Building a lefthanded Mosrite clone

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 26, 2010

OK, I'm NOT building this myself. 'My' luthier is building me a lefthanded Mosrite clone. There'll be some customizations to the guitar to make it more to my liking so it won't be an exact copy, nor will it say Mosrite on the headstock. If you guys will permit me copy/pasting Oigun's thread-posts on the mosriteforum here, I think this might be a real good read for aspiring and expierienced builders on here.
If you have any questions or tips I'll relay them to Oigun.

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 26, 2010

Today I started with a new project a lefty mosrite clone for forum member Olav [edit: that would be me, not just enthusiastic for Jr types, but for Mo's as well].
I hope you guys can give us some pointers because I'm new to mosrites and never seen the real deal. Olav's girl has a nice Aria "moclone" [edit: the 1974ish 1072T by Matsumoku] So that and especially the Ed Elliot thread will help a lot.

So I put some alder together

And routed the template.

Thiknessed the body with my good old safeT planer.1.7" (4.3mm) for starters

Cheerio!

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 27, 2010

darn @#$%
I have to find a better way of doing this. Invest in a downcuttinspiralbit or a decent pinrouterperhaps.

I've used a piece that came out of the waist so its hardly visible anymore.

Ready for the carve:

[/quote]

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 27, 2010

So I routed out the bindingchannel:

Fits like a glove.

Routed out the concave in babysteps. I don't want it to go wrong in this stage.

Like that:

Pencilled the german border JAWOHL

Shapin' time

I think I'm getting close now, so I want to glue in the binding first and than finetune the shape.

MIJvintage · Mar 27, 2010

****, that is starting to look pretty sweet

..............

glad to see others here enjoy some time in the shop 8)

keep us posted :wink:

you'll be playing 'Cone Shape UFO' soon :lol: ..................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URPSAddnV-8

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 28, 2010

Thanks Rich, I'll relay the kudos to Oigun.
Plans are you'll be seeing some of my attempts at building by the end of this year.

marcusnieman · Mar 28, 2010

Nice wood work.... always fascinates me to see them being built.

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 28, 2010

Thanks marcus, I'll tell Oigun you were impressed. Since you got a couple Univox-rite clones, what is the body in this made off? Is it basswood? My girl has an Aria 1702T which is basically the same thing and it's like an airguitar, light as a feather.

marcusnieman · Mar 28, 2010

JuniorEnthousiast said:
Thanks marcus, I'll tell Oigun you were impressed. Since you got a couple Univox-rite clones, what is the body in this made off? Is it basswood? My girl has an Aria 1702T which is basically the same thing and it's like an airguitar, light as a feather.

Univox Hi Flyer Mosrite copies are wafer thin.... like an SG. That has alot to do with the weight.

Univox used Poplar wood (related to Aspen and Cottonwood trees) for them. Fairly large grain patterning. Here's a pic:

http://www.blumerandstanton.com/images/wood-species/poplar002%20copy.jpg

and a pic of the back of one of them:

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 28, 2010

Thanks marcus, so no basswood.
This my girls Aria;

serial makes it a '74? I can't seem to figure out the flaky info on aria guitars.

marcusnieman · Mar 28, 2010

Sister to your Aria below..... same neck plate, trussrod cover and tuners. I would assume that your Aria was also made at the Matsumoku plant. From the Matsumoku website:

Guitars produced by Matsumoku
Nearly all guitars produced by Matsumoku (beginning sometime late 1976 or early 1977) bore serial numbers indicating the year and possibly production sequence. A small number of guitars produced had serials preceeded by a letter, but as to what the letter inidicated is yet a mystery and one can only guess without concrete evidence. I have seen both 6 and 7 digit serial numbers (excluding the letter if it is present).This new serialization covered Aria, Aria Pro II, Vantage, Westbury, most Westones, Japanese Washburns, some Electras, and the Skylark as well as others. As far as I know, the Korean version of these labels bear 8 or more digit serials and sometimes the production locaciton code (letter indicating Korea, Phillipines, Indonesia, etc.) which does not concern us here.
.
The first digit (and upon rare occasion the first two) indicated the year. There is an inherent flaw with this single-digit method as the single digit year indicator will re-cycle after a decade! Attention must be paid to when the particular model was available and apply that to the first digit of the serial, excluding the letter if present. A bit of cross referencing is required. For example, my first Cardinal CS-350 has the serial 2010237 which indicates both by the first digit and the duration of the Cardinal CS-350 run it is a 1982 (and I know it is, I bought it then!). In rare instances the first two digits would indicate the year, in which case we can safely assume that my Cardinal is not a 1920! Had it been the two-digit version it would have begun with 82XXXXX rather than 20XXXXX, which would also indicate 1982.

MIJvintage · Mar 28, 2010

Marcus, is that a maple neck on your Univox?

I had a Hi-Flyer years ago; it had a magnificent looking flamed mahogany neck ........... a bit on the smallish size for grip tho' ..........

very fun guitars 8) ............

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 28, 2010

Thanks for that bit of info marcus, I found some other stuff, on dating Arias in particular.

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 28, 2010

Glued in the binding and cleaned up the carve, its almost there .The final cleanup is just before painting. It has to be Nice and clean beacause it will be "Semie" transparent

[/quote]

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 29, 2010

oigun said:
the neck:

Routed the trussrodchannel it will be a two way adjustable.

Figured out the sideprofile.The heel will be an itsy-bitsy less high than in dannys post becaus my block of maple was 3mm les thick.Sawed roughly on the bandsaw:

Planed the headstock and suddenly some birdseyes are poppin' out:

The fretboard will be santos rosewood (pau ferro)

Now I have to wait till the white bindings arrive for the fingerboard

craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazay!

marcusnieman · Mar 29, 2010

Nice piece of fret wood

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 30, 2010

Nice huh? I like the wavey grain for what is essentially a surf guitar.

marcusnieman · Mar 30, 2010

JuniorEnthousiast said:
Nice huh? I like the wavey grain for what is essentially a surf guitar.

Excellent 8)

JuniorEnthousiast · Mar 31, 2010

marcusnieman · Mar 31, 2010

Gorgeous piece of wood

Building a lefthanded Mosrite clone

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