MOSRITE and HALLMARK
Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:04 am
Hello to all you Mosrite fans,
I’m new here and this is all new to me, so please bear with me.
The reason I started playing guitar since the 60s (on and off) was because of the popularity of THE SHADOWS and I remember well buying my first guitar in Johannesburg on down payment as so many young boys like me were doing. It was a brand new red Hofner Stratocaster look-alike since I couldn’t afford a Fender. A brand new Fender only came to me in 1973 (living in my home country of Holland again), when I traded the Hofner in for that “Ultimate Strat”. My son has it now and I play a MIM Fender Classic 50s reissue, also a fine instrument (Daphne blue!) but from now on it will have to share me with another guitar! Read on…
Now, since 1962 I also became a huge fan of THE VENTURES and as you may know they were playing Fenders too(!) but in 1965 they switched to Mosrite (played them “exclusively” he, he). I didn’t take much notice of this Mosrite guitar pictured on the rear of their lp records and must confess that in the beginning I deemed it to be a rather “cheapo-looking” guitar and didn’t give it another thought (gasp…sorry fans, it had to be a Fender in those days, but not to worry, I love Mosrite too!).
Funny thing is, many years later a sudden indescribable yearning hit me like a brick! I now wished dearly for that ‘strange-looking’ guitar pictured on some of my Ventures album covers. So I was wondering if Mosrites were still being made and perhaps sold in ‘the music shop around the corner’ even…(how painfully naïve!)
No, not so easy! I soon realised I was years too late and had yet to find out about the price tag on a genuine (vintage) Mosrite. I am amazed too that there are so many copies and fakes etc. Some(also expensive) Japanese and Australian copies look appealing but it seemed all so far away and out of reach for me. Furthermore I don’t speak Japanese and most so-called copies don’t appeal to me much anyway. I found this very disheartening but my longing for that Ventures Mosrite wouldn’t go away and I kept feeling a strong need to keep on ‘looking’ -as if for a lost love almost…
NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS!
In my continued search effort I stumbled upon the name “HALLMARK” by chance. My first thought was: “yet another one of those copy-cats”. However, this thought was quickly to be proved unfounded as I was becoming more and more convinced that I’d found what I was looking for, whilst further homing-in on the Hallmark thing.
To keep it short I didn’t go looking any further and ended up buying a superb instrument from Hallmark’s sympathetic guitar builder, Bob Shade.
Here’s one of my recent email messages to him:
“Happy New Year to you Bob,
This is to let you know that today my 60 Custom Three-Tone-Burst arrived safely and in good order. And so soon –within one week of ordering it and coming all the way across the Atlantic. What a lovely surprise, I was counting on a couple of weeks, at the least!
You’ve picked a nice one for me indeed!
After inspecting and getting acquainted with this BEAUTY, I quickly hit it off by playing “DRIVING GUITARS”, one of my favourite Ventures’ tunes. It was wonderful and I found it very appropriate.
For what it’s worth, here are some of my thoughts on “MOSRITE” and “HALLMARK”:
Having done some checking on the web I must conclude that The Hallmark(60 Custom) is a true and legitimate member of the Mosrite(Ventures model) Family, branching out proudly and prominently from the main family tree trunk.
The long lost twin brother of the “VENTURES model MOSRITE” has finally surfaced, giving us fans a second chance to finally own one and not having to be a millionaire too!
I’m so glad you had decided upon starting producing the “VENTURES model MOSRITE” again, I love it! The Hallmark 60 Custom truly stands out on it’s own, leaving the host of Mosrite copies far behind! Actually calling the Hallmark a “Mosrite copy” would do it injustice. I feel that this model will go on to sell itself, by word of mouth; no advertising necessary…
Here’s one proud owner anyway, feeling sure that it will give him the same amount of pleasure(if not more) than he would have otherwise had from owning a vintage Mosrite!
THANK YOU BOB SHADE!
Yours sincerely,
Paul”
Conclusion:
I feel very comfortable in finally having come as close to the VENTURES MODEL MOSRITE as I will ever get and am glad and relieved to have secured my “Ventures Mosrite” before Bob Shade may one day decide to stop making them!
If some of you reading this have similar thoughts to mine and are still looking as I have done, it’s worth it to check out: http://www.hallmarkguitars.com first and make a (Mos)’rite’ decision!
