Semie made Ramones Mosrite

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oipunkguy
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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby oipunkguy » Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:54 am

Correct. Johnny had eliminated the RARE TREM System (on the MARK IIs) and had installed a Seymour Duncan 'bucker in the Neck Position and a DiMarzio Single Coil in the Bridge, with 2 different knob controls as well ;) .

HA! Dennis I finally get to correct you!!! Johnny's mosrite had different knobs on it through out the years. just when ever a knob got lost, he'd get another knob to put back on it. in the early days of the Ramones, johnny played that guitar with the original pickups. he only replaced them cuz he said they "fizzled out" . the pickup change happened around 79-80, but he had the tuners changed to grovers and the stopbar added earlier. on his there was always duct tape between the stopbar and bridge, I'm guessing this was to hold down the exposed ground wire. later he also had the neck pickup unhooked. this was so he could do the on/off/on trick on the three way toggle at the beginning of the song "Pinhead" when they played live.
one extra tidbit. on johnny's mosrite, all the neck screw holes were completely stripped. he told his roadie when you change the strings on that guitar, change then out 3 at a time, because the neck would fall off without the strings holding it down!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
Cheers,
Aaron
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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby Veenture » Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:44 am

:? Hey there all you Ramones and Mosrite fans, Sherlock here:

Did anyone notice the misspelling in this Ramones decal? (the apostrophe should come after -and not before the "S" in Ramones; i.e. RAMONES' (sorry, ....my English school education I guess) :roll:

Typically Semie here too I guess, choosing to use the Ventures' font style for Ramones models... :mrgreen:

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby Brian » Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:18 am

Veenture wrote::? Hey there all you Ramones and Mosrite fans, Sherlock here:

Did anyone notice the misspelling in this Ramones decal? (the apostrophe should come after -and not before the "S" in Ramones; i.e. RAMONES' (sorry, ....my English school education I guess) :roll:

Typically Semie here too I guess, choosing to use the Ventures' font style for Ramones models... :mrgreen:

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What's odd is that there's no apostrpohe on "The Ventures Model" but he felt the need to put on here, and in the wrong place no less.

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby Veenture » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:18 am

:D heh, heh Brian,

Yeah, I guess it's this kind of quirkyness coming from Mister Moseley's hands that make the Mosrite so beloved.
Good on him!

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby sloop_john_b » Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:03 am

Hey, these are really cool!

Is it possible that they couldn't get the rights to the name "The Ramones", but Johnny gave his permission? What I mean is, it's not "The Ramones" model, but "The Ramone's" - meaning only Johnny. :)

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby Veenture » Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:42 pm

sloop_john_b wrote:Hey, these are really cool!
Is it possible that they couldn't get the rights to the name "The Ramones", but Johnny gave his permission? What I mean is, it's not "The Ramones" model, but "The Ramone's" - meaning only Johnny. :)


Good thinking sloop, what you say sounds quite feasible. Guess we'll never know and it'll have to remain one of those "MM's" [Mosrite Mysteries*] -for now at least...but it didn't escape our notice, Semie!

*just invented this as I wrote! LOL ;)

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby dubtrub » Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:50 pm

Regarding Semie's use of the apostrophe, he only attended school to the seventh grade before leaving to become a musician with a traveling evangelical group. Now my constant misuse of the apostrophe is a different story. :shock:
Danny Ellison

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby Veenture » Fri Jan 23, 2009 2:02 pm

dubtrub wrote:Regarding Semie's use of the apostrophe, he only attended school to the seventh grade before leaving to become a musician with a traveling evangelical group. Now my constant misuse of the apostrophe is a different story. :shock:

...6th. grade Danny?! heh heh :D

(...sorry, couldn't let that one go by...!)

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby zarfnober » Fri Jan 23, 2009 9:31 pm

Aaron said

"one extra tidbit. on johnny's mosrite, all the neck screw holes were completely stripped. he told his roadie when you change the strings on that guitar, change then out 3 at a time, because the neck would fall off without the strings holding it down!!!"

This story has taken on a few different tales over the years. George Tabb, who auditioned as bass player after Dee Dee left, was roadie for a very short while and, said in a New York newspaper/magazine that he changed the strings on the guitar and the neck fell off and then the bridge fell down into a heating vent in the floor. He got the bridge out just as Johnny came by. Johnny said(supposedly) "Mosrites are held together by the strings George, next time change 3 at a time". A friend was at this show taking photos and tells the story a little differently, the zero fret fell off, maybe the bridge too, I forget. Anyway, it was put back together and everything was fine. the screw holes may have stripped at some point , but were obviously fixed if they did strip. Think about this logically, if the screw holes are stripped, how are the strings gonna hold it together? I read the entire story that George Tabb wrote, later reprinted in one of the guitar magazines in a much shorter version. It was a very entertaining story, George is a funny guy and good storyteller. Somewhere on rockometer.com is a short blip about this, Ian was at the show taking photos, check out his site.

As for the Ramones Model prototypes, Johnnys was the first and a small number were made after that, very few, less than 100. Prototypes? Did Semie need to make a prototype of a guitar that was basically a stripped down Ventures model? I don't think so. He made them for whoever called him with the money to buy one. Some had full german carve, some half carve and some flat. Johnny wanted a "sharkfin" pickguard, one pickup and no tone knob. Pickup was slanted and had no polepieces. This guitar is on display, or was, at the hollywood rock walk of fame at the hollywood guitar center. On the back of the headstock it says "To Johnny, I love you. Semie Moseley" And a date too, I think. I have seen the backstage photos when Semie brought him this guitar, I believe the Ramones gave him a leather jacket, Semies nephew, the one in the mosrite 88 ads was there too. you can see this guitar in the Ramones Spiderman video and one or 2 others. Other Ramones models also had a different pickguard, one of which can be seen in Jim Bessmans "Ramones, An American Band" book, a black one that went to a fan in Italy , delivered by the band. Or so I was told by Loretta. CJ had a bass made, as did the bass player from Soundgarden. Johnnys serial # was JR1, I don't know about the others.

Hope this helps,

Rocco
www.rockometeramp.com Vinatge spec American and British style cabs, custom cabs, recovers, regrills and restorations.

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Re: Semie made Ramones Mosrite

Postby oipunkguy » Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:28 pm

hey Rocco,

you are correct, that was the story I read, and it was so long ago I didn't remember the whole story. it could very well be a fake story, how knows. I remember that the Ramones use to tell music reporters about how they got their band name. one day they all happen to met in an elevator and started talking and realized they all had the same last name, lol.
...for you of those that don't know, their last names really weren't Ramone....
Cheers,
Aaron
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