Silvertone Mosrite Copy

I have 3 of these. They're all early '70s sunburst.. 1 has 3/side tuners the others 6 in line. Great sunburst finish.. 21 or 22 frets.. 25.5 in scale.. s/s/s configuration. I believe these to be basswood.. 2 of which have BEAUTIFUL flame maple tops/backs. Individual on/off switches. Each of mine is slightly customized.. I changed the tone-kill cap on 2 of them.. one which has little effect.. the other give it just a slightly noticible treble cut.

I love the sound of these guitars! I just LOVE the guitars!!! Regardless of amp/effects.. after full shielding.. these ROCK. Very unique tone.. and tons of different sounds from all the crazy electronics.

All of mine have medium actions.. because that's how I like it. It's fits me perfect! The finish is durable and very atractive.

vERY reliable.. another reason I love em. Knock em (err... throw em...) down and they always get back up!

Ahh.. the Silvertone of now a days wouldn't have a clue, I don't think.

Got one of these ya wanna get rid of? I want more! MORE MORE MORE! E-mail me.. myblueperiod@msn.com

I've had this guitar for about 6 months now and some things have changed. The old crappy tuners are gone, replaced with some Ping ones and I haven't looked back since. I 'installed' some schaler strap locks on it and they help keep surprises to a minimum. I also changed the string gauge from 46 to 52 and I'm now saving piles on replacing broken strings. The body is definatly bass wood.

My other review was done before I aquired an amp of any quality at all. I now play through a Peavy Studio Pro 112, and the sound is quality to the max. You can get some really sweet sounds out of this guitar if you play around with the pick-up switching and volumes of each one. This guitar has now been aptly named the feedback machine by my band, and it is one hell of a double edged sword.This guitar screechs like a she-bitch if you're not rocking out at high volumes. Ideal for crazy garage rock feedback laced songs but absolutly horrible if you have to stop playing. Your ears bleed. Still a pretty muddy sound but I love it so much! I think I may put a humbucker in there somewhere to give me the option of shutting the thing up some times.

This guitar has one major problem. I don't know what it's called, buyt there is a fret just after the nut that holds the strings off the fretboard. It is super worn and buzzes a whole lot. This guitar needs a re-fretting badly. The pickups were adjusted horribly and needed five seconds to make it sound marvalous. As mentioned before this guitar has many a ding, but I got over that a long time ago. I lowerd the action and set the intonation properly and feels great finally.

After lots of encounters with walls, concrete floors of my friends basement, cymbals, blood, snot, amps and pretty much anything you could imagine, it's still basically the same. Although the basswood weighs a ton it will not break. I love this guitar

Complaints: weight, feedback, buzzing, the on-off switchs have some issues, balance

Heaven sent: Feedback (can you buy these pickups anymore?), durability, coolness factor (everyone comes over to have a look), comfy neck

this guitar is unique, to say in the least. I think it may have some non-original parts though. 1960's? probably in Japan. I have no idea what the wood is, but it sure isn't plywood. Sunburst Mosrite style body, brownish maroon pickguard (tourtise shell?) three single coils (cheap and old), Tremlo, gibson style bridge. 22 frets. The electronics are neat. It's got the on/off switches for each pickup (jazzmaster style) individual volume controls for each pickup, and a master tone control. All of these are slider switches, not a single nob on this guitar. Lastly, the chord jack is straight out the front. However stupid and irrelevent that may seem, I love it, i have a dislike for the strat like angled jacks. I don't know what the neck scale is, but the tension is less then my strat imitation. It has a fret next to the nut which gives this guitar super low action. There is a lot of space between the body and strings even though the action is low, the neck seems to be mounted high on the body which gives about a cm and a half between the strings and body. Weird

It sounds a lot like a cheap strat. The pickups are really muddy though. I run it through a Nobels distortion pedal at full drive when i play stuff. Sometimes with a fuzz pedal. Very deep sound when clean. This guitar allows for a suprisingly small amount of sounds considering its features, but if I switch the pickups, i could probably get a pile of sounds. Not overly impressed, but not disapionted witht the sound

I got this second hand and someone had basically done their best to cover it with crud, throw it around the room, then let it sit in a garage for 10 years. There are numerous 'to the wood' chips. Dings galor. This guitar had not been adjusted, or maintained at all for years, so i took it to the local guitar store to get it set up. The action is super low, but the bridge is adjusted as high as it goes (think i should replace that one) someone along the way made it into a lefty guiatar and the strap pin hole is till there in the other horn. It was coverd in crud and really needed a bath. The guiatar is still coverd with crap as the tech at the repair shop didn't have time to clean it (he was sick for a wekk and had a lot of guitars to fix) next time i'll save the money and do my own set up.

