The Ventures' Mosrites
Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 4:36 pm
OK, in order not to bog down a different topic, I thought this might be a good place to have a discussion of the actual guitars used by the Ventures.
There's this publicity photo of them with sunburst sidejacks. The vibratos on the guitars have no cast "Mosrite" in the black accent, the bass has one pickup, and all instruments appear to have the black guild knobs. These would be some of the earliest Ventures models.
Here's the next one. Notice that while Don seems to be playing the same guitar from above, Nokie's has the "Mosrite" on the vibrato and the "Jewel/Spun" knobs. Bob's bass, still a single pickup model, is a solid color. I'm guessing red, based on the next photo, although this could be the blue bass on "Knock Me Out".
This picture is apparently from the January 1965 tour of Japan. Nokie and Don are holding sidejacks, whereas Bob has a topjack two pickup bass with three knobs and no selector switch. This control layout is different than what was used on the later factory two pickup basses.
The summer 1965 Japan tour was done with white topjacks, Bob again with a single pickup model:
In 1966 they had matching red guitars on their Japan tour.
Later they had combo models (sunburst and red) as well. Were there others? It would be great to have a photo collection of the Ventures' mosrites here!
There's this publicity photo of them with sunburst sidejacks. The vibratos on the guitars have no cast "Mosrite" in the black accent, the bass has one pickup, and all instruments appear to have the black guild knobs. These would be some of the earliest Ventures models.
Here's the next one. Notice that while Don seems to be playing the same guitar from above, Nokie's has the "Mosrite" on the vibrato and the "Jewel/Spun" knobs. Bob's bass, still a single pickup model, is a solid color. I'm guessing red, based on the next photo, although this could be the blue bass on "Knock Me Out".
This picture is apparently from the January 1965 tour of Japan. Nokie and Don are holding sidejacks, whereas Bob has a topjack two pickup bass with three knobs and no selector switch. This control layout is different than what was used on the later factory two pickup basses.
The summer 1965 Japan tour was done with white topjacks, Bob again with a single pickup model:
In 1966 they had matching red guitars on their Japan tour.
Later they had combo models (sunburst and red) as well. Were there others? It would be great to have a photo collection of the Ventures' mosrites here!
. Hey, how was I suppose to know!? (LOL).
