Mosrite Vox Celebrity Guitar (Rare)

[Sarah93003]

Elaine, I would tend to agree with the 1967-1968 timeframe. The tremolo shows the patent number which was issued to Mosrite on 3/1/1966. Obviously the tremolo came thereafter. The knobs are the version that are 0-5 instead of having the earlier version with "V" and "T" respectively. The neck looks like maple, whereas the first runs of the Celebrities were one piece mahogany. Another indicator of it being later is I'm pretty sure these F holes are the injection molded ones, not the hand bound ones.

[JimPage]

Hey--

I hate to beat a dead horse, but, among other things, I am intrigued to see those "diamond" tuners on this guitar, which is likely a 1967-'68 instrument.

Unless these are later replacements, isn't this one of the earliest uses of those tuners?

My 1972 Celebrity has them and I like them a lot. They don't look or feel cheap to me, but we've discussed that before!

--Jim

[Sarah93003]

I noticed the diamond tuners as well. I've seen these so often now I haven't really thought about when they began. I need to dig into my other computer and look at serial numbers for the first instance that I can document. For some reason, in the back of my mind, I think I remember seeing these same tuners on Dr. Bill's prototype. If that is true, then that would indicate that Semie used them as early as 1965. I'll look into this because it would be a good thing to know.

[EF@MosriteRecords]

I believe as Andy that these guitars were made late 1960's early 1970. We are going to do our
best to find paperwork sent to Semie or from Vox which will date these guitars. The time it would
have taken Semie to fashion this Vox Head Stock on a standard Mosrite Neck would have been
fairly fast as the rest of the guitar is stock..

Elaine

[Sarah93003]

I noticed the diamond tuners as well. I've seen these so often now I haven't really thought about when they began. I need to dig into my other computer and look at serial numbers for the first instance that I can document. For some reason, in the back of my mind, I think I remember seeing these same tuners on Dr. Bill's prototype. If that is true, then that would indicate that Semie used them as early as 1965. I'll look into this because it would be a good thing to know.

I checked the headstock photos of Dr. Bills prototype and they are not the diamond type, but look like deluxe Kluson.

[mosriteforever]

My guess is 1972 or 1973. These knobs were made for Mosrite Electronics and were for the amps and fuzzrites as it made no sense to have volume or tone on the amps. In the early 70's. Semie did not have the metal knobs and 1st used plastic radio shack knobs. He then went to Eddie Sanner who had gotten the electronics knob when Mosrite closed and started putting them on the guitars so he did not have to make some. The diamond tuners also seem to indicate the early 70's as this is when you see them on Mark 1s etc. This is also the time period he built the Acoustic Black Widows. Just my thoughts
Mosriteforever!!

[Strat-o-rama]

Very interesting, Elaine. I'm a novice compared to most of you here on the forum, but must admit my thinking upon seeing this guitar was early 1970s, for the same reasons as Mosriteforever stated. The diamond tuners, and even the look of the burst on the neck looks 70's style to me.
I'm sure documentation will be found and we will know.

[Sarah93003]

Someone correct me if I am wrong. The control plate and electronics layout indicates pre-bankruptcy to me. From my research this is how I see it.

Pre 1966
The Celebrities had large, hand bound F holes. The pickup selector switch was located on the treble horn. There was NO control plate and the input jack, volume pot, and tone pots were mounted through holes drilled into the body.

1966-1968 (mass production years)
The Celebrities had injection molded F holes glued into place. A control plate, shaped like a "fat apostrophe" contained the pickup selector switch, volume and tone pots, and input jack.

1969-1971 no Celebrities made in production and maybe some "partsrite" guitars made.

1972
Semie got the name back and started a smaller production operation. The Celebrities had "banana" shapped control plates with the pickup selector switch, volume and tone pots, and input jack. I believe these to be the same control plates that were used on the earlier Dobros (designed to accomodate the large circular resonator). This is the last year for the Celebrity-III

1973-1974
The Celebrities did not have control plates and returned to the configuarion similar to pre-1966 with separate holes drilled into the body to mount pots, input jacks, etc. The input jack moved to the side with a nice jack plate. No Celebrity-III's produced, only Celebrity-I, Celebrity-II, and Celebrity-II Deluxe

1975-1976
No Celebrities produced

1977
One Celebrity-Brass Rail produced now owned by Adam.

I would guess that if Vox approached Semie to produce guitars it would have been during the "Hay Day" years when Mosrite was booming and very successful. That would make more business sense. I don't know how many employees Mosrite had during the early 1970's but I would guess it was pretty small as evidenced by the much lower serial number sequencing that we see.

With all of that being said, if Vox approached Semie in 1972 and asked him to build 3-4 guitars it is quite possible that he built each one slightly different, as a "prototype", and in that case he may have made one of each configuration. And if that is the case, then there may be a Vox with a "banana" shaped control panel, and a Vox with no control panel.

[oigun]

I love it! The headstock-shape is genious (again)

[Dennisthe Menace]

I'm gonna take a guess...... I think this might be early '69. At this time, Semie had made a
short term deal with Vox to be Semie's distributor in which this was one of the first plans
that had failed....