Mosrite converts.

[mosman]

A few months ago while in my local guitar shop, I met a new member of the staff who was very young and typically had never heard of Mosrites. Well not being one to shirk his duty, I took my blue Excellent 65 into the store yesterday to give this young fellow a bit of education.
It warmed my heart to see his reaction—he was very impressed and asked me a heap of questions about them and as I left he said something along the lines of " I'm gonna have to check these things out. " I told him to get on his computer and go for it.
Who knows—we might see him on here one day.
The best reaction though, came from a regular staff guy who I've known for a few years now. He was walking past as I was showing the young guy;stopped in his tracks and made one of those primal sounds of amazement / astonishment / envy ... it's hard to write but I kmew he was impressed. He just stood there and kept commenting about how beautiful and different it was. I told him if they had the guts to get in a few Mosrites and put 'em on the wall they'd get a huge reaction. I've been going into this shop for years and driving them nuts with my constantly harping on about Mosrites and I'm sure now that none of them had actually seen one until yesterday, so maybe now the seed has been planted for one shop in my area at least.
Well that's my bit for the cause this week.
Bill.

[Veenture]

Hey Bill, good job you done spreadin’ the word on Mosrite…hope it will catch on there and work out to be commercially viable for all parties concerned. Did you have an opportunity to get them to listen to your blue Excellent 65 as well? (preferably played through a Fender DeLuxe Reverb, heh, heh), that should knock 'em out fo' shure!

Not to dampen your hopes but somehow I have the feeling it won’t catch on with music stores in general, with the exception of some in Japan maybe…and Tym's guitars.
America is lucky with places like Front Porch Music selling Mosrites and Dana Moseley busy on the job producing again and not forgetting Hallmark guitars too. Yeah, there’s also a store in Nevada I believe (…)

But looking at it from a realistic point of view the Mosrite guitar, beautiful and impressive as it is (applause!) seems to target a special niche in the market only or they’d be selling them everywhere, next to all the Fenders, Gibsons, Ibanezes, cheap starters’ packs and so on, but they're not –and let’s face it, they don’t come cheap either.

Having said that, I do sympathise with your action. I can’t wait to show off my Hallmark 60 Custom Sunburst to the folks at the music/guitar-shop where we sometimes hire space to practice our playing -next time we plan to go! I’ll report back when the time comes

Cheers!
Paul

[mosman]

The real frustrating thing is that most of the guitar shops here have a distributers catalogue which includes Mosrites, so they know about them but are too afraid to take a punt.
My local shop has stocked various other less known brands like Indie and have sent them back because they don't sell.
If they're willing to go through all that trouble then why not do it with a guitar that at least has a history behind it ?
I'll keep the pressure up.
I can't wait to hear how your Hallmark 60 fares.
Bill.

[Dennisthe Menace]

mosman posted:

The real frustrating thing is that most of the guitar shops here have a distributers catalogue which includes Mosrites, so they know about them but are too afraid to take a punt.

OK, well at least that is a starting point! That's a lot more than what WE can say over here in the States ............
OK.......Everyone supporting the Mo's....Go Baby, Go!!!! .......

[oipunkguy]

this has been my argument for years now. I am convinced if people just had a chance to play these guitars they would make a big come back. there's a reason why Mosrite is the third most copied guitar in the world!

[mosman]

I went back to the shop recently and another of the staff implied that Mosrites were ugly (!)
I think me an' him's gonna have to take it outside for further discussion I reckon.
Bill.

[Veenture]

Guys, I think it was Danny (dubtrub) who pretty much said it all in short -about the Mosrite sales strategy, i.e. targeting a special group rather than the ‘shop around the corner’. I must see if I can dig out that thread… anyhow, it just seems to be the way for the Mosrite to get around it seems…

When the Ventures started playing ‘em, it almost followed naturally that a great many of their fans, wanting to imitate their heroes went out and bought a Mosrite! …AND THIS IS WHAT MADE MOSRITE SALES SOAR THROUGH THE ROOF! How fortunate for Mosrite of course that Nokie Edwards liked what he saw at his friend-Semie’s guitar buildig place, but also for the fans!
These new first-time Mosrite owners must’ve realised later on (if not immediately) that they had received comfortably more than their money’s worth -lucky devils! Yeah, the unique sound, feel, playability, versatility, looks, quality, quirkiness (?!)... no wonder the ensuing underground following grew ever more in number and popularity.

But in all fairness it could’ve happened to any other guitar brand too perhaps, that the hugely popular Ventures just happened to decide to pick on…!
But…it happened to be that “strange offset” but very cool-looking guitar pictured on many of their album covers!

darn, I can still kick myself for being such an butt for not having bought one in the sixties! (or seventies, or eighties…). My excuse has be that I was only 19 then, without pecunias and… ignorant. Let’s not forget Fender -popular as always- being one of Mosrite’s biggest competitors in the market at the time.
The bitter irony is, I still don’t have the funds for that same Ventures model! (sob, cry)…wonder how that T-W-E-N-T-Y-T-H-O-S-A-N-D-DOLLAR ‘63 side jack is doing on E-Bay at the moment…(but I DO have a Hallmark!)

Later on we see the Ramones of course doing something similar with the Mo’…hey, ho...
Perhaps we need some new heroes and not so much the guitar shops, to come along and give Semie’s creation yet another boost…

[mosman]

[quote="Veenture"
Perhaps we need some new heroes and not so much the guitar shops, to come along and give Semie’s creation yet another boost… [/quote]

Well I'm out there trying ...just give me time.
Bill.

[Mr. Bill]

Remember that the Ventures were selling Mosrite guitars as well as endorsing them.

Don Wilson has been quoted as saying that he didn't really like the thin necks, but seeing how the band made money from each guitar sold, he played them for all those years.

A lot of guitar sales are based on artist endorsements, official or not. I've been around the industry long enough to have seen the tides turn several times, based upon who was playing what guitar. Clapton and Bloomfield brought the Les Paul back from the dead and Hendrix did the same thing for the Strat.

Now it seems that the day of the guitar hero (not the game) is nearly over, as there isn't any single new "God" out there.

[Veenture]

...//...back from the dead and Hendrix did the same thing for the Strat.

...quite so Mr Bill, and that when Fender CBS Strats were sliding rapidly down the quality ladder -to put it nicely!
Maybe that's why Jimi got fed up with his piece of (c..p) and decided to wreck/burn it! LOL