1966 Mosrite Mark XII

The reality TV show craze about hoarding and people’s life-sheltering obsession with stuff has overflowed into America’s consciousness the past year. While the people shown in these programs generally have a tragic or trigger event that sparks the desire to keep anything and everything—health and safety be damned—musicians usually don’t need such an incident. Since you read PG, you probably suffer from some form of G.A.S. It’s not a bad thing—just as long as you acknowledge it. Broken tubes, disassembled guitars, and scattered equipment is just part of our gearhead syndrome. But sometimes, having that extra piece of gear lying around foreshadows a future acquisition, and for Terence Murphy, it was an unknown guitar case.$0 $0

$0 “I got this alligator case over 10 years ago when it came with a vintage Tele, but the case didn’t fit anything right,” says Murphy. “Then I recently got this 1966 Mosrite Mark XII from an antique dealer friend, who originally bought the 12-string for five bucks. And after reading a post on a Mosrite forum, I found out how lucky I could be when I learned that the original XII came with an alligator case—it fits the one I had like a glove.” Upon acquiring the vintage treat, Murphy had his hands full with aesthetic issues and functionality problems because it had been stored in the rafters of a garage for nearly 30 years—inside a broken case that didn't shut. “There was mold covering the entire guitar,” recalls Murphy. “The Klusons were covered in rust and would not budge, but the worst part was the rat gnaw on the lower bout.” [You can see this on the horn of the treble cutaway.] After carefully rubbing out and polishing the finish, Murphy removed all the rusty and damaged parts, soaked them in light oil, and cleaned the rosewood fretboard. Once he put everything back together, the result was pleasantly shocking. “I was surprised because it played amazing without needing even the slightest neck adjustment—this guitar was meant to be played.”$0 $0 The revitalized Mosrite Mark XII model featured here has a two-tone sunburst finish on an alder body, boasting the “German carve” perfected by Mosrite founder Semie Moseley. The thin maple neck is topped with a rosewood fretboard, and the 24.5"- scale guitar still has the original hardware (minus the rust) including the Klusons tuners and Volume and Tone knobs. Murphy describes the original Mosrite pickups as having “a unique, jangly vibe with a shimmering high-end quality to them. It’s definitely not a metal guitar, but the pickups still produce a very nice overall tone when played through my old rackmounted Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier and a Trainwreck-inspired kit build.” (The Mark II is leaning against the aforementioned amps in the photo above.)$0 $0 A special thanks to Terence Murphy for the opportunity to feature this fine instrument and its story.