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What do I have?

great bleudini

great bleudini

Sep 19, 2011
134
156
Tucson, AZ
#1
This morning I got a craigslist deal for a parts guitar. I was going to use the pickups for a cigar box guitar build but I am starting to think if the neck is in halfway decent shape this might be a good fixer upper. I know it's a guitar, not a bass but if anybody out there can help me identify this I know you folks can.

I have googled Minister guitar with no luck. It appears to be a Mosrite logo on the headstock but I am having no luck with that either. It's a bolt on neck, made in Japan. The pickups are Seymore
Duncan which I assume are not original.

What say you?
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#2
Probably contract manufactured for whoever own the "Minister" brand, could've been any of the factories. Could be quite decent, even great, though. I suggest fixing it up and finding out.
 
#11
I tend to agree with bholder; most likely a Japanese contract-guitar, which originally only had one pickup. A previous owner tried to "upgrade" it, and decided to skip the rest of the woodwork. But, I also say, put it back together, and see how it sounds. Might just be a real keeper, and then you can worry about the cosmetics..:)
 
#12
Yes, this is an Asian copy of a Martin electric guitar (yes, they made a few about forty years ago). It is structurally no different than the ES330/5-ish copies of the same time period, which did all probably come out of the same factory. I fixed one of those up for a friend, and it was a decent low-grade player. The pickups are probably not humbuckers. They look identical to the pickups I fixed for my friend, and when I took them apart to see what they were, there was only one coil - the screw coil - single coil pickups. The good thing is if the fingerboard and frets are in good shape, you can get it sounding similar to an ES330 or Casino, with a little bit of chime on top, but without some of the lower mid drive that real P-90's and a glued neck instead of a bolted neck give to guitars of this genre. If you got it cheap, have fun with it!
 
#16
great bleudini said:
This morning I got a craigslist deal for a parts guitar. I was going to use the pickups for a cigar box guitar build but I am starting to think if the neck is in halfway decent shape this might be a good fixer upper. I know it's a guitar, not a bass but if anybody out there can help me identify this I know you folks can.

I have googled Minister guitar with no luck. It appears to be a Mosrite logo on the headstock but I am having no luck with that either. It's a bolt on neck, made in Japan. The pickups are Seymore
Duncan which I assume are not original.

What say you?View attachment 640916 View attachment 640917 View attachment 640918
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#17
I have a Riviera guitar, stumped me for a week. Turns out to be a Valco/Supro with a national pickup. Back in the day companies would put your logo on their equipment. Fender built amps for anyone. The specs might have been different but that was the way business was done. Might still be for all I know.
 
#19
That looks identical to a Martin GT series except the toggle switch is on the lower horn rather than the upper horn in the photo. I tried to find an example with the switch on the upper horn, but could not. Doesn't mean they didn't make it.
I don't know if they made that model under the Sigma name or not. I can't find anything on that.
I would rehab it.
 
#20
Did a little googling. Minister seems to have been a Japanese company that built knock-offs. My guess: a knock-off of the aforementioned Martin G-75. I don't think Mosrite has anything to do with it. Their guitars don't seem to look anything like the one pictured. Also, to resolve the bass forum thingy: just take two strings off (or just put 4 back on) and call it a piccolo bass, move thread to Tisdale discussion. ;)
 

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