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Hi Gang. Mel from Meshugga Beach Party here. I'm a long time fan of the Ventures, and finally moved into the magic realm of Mosrite this year, first with an "Excellent" Mosrite (since sold) and then with a '66 Ventures model. Here are the two in the brief time I had both. Anyway, I'm very excited to be a part of this forum!

Mel

Hey Mel,

Welcome to the Mosrite forum. Nice looking pair of Mosrite's. How does the Excellent model compare to the original in feel and sound? They certainly look identical.

Danny,

Good to be here! I only had the two together for a brief period of time as I sold the Excellent to help pay for the 66. I think that in overall sound and feel the Excellent is very similar to the vintage models, especially after I replaced the potentiometers with 1M units instead of the 250Ks that were in there.

The biggest difference between the two is the frets - the Excellent frets are similar to those on the AVRI Fenders as opposed to the miniscule "speed frets" on the vintage Mosrites. Personally I really like the speed frets. I suppose it would be possible to have the frets on an Excellent dressed down, and then you've have a pretty much modern vintage guitar.

As an aside, there seem to have been a few different versions of the Excellent Mosrite. Mine had a white pickguard, no-name pickup covers, the 250K pots and no serial number stamp. Other Excellents I've seen had aged mint pickguards, branded pickup covers, 500K pots and SN stamps. Let alone the Super Excellents. Very odd.

I did convert my Excellent to a mint guard and branded covers before I sold it. As you can see from the picture, it's fairly hard to tell them apart once I did that swap.

Mel

Hey Mel !!! Welcome to the Mosrite Community! Glad to see ya' make it over here.
Yeah, BTW, your Excellent didn't go far. Your Buddy Fritzcat is on the Forum and he
raves about it.
Again, WELCOME

Good to see you here, Mel. I enjoy your posts on Surf Guitar 101, and I look forward to your comments here as well. And, your music is a lot of fun, too!