Since there are so many dings in it, I won't worry about being to carful with it. This guitar is a tank that has an abusive life ahead of it. The hardware has lasted so far, so it should be around for a while. I repalced the strap pins with locking ones, so i can really jump around. I would not count on this guitar because the electronics are a little scketchy, i'll make it perfect eventually. Never gig without a backup, stupid thing to do. If your indestructable guitar breaks, you're screwed. I'm impressed that this guitar is still in one piece despite its abusive owners. Plenty more fight left in it.

ha

This guitar is worth a 6, but considering it's durability, I'll give it an extra 2. With a little work and corny TLC this guitar should be around for a while. Even if I never get around to that, it will make for a prolonged stage destruction due to its unwillingness to break. I wish the pictures had been better on ebay. I really love the mosrite look, so i'll be going after others. If this guitar was stolen or lost, i'd think the theif was crazy. I think i'll call it Molly

made sometime in the 60s, most likely in japan, most likely by teisco. The body and neck resemble that of a mosrite ventures, although this guitar is (in my opinion) much cooler looking due to the unique electronics.
the guitar is sunburst with a tortoise shell pickguard. the pickguard is really cool...the colors match that of the body, and in some areas it looks as those the sunburst is "showing through" the pickguard. 22 frets, triple bound fretboard (w/b/w), 3 single coil pickups that look like thinner p-94's (black top, chrome trim), 3 on-off switches for the pickups, a 4th switch that is like a tone control (i'll elaborate on some of these later), 3 volume, master tone control, vibrato.
where to begin...how about the bridge. it is a vibrato unit, looks similar to a Jaguar vibrato in that it has the tail-piece then the separate saddle piece...but it works without any springs...if it came with the bar (or if i ever used vibrato) it would work by pushing the bar down, which would push the bridge onto the strings. obvious disadvantage is that u cant lower the pitch...but as i said before, i dont use vibrato, and since the unit isnt spring activated, it was nice not having to block it. the saddles are a tune-o-matic/mustang/jaguar thing, with rounded, slotted tops that are great at preventing string breakage, are extremely comfortable to mute on, and intonate *perfectly*
there is a slide switch for each pickup (3 all together) that are positioned as on a jaguar, in a jag-style chrome piece. what i found odd is that the switches dont match up with the pickups. what i mean is that the left switch activates the middle p/u, the middle switch activates the bridge p/u, and the right switch is wired to the neck p/u. each pickup also has its own volume control, which are wired the same as the switches. the guitar is missing the left (or top...however u look at it) volume knob, but i think it looks better like this...4 knobs would be a bit much.
i couldnt tell from the picture when i bought the guitar, but there is a 4th slide switch positioned in between the p/u switch piece and the left volume pot. if youre familiar with the "strangle switch" of a Jaguar, u can think of this as being the opposite...it kicks in a bassy sounding capacitor. at first i thought it simply kicked in the tone pot at full, but i soon discovered it is a little brighter than the tone pot, and the tone pot has a slight effect on the tone when using them both together. with the neck p/u and this switch engaged, i can get an awesome classic rock sound when using distortion. think hendrix and cream...also good for mudhoney sounds.
i have no idea what kind of wood this guitar is made of, but it has a very soft tone. almost dull. more so than basswood. but it sustains nicely. i think the bridge design contributes to this alot. think of how the string path on a les paul is...but put that on a 25 1/2" scale length...the tension is higher than i prefer (used to 24") but the sustain is much better than i was expecting. the pickups also give a lot of sustain. the body is one piece (very thin and comfortable) and the neck appears to be made of 3 (side by side) pieces. the back of the neck is also sunburst.
this guitar has tons of features.

the middle and neck pickups are very bassy, and the bridge isnt quite as bright as i would like when clean. as i mentioned before, it has a very soft tone...and that is both acoutically and plugged in. sounds excellent tho. very vintage sounding. before i bought the guitar i planned on putting a humbucker in the bridge but once i got it and used it at band practice i realized theres no need to make any changes. at very high levels the pickups let me get cool feedback, but they dont squeal. huge variety of sounds, altho it doesnt give any really bright, jangly tones. thats the only downside...but i have other guitars for that kind of thing.

here's where i was totally surprised. i bought this guitar expecting to have to do an extensive setup, etc. but the action is nice and low, the intonation is perfect, and the overall playability is very comfortable. i tried taking the neck off to see if there were any stampings, etc...but in addition to the 4 neck screws, the neck is glued on, and i didnt want to break the bond.
what sucks is i will have to get the guitar refretted, but i realized it was a possibility when i bought it. on the high and low E on the 12th fret there is hardly any note at all...its all buzz because the ends of the fret are completely flat. everywhere else the guitar is playable and relatvely free of buzzing, but notes dont hold when sliding up and down the neck due to the wear. i cant wait to see how it plays with new frets.
obviosuly this guitar was played a lot...but it is in great condition. (excepting the frets). the finish feels almost new, and with the exception of a couple chips on the edge (which show that the finish is pretty thick), it is completely intact. for being 30+ years old, and considering silvertone/teisco/whoevermadeit guitars arent the best quality to begin with...this guitar is in remarkable condition.

its been around longer than me and still looks great. fret wear is to be expected. no worries. it stays in tune really well.

right...

i'm very pleased with this guitar. it's a lot better than i was expecting. im going to get it refretted sometime soon. i wish it could make some brighter sounds, but again, i have other guitars for that kind of thing. i forgot to mention how ...well, cool...this thing looks. its the coolest guitar ive ever seen. im going to put some pics on my website in a couple days. go to http://members.tripod.com/jHale007/index.html to see them if youre interested. the link will be on the main page.
this is one i am definitely going to hold onto. i want to get another one too... (hopefully with less fretwear), but i doubt ill find one as intact as this.