Morite Ranger Quality?

[MWaldorf]

It's been discussed here in other places that the standard Hallmark pickups are potted, unlike the vintage Mosrite ones. It changes the tone but was an intentional modernization on the part of Hallmark - just like the wider nut and larger frets. Given the price different between a Ranger and a 60 Custom, I suppose you could have Hallmark custom wind you some vintage spec pickups and still come out ahead. Of course, the Ranger has a Vibramute with the bridge mounted to the vibrato base which the Hallmark doesn't have, and the magic "Mosrite" name, which affect value as well.

[gplayer]

It's been discussed here in other places that the standard Hallmark pickups are potted, unlike the vintage Mosrite ones. It changes the tone but was an intentional modernization on the part of Hallmark - just like the wider nut and larger frets. Given the price different between a Ranger and a 60 Custom, I suppose you could have Hallmark custom wind you some vintage spec pickups and still come out ahead. Of course, the Ranger has a Vibramute with the bridge mounted to the vibrato base which the Hallmark doesn't have, and the magic "Mosrite" name, which affect value as well.

It's true, the Hallmark stock p/u's aren't as jangly as a Mosrite's (At least not in the traditional Venture's sound). But, you can get real close with the right amp settings. What I like about the Hallmark p/u's is that they are pretty versatile. I can play pretty much anything on this guitar, from Rock to Blues. BTW, it's great for blues.
One of my amps is a Vox AD50VT. It has a lot of amp models and gets a variety of tones. With that and the 60 Custom, there's not much you can't do.

I think if more people realized that these aren't just "One trick pony" guitars, more people would buy them. JMO

[Dennisthe Menace]

gplayer posted:

I think if more people realized that these aren't just "One trick pony" guitars, more people would buy them.

I think that pretty much says it all. WAY TOO MANY Folks have 'stereotyped' this guitar as nothing but a 'Surf Guitar,' and it ISN'T.
The Ventures have mentioned from time and again, that they are not a Surf Band. But they got 'locked in' as such.
G, I'm in absolute agreement with you. If these were ONLY "One Trick Pony" guitars, than I would still be bringing my Strat and
L.P. to the Gigs. And I still bring 2 guitars (Mosrites) to a gig, but for a different reason. One is just to back up the other in case
I break a string. "In the Old Days," say I needed to be on the L.P. and I broke a string. The only choice was to go to the Strat, but
now were talking 2 different tones of gtrs. So this setup with the 2 Mo's works out great for me. If I pop a string, I just switch Mo's
and I'm back up and running without the tone drastically changing. Of course we all know that even 2 identical guitars are still going
to play and sound differently, but they are both darn close!
Somewhere on another Thread, we all talked about well known Artists that play(ed) Mo's. Maybe we need to dig that Thread
back up and take a second look how many different styles of music have already been played on these instruments.
These Guitars are 'Way too Versatile' to be locked in as a 'Surf Guitar.'

[gplayer]

Yeah, it's not like Semie designed and built them with surf music in mind.

[mosman]

Forgive my ignorance but were there any self admitted surf bands that actually did play Mosrites to the degree that earned it the 'surf guitar' title?
From all the pictures on the surf records that I have, it seems most bands played Jaguars, Jazzmasters or Strats.
Bill.

http://www.myspace.com/rocks1977
http://www.myspace.com/kamikazekits

[Dennisthe Menace]

Forgive my ignorance but were there any self admitted surf bands that actually did play Mosrites to the degree that earned it the 'surf guitar' title?
From all the pictures on the surf records that I have, it seems most bands played Jaguars, Jazzmasters or Strats.
Bill.
http://www.myspace.com/rocks1977
http://www.myspace.com/kamikazekits

Not that I'm aware of Bill. There have been 'Instrumental Bands' such as Davie Allan and the Arrows, the T-Bones,
the Ventures, that all played Mo's, etc, etc, but I can't think of any Authentic "SURF BANDS" that played Mosrites.
And although the Original Surf Scene was a little ahead of my time, I gotta give my older Cousins credit for
edge-u-macating me with their Surf Albums and such .

[preeze]

well right there it is,
Jaguars were built for surf off of the Jazzmaster.
the name jazzmaster says it was built for jazz but it just didn't sell well.
Kurt Cobain played a jaguar, Mustang, and I think a Mosrite mark V or gospel?
he didn't play surf but most of his guitars were "sufr" guitars.
was a tele made for country?

[Chemo]

I really like my Ranger. I paid 800 euros (used) for it and I think it is well worth it, and even more - espesially considering the fact that there aren't too many Mosrites available in the Finnish market.

sunburst finish shows no wood grain, just all paint.

In my guitar the wood grain is definetely visible! Maybe there are differences in Rangers?

pick guard overhangs the carve top

In mine it does too, just as it should

strings pop outta the nut when ya bend up on the low strings.

That sounds really weird. The only Mosrite that I ever tested and was able to do that, was an Excellent that wasn't well adjusted. The guitar was in a shop, and a customer had asked for thicker strings - so thick that the thickest E didn't go into the slot of the nut.

the Vibramute sux.

I like the Vibramute on my guitar a lot! It feels great, it works very well and causes no tuning problems.

As I have told before, I also have a Fillmore made Mosrite Mark II Ramones model (the one they made before the signature model). I have ended up using the Ranger much more even in punk rock use. Overall, I think the Ranger is better made and the neck is much more faithful to the original. It has been several years since I last tried an Excellent (have tried a couple), therefore I can't remember excatly all the details of it. But I believe it is safe to say that the Ranger would stand a comparison very well, and could well be the better guitar.

If there was a similar one available at same price that I paid for mine, I would immediately buy another one (or two ) for backup.

[Chemo]

A Mosrite Ranger can really get you high:

[Dennisthe Menace]

A Mosrite Ranger can really get you high:

Chemo,
That's a GREAT Shot for the "Mosrites in Action" Thread .