Hi from Hastings

[Almachau]

I'm a new member and have joined to talk to like minded Mosrite enthusiasts.
I would like to find out the origins of Johnny Ramones' Mk2.
Was it purchased modified by him or did he modify it ( if he did , who carried out the work?)
Any help would be appreciated.

[Bob Shade]

I will jump in here and give it my best shot.

I believe you are talking about Johnny Ramones 1965 Mosrite Ventures II. He purchased his first one at Manny's in NYC for $50.00. It was blue and in all original condition. (those were the days)

Not ever using the vibrato he modified it by taking the bar and rocker off of it and mounting a stop tailpiece right through the original metal plate. Also, the bridge was changed out to a Gibson.

He purchased another Ventures II in sunburst finish shortly thereafter. He used this as a backup to the blue one.

The blue one was unfortunately stolen after the Rocket To Russia lp and he decided to have the sunburst model re-painted white and a black pickguard made for it with the original Mosrite pickups installed. He used this through Road to Ruin and Rock N Roll High School lp's.

The original bridge pickup failed and he put a Dimarzio Fat Strat pickup in the bridge position and a Seymore Duncan mini humbucker in the neck position which was strange because he never used the neck pickup. Maybe the guitar shop had a template for that pickup.

During this period he also found another VII that was painted Chocolate Brown (it looked black, see Pet Semetary video) then later was painted gold (see Substitute video). It had a fat strat and an original Mosrite pickup in the neck position.


The white VII remained that way and was used as his main guitar and beat to heck until the end. I have no idea the shop he used for the care of his guitars. Someone in NY no doubt.


Bob Shade

[Almachau]

Many thanks Bob, that was just the info I was after.
My name is Alan, btw.
I did the same mods to my Mk2 & have recently swapped the FS-1 for a Dimarzio Tonezone S, which is a humbucker & probably a modern equivalent of the FS-1 in the hot stakes. You can lower the Tonezone S to a 1/4 inch from the strings(it sounds muddy if you do not), which was an issue with the FS-1, which had to be at it's highest position for a hot sound.
What sort of spec do the Hallmarks pick ups have?

Also, do you know whether there was any variation in the width of the nut on the Mk2's?
Mine is only 40mm & even though I do not have large hands, some open chords can be a problem!

[Bob Shade]

Hi Alan,

The Hallmark pickups in the official Johnny Ramone model are a recreation of the pickups Joe Hall designed for Hallmark and earlier Bakersfield guitars.

They are apr. 10K which is a little hotter than Johnny's originals. You can also adjust our pickup right up to the strings for maximum crunch which was a problem with the Fat Strat.

Johnny's sound got thinner when he switched to a Fat Strat pickup. I always thought the earlier Ramones tone was the classic Johnny sound, and that's why we went to the extent to recreate the original pickup. Our pickup get really nasty with a Marshall amp but still has the high end that Johnny was known for.

The string guide on the earlier model did not differ. They were all the same width. This is another thing we improved on the official Johnny Ramone model by Hallmark, was to widen the string guide just enough, but not too much. Our neck still feels fast but it is very playable.

See here for more info: http://hallmarkguitars.com/guitars/jr-s ... guitar.htm

Bob

[SanchoPansen]

Welcome to the forum, Alan.

[FrankJames]

Welcome to the forum !!

[Almachau]

Thanks for the welcome guys