Wishing everyone a good 2009 Mosrite year!'
Veenture
I’m new here and this is all new to me, so please bear with me.
The reason I started playing guitar since the 60s (on and off) was because of the popularity of THE SHADOWS and I remember well buying my first guitar in Johannesburg on down payment as so many young boys like me were doing. It was a brand new red Hofner Stratocaster look-alike since I couldn’t afford a Fender. A brand new Fender only came to me in 1973 (living in my home country of Holland again), when I traded the Hofner in for that “Ultimate Strat”. My son has it now and I play a MIM Fender Classic 50s reissue, also a fine instrument (Daphne blue!) but from now on it will have to share me with another guitar! Read on…
Now, since 1962 I also became a huge fan of THE VENTURES and as you may know they were playing Fenders too(!) but in 1965 they switched to Mosrite (played them “exclusively” he, he). I didn’t take much notice of this Mosrite guitar pictured on the rear of their lp records and must confess that in the beginning I deemed it to be a rather “cheapo-looking” guitar and didn’t give it another thought (gasp…sorry fans, it had to be a Fender in those days, but not to worry, I love Mosrite too!).
Funny thing is, many years later a sudden indescribable yearning hit me like a brick! I now wished dearly for that ‘strange-looking’ guitar pictured on some of my Ventures album covers. So I was wondering if Mosrites were still being made and perhaps sold in ‘the music shop around the corner’ even…(how painfully naïve!)
No, not so easy! I soon realised I was years too late and had yet to find out about the price tag on a genuine (vintage) Mosrite. I am amazed too that there are so many copies and fakes etc. Some(also expensive) Japanese and Australian copies look appealing but it seemed all so far away and out of reach for me. Furthermore I don’t speak Japanese and most so-called copies don’t appeal to me much anyway. I found this very disheartening but my longing for that Ventures Mosrite wouldn’t go away and I kept feeling a strong need to keep on ‘looking’ -as if for a lost love almost…
NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS!
In my continued search effort I stumbled upon the name “HALLMARK” by chance. My first thought was: “yet another one of those copy-cats”. However, this thought was quickly to be proved unfounded as I was becoming more and more convinced that I’d found what I was looking for, whilst further homing-in on the Hallmark thing.
To keep it short I didn’t go looking any further and ended up buying a superb instrument from Hallmark’s sympathetic guitar builder, Bob Shade.
Here’s one of my recent email messages to him:
“Happy New Year to you Bob,
This is to let you know that today my 60 Custom Three-Tone-Burst arrived safely and in good order. And so soon –within one week of ordering it and coming all the way across the Atlantic. What a lovely surprise, I was counting on a couple of weeks, at the least!
You’ve picked a nice one for me indeed!
After inspecting and getting acquainted with this BEAUTY, I quickly hit it off by playing “DRIVING GUITARS”, one of my favourite Ventures’ tunes. It was wonderful and I found it very appropriate.
For what it’s worth, here are some of my thoughts on “MOSRITE” and “HALLMARK”:
Having done some checking on the web I must conclude that The Hallmark(60 Custom) is a true and legitimate member of the Mosrite(Ventures model) Family, branching out proudly and prominently from the main family tree trunk.
The long lost twin brother of the “VENTURES model MOSRITE” has finally surfaced, giving us fans a second chance to finally own one and not having to be a millionaire too!
I’m so glad you had decided upon starting producing the “VENTURES model MOSRITE” again, I love it! The Hallmark 60 Custom truly stands out on it’s own, leaving the host of Mosrite copies far behind! Actually calling the Hallmark a “Mosrite copy” would do it injustice. I feel that this model will go on to sell itself, by word of mouth; no advertising necessary…
Here’s one proud owner anyway, feeling sure that it will give him the same amount of pleasure(if not more) than he would have otherwise had from owning a vintage Mosrite!
THANK YOU BOB SHADE!
Yours sincerely,
Paul”
Conclusion:
I feel very comfortable in finally having come as close to the VENTURES MODEL MOSRITE as I will ever get and am glad and relieved to have secured my “Ventures Mosrite” before Bob Shade may one day decide to stop making them!
If some of you reading this have similar thoughts to mine and are still looking as I have done, it’s worth it to check out: http://www.hallmarkguitars.com first and make a (Mos)’rite’ decision!
Wishing everyone a good 2009 Mosrite year!'
Veenture
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