NGD....this time it's serious

[Tadpui]

Ha, no I've already decided the stock original pickups will stay. I've got some Fender surfy and screaming Marshall clips up in the tone thread.

I think that's an excellent decision. Warts and all, there's just nothing like a 50+ year old pickup doing what it was born to do.

[muttley]

.....................
Maybe @muttley can weigh in here....my biggest concern is sanding the neck. I do not want the serial number sanded away, which is a common thing for Mosrite necks after a refret. Is it possible to refret a neck without sanding it down?

Sorry guys been away this week on a jolly...

You absolutely do not need to sand a fret board when refretting. The reasons for sanding would be to adjust a radius, remove string groove marks or to level off a hump or two. Any builder worth his salt would be able to refret a well set neck without sanding. The biggest problems come with old and dry rosewood or ebony which has a tendency to chip out when you remove the existing frets. That can be avoided except in the worst cases by conditioning the fret board well before hand and heating the frets with a soldering iron to break and glue joint that maybe in there. The breakout is fairly easy to fix when it does happen and its standard on a refret..

If its playing well at present dont swap them out. If they need swapping out and you can get6 hold of matching fret wire which most decent repair guys would have then maybe just swap out the first 7 or so and bring them back to the others..

[Greg_L]

.....................
Maybe @muttley can weigh in here....my biggest concern is sanding the neck. I do not want the serial number sanded away, which is a common thing for Mosrite necks after a refret. Is it possible to refret a neck without sanding it down?

Sorry guys been away this week on a jolly...

You absolutely do not need to sand a fret board when refretting. The reasons for sanding would be to adjust a radius, remove string groove marks or to level off a hump or two. Any builder worth his salt would be able to refret a well set neck without sanding. The biggest problems come with old and dry rosewood or ebony which has a tendency to chip out when you remove the existing frets. That can be avoided except in the worst cases by conditioning the fret board well before hand and heating the frets with a soldering iron to break and glue joint that maybe in there. The breakout is fairly easy to fix when it does happen and its standard on a refret..

If its playing well at present dont swap them out. If they need swapping out and you can get6 hold of matching fret wire which most decent repair guys would have then maybe just swap out the first 7 or so and bring them back to the others..

[rayc]

Classic good quality Ramones TV footage from 1977.

I had to wait until July 1980 to see them. They were still white hot & spandex free.

[rayc]

On that Delux clip.. are you considering doing an upside down lefty thing?...
[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuHs_mh ... 4sjjE7qdeY[/BBvideo]

[Greg_L]

On that Delux clip.. are you considering doing an upside down lefty thing?...
[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuHs_mh ... 4sjjE7qdeY[/BBvideo]

Lol no I'll never be 1/100th as awesome as Dick Dale. But I am gonna build a tube reverb unit one of these days.

[Greg_L]

Did a little comparing today....

The Hallmark is very similar to the Mosrite.

Mosrite v Hallmark 1.jpg

Bodies and headstocks are pretty much identical. Vibratos and bridges are a little different, string spacing is a little different, but the rest is pretty spot on.

Mosrite v Hallmark 2.jpg

Mosrite v Hallmark 3.jpg

The biggest difference is the neck. I've mentioned the Mosrite's tiny neck. Well you can see it here. It's narrow. The Hallmark's neck is gigantic by comparison, but in reality it's pretty much like a typical Gibson neck. It just seems big visually and by feel compared to the Mosrite's tiny neck.

Mosrite v Hallmark 4.jpg

Tone shootout in the tone thread.

[rayc]

Cool.

[Armistice]

The Ramones all had tiny hands...

[Bill L]

So I just got done doing sound for a band and this was the bass the was used. I believe he said it was an original 63 hollow body but the electronics were the Ventures model electronics. He had some major work done due to the block in the body causing the neck to bend (or something like that). I thought you guys might dig it.

IMG_20190816_181557.jpg

[Greg_L]

Awesome! I bet that thing sounds fat.

[rayc]

CUTE. I like bridge covers.

[WhiskeyJack]

Those strings look like they could use a bath!!

[Greg_L]

Those strings look like they could use a bath!!

They're black on purpose. Made that way. That's a "thing" with bass players now.

[Lt. Bob]

Those strings look like they could use a bath!!

it's those black plastic coated strings.
oddly enough that's the kind of strings I used on my first bass which was a Mosrite solid body ..... around 1970 or so

[WhiskeyJack]

Right on. I played a bass with plastic coated strings once and it felt really weird. It also sounded flubby. Would make sense for a guy who played maube jazz stuff woth his fingers but woth a pick and what i played (poorly) just felt oddball.

[Greg_L]

Update...I just had to get the frets done. I had it looked at by a few pros and there was a hump in the fretboard and the frets just couldn't be salvaged. The 3rd and 5th frets were particularly buzzy with absolutely no room left to level em up and no set up adjustment could get it right. So...the new frets I bought as a precaution went in.

Here's a video....
[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/ZgTp11m09Ls[/BBvideo]

[WhiskeyJack]

Update...I just had to get the frets done. I had it looked at by a few pros and there was a hump in the fretboard and the frets just couldn't be salvaged. The 3rd and 5th frets were particularly buzzy with absolutely no room left to level em up and no set up adjustment could get it right. So...the new frets I bought as a precaution went in.

Here's a video....
[BBvideo=560,315]https://youtu.be/ZgTp11m09Ls[/BBvideo]

Jesus.

Looks so good. Let's hear it now!!!

[Greg_L]

Jesus.

Looks so good. Let's hear it now!!!

Yup, new clips coming soon.

[rayc]

Great job. That thing looks wonderful.