Educational opportunity: Mark II or V?

[MWaldorf]

Hah! You can also see in the picture from Arties that the red guitar has a shorter neck pocket compared to the two sunbursts to its left. The sunburst on craigslist that handbrake just posted looks like this same body style as well:

I'm betting that on the red Ventures II guitar, the pick guard broke at the point, or split or something at some time and someone just shaved it back to fix it..

Jason, that's a good guess. However, there's a PIC of inside Artie's place that has 3 or 4 Ventures IIs with that kind of cut for the pickguard
Maybe Artie will see this and chime in on this confusion.....

[Dennisthe Menace]

Nice 'PIC catch' Mel!
OK, so I'm guessing that we are going to assume that the red one is a 2nd Gen MARK II,
and the Mo's with the deeper Neck Pocket apparently are the MARK Vs.....correct?

[MWaldorf]

I'm going to make a wild guess here that the short neck pocket guitars have a neck with a tongue on the end similar to the Mark I, and that the long neck pocket guitars have a flat heel more like a Fender neck. Tthat would make the long neck pocket design an easier build, which would be a reason for the design change. Otherwise why do it?

[handbrake]

I'm going to make a wild guess here that the short neck pocket guitars have a neck with a tongue on the end similar to the Mark I, and that the long neck pocket guitars have a flat heel more like a Fender neck. Tthat would make the long neck pocket design an easier build, which would be a reason for the design change. Otherwise why do it?

I think I read this very distinction somewhere. I'll look for it and see if I'm not imagining things (which I'm prone to do).

[Bushers]

Ive got it!

Just came to me, look at the neck penetration into the body, the blue one on Artie's wall is set slightly further into the body than the red version on the left. With the pick guard in the same location on both models, the guard would have a shorter bottom angle piece and the portion above the pickup would be longer.

Look at this picture again, it's now clearly obvious!! There must have been a postional move made on some of the later Ventures II models, mine at B233 has the neck set not as deep, so what the challenge is now is to work out at what number the neck pickup moved aft..!



Here's the one on Ebay right now, B349, has the neck set deeper and shorter angle section on the pickguard below the neck pickup. And here's mine, B233, set not so deep, notice the distance between pickups, it's not much, maybe 3/8" ish;

[dubtrub]

so what the challenge is now is to work out at what number the neck pickup moved aft..!

That wouldn't be such a challenge if your could recruit Artie aka bakeoboy to join in your discussion. If he didn't already know the answer he could check serial numbers for you. Send him a pm as I don't think he visits all the forums here and would probably never see this topic.

[Brian]

I think that they made both the slab body and german carve Ventures II at the same time, then when they stopped making the slab body the changed the german carve to the Mark V...

I also think that they just used whatever parts they had around from the last batch of guitars on the next batch, which would explain the mis-matched pickguards and a lot of years having the incorrect knobs, etc...

[MWaldorf]

Hey Bushers - does the neck on your Mark II extend under the neck pickup or does it have a flat heel?

[Bushers]

It's got a flat heel, nothing past the fretboard as you see it, it's perpendicular at that point.

Brian, the slab body had a slightly different profile as I see it and if you read my post, this is the definitive answer as to why the pickguards are shorter, if the pickguard stays where it is and the pickup moves down, so does the trim line on the guard. Imagine moving it way past that point further towards the bridge, eventually there wouldnt be anything sticking out at all...

[MWaldorf]

It's got a flat heel, nothing past the fretboard as you see it, it's perpendicular at that point.

Interesting. If this is the case, I wonder why Semie changed the design? What advantages in construction or performance does the later design have over the earlier one? I'd certainly think the earlier style would be preferred by players for better neck access.

This is all very informative!