups that are just begging to go in this project.

I am stoked to have so many special parts for this project and can hardly wait to get started.  Glad I'm going to have some down time after the holidays to get rolling on it.

Welcome to my blog about my second personal guitar project. Many of you follow the progress on "Nikki" my purple ES-335 copy. A few of you even followed posting on Facebook about the Flying V that I built for my Nephew. I also restored a 1968 Kustom K200 in the recent months. Now, I get to start on a project that I have wanted to do for years! A Mosrite Mark I "The Ventures" Model! Mosrite guitars were made popular by the band The Ventures in the 60s and they have a very distinct look and sound. I have wanted one of them for years. In the early 90's Mosrite moved their factory to the little town of Booneville, Arkansas which is where my dad grew up. I recently acquired an actual new, unfinished "The Ventures" model body made in the Booneville factory shortly before the creator, Semie Moseley passed away. It's even the the more rare version that is cut for binding. The seller of this body turned out to be the brother of Semie. How cool is that? So, now I have this legitimate Mosrite body and was able to locate a vintage, old stock Ventures model neck for this project. 2 of the 3 major components have been located. When they arrive next week, I will shoot some photos of them and share them here. For reference, I am posting this photo to show you what the guitar will look like when finished. I hope you'll follow my progress over the next several weeks or months as I build my dream guitar!