Since I'm making guitars again I thought I'd revisit one of my early designs from back when I was making Wosrites. The Mosrong was started as an idea to help my friends who couldn't afford one of my completely handmade Wosrites (they really weren't dear) get a "Mosriteish" style guitar cheaper. They were still all hand made but the body timber was cheaper and all the hardware was aftermarket, as apposed to the Wosrites where I hand made everything.
I recently did a story on the prototype Mosrong 500 that came back to me for some restoration work and I made a new pickup for it. Nicks was the first one I ever made and it was my homage to the great vintage Japanese Mosrite inspired guitars like the Tokai Hummingbird and Guyatone LG-150 among many others. I had recently made a TMI version of the Hummingbird I called a BuzzingByrd as it has a built in Tym Buzzrite fuzz.
Anyway, these new TMI guitars aren't like my old Tym guitars, Wosrites or my Mosrongs, which came in many shapes and specs. These all have bodies made from sustainable, plantation laminated timber and are all chambered for better balance and weight. The neck pockets have a slight angle routed into them when I make the bodies saving on shims and allowing me to use a greater choice of bridges and tailpieces.
These are also the first guitars I've made that I don't hand make the necks for. As explained in previous blogs I don't have time to make guitars the way I used to, so this is my compromise. Just as most of my favourite vintage Japanese manufacturers didn't make their own bodies and necks, I have sourced a manufacturer of "raw" necks that are oversize with paddle headstocks and I am shaping and finishing them myself. This saves considerable time on making guitars.
So, this Mosrong 500 is the first one since 2003 and has a chambered laminated body all hand made by me here in the workshop, and a hand finished TMI neck with a 25.5" scale.
It has two hand made TMI T-90's made like Mosrite pickups and squeezed into P-90 covers. These are fairly high output but not "hot Mosrite" output. The vibrato is my offset style vibrato made from stainless steel with the base plate in the shape of a Mosrite vibrato.
All my TMIs (so far) have had the same headstock shape, which seems to fit all the body shapes I've made. I have four more TMI guitars currently in the works, all featuring different body shapes.
The scratchplate and pickup surrounds are all hand made to suit the guitar and it's the first Mosrong 500 I've made with a (kind of) Ventures shape scratchplate. The tuners are white plastic tipped Kluson style as a "tip" to the vintage Japanese guitars and the bridge is a commercially available Mosrite style roller bridge with a narrower string spacing than normal as I cut the neck width down thinner than a standard Fender.
I'm enjoying making these guitars again and it's distracting me from other stuff going on in my life and my plan was to make some for friends, as well as some for the shop over the next few years. I recently made a TMI "Maton FyrByrd copy" out of a shipping pallet which was headed to the shop for sale but someone snagged it before it even made it there.
I made this Mosrong for a good friend and employee who is moving onto bigger and better things as a going away present, so, unfortunately this one won't make it to the shop either. These are more therapeutic for me than anything so I'll keep making them and some will make it to the shop, some will go to friends to say thanks for being a friend, some will be sold for charity, and some will stay here with me. It's the process of making and giving that's important to me.
