This old Tym Wosrite recently came back into my life via the original owner who I custom made this guitar for back in May 2001.
I made this guitar for a local player and friend as his main guitar to play live and record with. He had played a Gibson for as long as I'd known him and when we first talked about a Wosrite it was going to be something that looked like a Mosrite, but felt and sounded more like a Gibson.
At this stage (serial #0035) I was making my own sand cast vibratos, knobs and handmade stainless-steel bridges, but I hadn't yet perfected the "Deluxe" with Wosrite pickups made to exact Mosrite specs with handmade covers and surrounds.
I made 2 Wosrites together with a red humbucker version (#0034) going to Lenny Curley from Tumbleweed and this blue version going to my friend. Both had Seymour Duncan JB/59 sets as I personally loved this combination in any humbucker guitar. These pickups also kept the guitar more "Gibson", as the P-90's I was using wouldn't have suited either player.
This one has a Honduran mahogany body in keeping close to Gibson weight but with a bolt on Queensland maple neck with Jarrah fretboard, which was my favourite neck combination at the time. The neck is thicker than I would normally have made for a Mosrite style guitar but from memory I fashioned it off the Gibson neck my friend was playing at the time.
The scale length is also 24.75" in keeping it Gibson but with the zero fret of the Mosrite. Interestingly, this neck also has my painted-on binding which I was doing at the time to try and keep costs down and make my guitars as affordable as possible. Lots of guitar manufacturers over the years had done painted on binding to give the impression of binding but pretty soon after this one I decided to just do all the bound necks with actual binding, regardless of price.
The other thing about this fretboard is how flat it is. I don't remember why we did it this flat, but it must have been something to do with his Gibson or requested this way? The string spacing is also wider than a Mosrite style neck and I used a Tune-O-Matic bridge to feel more Gibson.
I'm not sure when I started buying premade trussrods but this one still has my hand made double acting truss rod that is based on the Hot Rod design using brass and stainless steel. man, I was obsessive about "handmade" ...
As I mentioned I used to cast my own Vibramute style vibratos and drill and polish them here in my workshop. I also cast "spun knobs" at the same time to try and emulate early Mosrite knobs, which weren't available at the time.
The neck plate is hand made from aluminium and I have always used stainless steel screws throughout in all my builds.
The finish is acrylic lacquer, and I can't remember if I mixed this colour myself (which I liked to do to make them different from other guitars) or if it was an off the shelf colour that my friend picked. It's very close to a mid 60's Fender custom colour and has aged really well with a few chips and scratches from touring and recording.
Controls are the usual master volume and tone with a three-way toggle for pickup selection. These SD humbuckers still sound great (I'm not really a HB guy but I did like this combination) with lots of punch and sparkle.
This also has a handmade NAUT flight case with lots of stickers and dings to show it's travelled but the case is in great condition.
So, now for the (possibly) interesting part.
This Wosrite is up for sale on the site. I custom made this for a friend 23 years ago and he's decided he'd rather it get used for what it was made for than sit in its case. He got plenty of use out of it over the years but more recently hasn't been playing as much and feels it should go and make some noise.
It's amazing for me to see stuff I made over 20 years ago that has had a life and is going on to do more. I made 13 guitars in 2001 with guitars going to Brad Shepherd from the Hoodoo Gurus, Lenny from Tumbleweed, Pat from Grinspoon and Nicke from the Hellacopters. I found it absolutely amazing that people like this were playing my guitars live and recording with them. It still blows my puny brain.
This guitar is for sale HERE.