My recent acquisition is this 1965 Mosrite Ventures Bass.
Serial Number 5922. As you can see, the body and headstock face are missing the finish, pickguard, and electronics are replaced.
Original parts include: Body, Neck, Tuners, Bridge (and one of the two bridge posts), Tailpiece, frets, and string guide (nut).
The neck is painted black and was believed to be original, but based off the neck heel and neck pocket, I'm very confident that the black finish is not original (But is vintage). The neck heel has the date "Sep 1 1965" followed by "003". The neck pocket was covered with paint. I was able to sand back the black paint to find the date "Dec 3 or 8" the year is scrubbed away but is almost definitely 1965. Below that I believe is "0002", "0003" or "0008". Hard to tell.
With the neck finish most likely not being original I will be sanding it off and finishing the neck as natural with a new set of decals.
The body was modified a little for the replacement pickup. I purchased a pair of vintage Mosrite bass pickups. Thankfully the pickup and pickguard will cover the modified body route.
The pots seem to be replaced but may be vintage. Just going to leave them as is.
The bass is currently stripped and partially sanded down. The body and neck seem to have a layer of clear coat or perhaps epoxy sealer which I will sand off to bare wood.
Going forward I've contacted Ed Elliott to build me a pair of pickguards, one for this bass as well as one for my 66' Mark V which I'm also re-working at the moment.
I'm going to be refinishing both the Ventures Bass as well as Mark V in Candy Apple Red!
-(1965).jpg)
