How did you fall in love with Mosrite?

[oipunkguy]

For me it was the ramones of course, that got me to like the instruments, but they were nearly impossible to find. Until I went to manassas va one day to a great guitar shop called "classic axe". In there they had a white double neck. This was around 94 or 95, and Russ the owner wanted 2000 for it then. I fell in love wth that guitar even though I never got to play it. About six mouths later he got in a red 65 or 66 mark v, pretty much exactly like the one pictured above. I played that guitar I loved it. So different from anything else out there. I remember at the time Russ wanted 800 for it. Those were the days. The next time I got to play a Mosrite was a combo model in a wash DC store that's long gone, and then after that was this AMAZING v88 at Russ' shop, in sunburst. It played like a dream. I never cared for the ventures one body style mosrites until that moment and then they became my favorite guitar of all time. The one thing I didn't like about them is I wished they had controls more like a les Paul, since that's what I typically played, and by accident I found a Mosrite made like that wish I found out later were the mark V I I models. When I finally found one, I grabbed it. That guitar is still my favorite guitar that I own and I'll probably take it to my grave lol.

[Desert Surfer]

Thanks, Oipunkguy for the great story.

I am glad to see more old faces surfacing up.

[vibramutant1965]

ventures albums scrounged at garage sales in the late 1970s.................

[Desert Surfer]

ventures albums scrounged at garage sales in the late 1970s.................

It happened to me too, but in much later year

[Desert Surfer]

After owning two Mosrite Ventures Models, I started to take interest of the designer and maker of Mosrite guitars; Semie Moseley.

I found this writing during my research on line.

Steven Mayer, a writer with the Bakersfield Californian, wrote;

In the 1960s, the name Mosrite was synonymous with reverb-laden surf music, clean Western guitar twang -- and Bakersfield.

Crafted in a nondescript factory just across the tracks from what was then known as the Bakersfield Civic Auditorium, Mosrite's Joe Maphis and Ventures model guitars made the music industry sit up and listen for the better part of a decade.

Surf bands and country music stars, including the Ventures, Glen Campbell and Barbara Mandrell, played Mosrite instruments.

Then I picked up this 1966 Joe Maphis model at a local guitar shop.





Serial number is D49x - the "D" denotes its the Joe Maphis model (this particular model ran from 1966 to 1971). This one was made in 1966.

[jeffee]

i've been thru all sorts of musical styles growing up. My dad was a big country fan in the 60's/70's.. and of course i didn't wanna listen to what my parents listened to.. so i resisted! When i was just entering High School in 78/79, Ricky's blue Venture's Mosrite was on the inner sleeve of the first B-52's album (that was my first encounter with that odd looking shape).

By the mid 80's, i became a 60's psychedelic fan : Electric Prunes / Chocolate Watchband / Shadows of Knight / Seeds / etc. One of their albums from that period "Da Capo" had this listed on the back of the album: "Love Plays Mosrite Guitars" and i IDOLIZED that album..

I would have picked up a Mosrite back then - but a friend of mine told me some wrong information: " Mosrite guitars never stay in tune".. that kinda made me steer clear of them for years - until i read a few guitar books and realized the quality was top notch and that tuning was never an issue.

Of course over time, i gave in to the classic country sound that my dad loved - and now i've become a country historian - pretty much eat drinking and sleeping old country! I realized that the earliest Mosrites players were country pickers (maphis/phil baugh) and Semie was a gospel country player himself... Then realizing that Bakersfield bands played mosrites on the records in the studio.. then played fender's on stage.. made me FINALLY want to sell my 1966 Jaguar and get a mosrite. I haven't looked back since.
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heres' a Segment from a johnny echols interview i found.. (he was one of the guitarists in LOVE):

What’s your favorite guitar?
It would probably be a Les Paul Standard, that would be the favorite guitar to play because I always played Gibsons, mostly over Fenders and I like them because they have shorter scale, just slightly shorter, but it gives you more of a stretch. I can stretch more than I could with the longer Fender scale and so I like Les Pauls and also the double-neck that I played that was called a Nando guitar, the first one and then Mosrite guitars started and we endorsed them. They made guitars specifically for me and made a double-neck that I played quite often. I played a Stratosphere, a double-neck that was probably the first double-neck other than country music—-Joe Maphis played one, but I think I was probably the first rock musician playing one. I was still in high school, in 1963, and I was playing one of those before any other musician was playing it. That would be my favorite two, the double-neck and the Les Paul.
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[Desert Surfer]

Of course over time, i gave in to the classic country sound that my dad loved - and now i've become a country historian - pretty much eat drinking and sleeping old country! I realized that the earliest Mosrites players were country pickers (maphis/phil baugh) and Semie was a gospel country player himself... Then realizing that Bakersfield bands played mosrites on the records in the studio.. then played fender's on stage.. made me FINALLY want to sell my 1966 Jaguar and get a mosrite. I haven't looked back since.

Great stories! Thanks, Jeffee.

Just curious, did you actually sell your '66 Jaguar and got a Mosrite? Which Mosrite guitar did you end up with? A Joe Maphis? or a Gospel?

[101Volts]

How? It was May/June 2007 or 2008. I was looking up the first B-52's album to see what guitar was on the back cover of it... Up popped "Mosrite" and so I looked it up. I had never heard of Mosrite before, but I loved the sound. It's a phenomenal sound, really; it's not quite like a Gibson, Fender or Rickenbacker and part of the appeal was that I didn't know what I was listening to in my initial listens to the first B-52's album and it sounds raw to me. So a few years later I got a German Carve Ventures II (Same body style as the Mark V which is pictured on the album) which was missing pieces and it took a while but I got it together. I'm planning on getting a working bridge for it. (I messed up the stock one, parts come off it when I play it.)

- Austin

[Desert Surfer]

How? It was May/June 2007 or 2008. I was looking up the first B-52's album to see what guitar was on the back cover of it... Up popped "Mosrite" and so I looked it up.

Great story! Austin.

Not sure which B-52's album you refer to. Here is one with Mosrite guitar.

[101Volts]

Yes, it's that album. I think that Ventures Mark V on the album is a 1966 model, given it says "Ventures Mark V" and has the truss rod on the body end. Maybe 1967 at latest, anyone else have an idea?

- Austin