I had the chance to play a mid 60's Mosrite ...

[sumlin]

Top - 1966 MkV
Middle - 1976/7 Brass Rail
Bottom - early 70s Acoustic Black Widow

Cool- thank you! particularly enjoying the massive black band on the top and the extreme break angle in the middle...loads of interest!

The MkV was refinished in about 1970 - a lot of Mosrites have weird issues with the paint going 'off' - you'll see them with weird almost geometric checking on them and big chunks of paint falling off. My guess is the first owner got it and decided to refinish it straight away. Not sure what the original colour was but he certainly overdid the black in the burst! I was going to refinish it myself but once I got it I grew to love it.

The Brass Rail is a weird one - the neck is very very wide and shallow, almost like a John Birch if you've ever played one. It's tricky to get used to but it has a very unique sound.

[sumlin]

Here's mine btw

That's a really nice one How does it play?

Like a dream! Neck is *tiny* and the action is very low. I might stiffen up the trem movement a bit so I can be a little clumsier with it but it's lovely.

[mgeek]

aha! I assumed it was part of the mosrite weirdness

My beloved Fenton Weill's sometimes have some very thick sunbursts, where there's so little 'centre' showing that it may as well be black...just the odd island poking out from under the scratchplate

[ludobag1]

carefull also on mosrite some of them are short scale ,normally 24.75 inch scale i think,but some are 24 maybe less

[will]

carefull also on mosrite some of them are short scale ,normally 24.75 inch scale i think,but some are 24 maybe less

I've seen some Mosrite BASSES that seem to have a 24.75" scale!

[will]

carefull also on mosrite some of them are short scale ,normally 24.75 inch scale i think,but some are 24 maybe less

I've seen some Mosrite BASSES that seem to have a 24.75" scale!

...one just popped up on ebay - I wonder what it would sound like, or what gauge strings should be used?!?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1960s- ... 2750417913

[Gonkulator]

Mosrites are great guitars and each one differs from each other. I have one of those 24.75 basses in a MkV configuration!

Some of my favorite Mosrites come from the Pumpkin Center period, in between then foreclosure and Semie moving to Oklahoma.

Hallmarks take all of awesomeness of a Mosrite but with a much more modern, playable neck.

[Danley]

Any word on the modern Mosrite company (if it exists?) I haven’t done the homework on the legal wrangling behind these (obviously desirable/potentially profitable) guitars having such a muddy existence and not having someone pick them up even in-name-only; outside a possibly fictional Ed Roman series?

[sumlin]

Any word on the modern Mosrite company (if it exists?) I haven’t done the homework on the legal wrangling behind these (obviously desirable/potentially profitable) guitars having such a muddy existence and not having someone pick them up even in-name-only; outside a possibly fictional Ed Roman series?

Dana Moseley makes guitars and pickups under the name and simultaneously there is Mosrite Japan which is hazy at best in terms of whether they have the right to use the name. Ed Roman's Mosrites are these 'Fillmore' Japanese ones I believe.
The 70s Japanese Mosrites were essentially bootlegs - no agreement existed but the manufacturers realised Mosrite really couldn't do much about it. Great guitars though. My guess is that loose 'arrangement'/'situation' still exists.

[ohm-men]

Yes, the originals are great. I used to play in a band where one of the guitarist played a red '66 Ventures Mosrite Mk. IV. Rare as hens teeth in Europe.
Fasinating guitar. Very different from a JM. I remember that the pu's on the Mosrite where quiet hot, they gave a nice punchy slightly overdriven sound. The neck was kind of flat but very comfortable to play, but more narrow then a Fender neck. Binding was very nice. Radius was also more flat then my JM.
He got his from Switserland via E-bay more then a decade ago if I remeber correctly. He told me he was a bit frightend and feared he got scammed, but a few weeks later the guitar showed up on his doorstep.

[Kinx]

I've recently played 65 Mosrite Ventures in a shop in Paris. It was just like I expected - great sound, funky string spacing (I found it quite narrow near the bridge, just like my Hofner 173 which has standard width at the nut but is quite narrow by the bridge), nice slim neck, nearly flat fretboard radius and the tiniest frets I've ever encountered on any guitar. It felt almost fretless. However, I loved the sound ! Pickups were strong and meaty sounding, full yet spanky. Real surf machine.
if Hallmarks can get close to that kind of sound, I'm definitely getting one.