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On Saturday, my buddy who plays in the surf band with me gave me his MIJ Mosrite which his brother gave him years ago. I was lusting over it for so long that he finally gave it to me. I don't have pictures at the moment but I will post some as soon as I can take some pics. It is candy apple red with matching headstock and has a topjack. It has a bolt on neck with a square neck plate that says "made in Japan". The trem unit says "Moseley" at the bottom. The pickups say "Mosrite". The headstock says "Mosrite" and "the Ventures model" in gold lettering. The neck plate and Kluson-style tuners are gold or brass colored. There are no serial numbers on the fretboard. Given the little bit of info can one of you figure out who made this? If this is too little to go on I will try to get some pics in soon. Thanks!

Byron

Congratulations on your new acquisition. We should all be so lucky to have a good buddy like that. Probably made (or sold) by Firstman or very early Fillmore, but that is just a guess.

64sunburst wrote:On Saturday, my buddy who plays in the surf band with me gave me his MIJ Mosrite which his brother gave him years ago. I was lusting over it for so long that he finally gave it to me. I don't have pictures at the moment but I will post some as soon as I can take some pics. It is candy apple red with matching headstock and has a topjack. It has a bolt on neck with a square neck plate that says "made in Japan". The trem unit says "Moseley" at the bottom. The pickups say "Mosrite". The headstock says "Mosrite" and "the Ventures model" in gold lettering. The neck plate and Kluson-style tuners are gold or brass colored. There are no serial numbers on the fretboard. Given the little bit of info can one of you figure out who made this? If this is too little to go on I will try to get some pics in soon. Thanks!

Byron

Byron, Congrats (We KNOW YOU'VE BEEN WANTING ONE!) to you on your new "Machine."
I'll take a shot at it. As Danny had mentioned, judging by the info you stated (which BTW was pretty thorough
I'm gonna guess that it could either be a Firstman or an early Avenger.....

Thanks guys for your comments. Dennis, you are so right about me wanting one. I have that Eastwood, and as cool a guitar as it is, it still was not quite "it" - it wasn't like the guitar in back of those Ventures LP's. When my buddy told me after the gig that he wanted me to have it I was speechless. I kept telling him no way, I can't accept it. He said he never plays it and is more into his Fenders. He didn't have an attachment to it. I offered to buy it but he would have none of it. He just wanted me to have it.
I hate to put a monetary value on a gift, but what would something like this go for?
As soon as I can take some decent pics of it I will post them up on photobucket.

Byron

Oh, another thing about the guitar is that when it is on both pick-ups, the tone is very nasal, like it is way more out of phase than it should be. The guitar sounds fine when either pick-up is on individually, but together it sounds very thin. Any ideas on what's wrong?

Byron

64sunburst wrote: I hate to put a monetary value on a gift, but what would something like this go for?

Byron

I've seen them go for as little as $510 and in this one particularly outrageous case over $2100. The square neck plate is always a dead giveaway.

dubtrub wrote:I've been watching this '1969 Mosrite' (?) on eBay and I see it sold. Isn't this an early Japanese Fillmore Mosrite copy? Look at the neck plate, rectangle shape with the tear drop, plus the body routing is different. $2195 is a lot of money for a 'close' but not really a vintage Mosrite. Or, is two thousand bucks the going price for something 'vintage' regardless of where it was made, even if it isn't a real Mosrite? eBay auction

64sunburst wrote:Oh, another thing about the guitar is that when it is on both pick-ups, the tone is very nasal, like it is way more out of phase than it should be. The guitar sounds fine when either pick-up is on individually, but together it sounds very thin. Any ideas on what's wrong?

Byron

Sounds like the pickups might be wired up
"out of phase" from each other. A simple rewiring will remedy this

Thanks for the input. I figured it just needed a simple rewiring of the pickups.
My friend never played the guitar on a gig - he'd bring it as a back-up but never played it. I will definitely play it!

A friend gave you a Mosrite???
Man, what I'd give for such a friend.
I wouldn't have to spend so much time on ebay that's for sure!

I am lucky to have a friend like that. But you know what this means now....I owe him big time!

Byron