Mosrite amps

[dubtrub]

Glad to hear from someone with first hand knowledge and experience with Mosrite amps.
Thanks for the input. Also, who is the actual manufacturer of these particular amps?

[Nokie]

Award Electronics, a home entertainment products company in Minnosota, was the manufacturer. They were contracted to build The Ventures Model Mosrite Amplifiers by The Ventures organization in 1966 (the Ventures owned Mosrite Distributing at the time). Ed Sanner at Mosrite did not design the BG-500 or BG-1000. He was at work designing another Mosrite amp but the Ventures wanted a marketable amp "yesterday" so they hired another designer and Award agreed to build it but insisted the Award name also be added to the amp. JBL was previously approached to build the amp but wanted nothing of it.

Production costs for 500 units each of the BG-1000 and BG-500 amps were covered by a $500,000 line of credit from Crocker Bank. Semie Mosely took $5000 for the use of the Mosrite name. The design of the amp was not robust and return credits were requested soon after the amps hit the stores in '67. The design was bad enough that repairs were not feasable. The Ventures ate the Crocker Loan, and Award went out of business. Most of the 500 of each amp, never got out the factory door. The working stock of 10 BG-1000's and 12 BG-500's and so many parts was purchased by Stan Clothier, an electronics dealer in Minneapolis. He sold 'em off and that's what we know as reported in the book, "Walk Don't Run, The Story of The Ventures", by Del Halterman with Josie Wilson, Lulu Press 2008, http://www.lulu.com .

The Ventures claim the BG-1000's worked very well and there is evidence to support that as we see many photos of them using the amp in '67 and '68.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Nokie wrote:

The Ventures claim the BG-1000's worked very well and there is evidence to support that as we see many photos of them using the amp in '67 and '68.

Actually, the only picture(s) I have seen of the Ventures using the BG-1000 Amps were taken off that particular Album Cover.
Nokie, I guess my question to you would be, were the BG Series the 1st GEN of Amps for Mosrite (made by AWARD), and if so,
who made the 2nd GEN Amps for Mosrite? Could that of possibly been Ed? (e.g. Models 350, 400, etc.) And if not Ed, then who did?
Enquirer Minds want to know!

[Nokie]

Three more pictures of the Ventures using the BG-1000 are seen in Del's book. One on page 158 shows The Ventures entertaining at the Grammy's on Feb 29, 1968 (Grammy's were not televised at the time). Two more pictures on page 170 show Gerry McGee playing through the amp in Mexico City, 1968. I've seen one the Mexico City photos on line as well but I don't recall where.

The first amps with the Mosrite name to see production would be the Award amps but Mosrite as a company had nothing to do with the amp other than the afore mentioned licensing of the name. I can only speculate on other Mosrite production amps based on what Ed Sanner is quoted as saying in Del's book, "We had planned to build amplifiers in 1966, but it took some time before we could start production...As it worked out, we got our first amplifiers into production shortly after they did." Nothing else in Del's book is clear on who designed which Mosrite amp beyond the BG-500 and BG-1000. Dumble is mentioned as being contracted by Mosrite to design an amp, Sanner is mentioned as an "electronics man at Mosrite"
-Marty

[Dennisthe Menace]

OK, well then, we're basically back to square one.....The book doesn't tell us anymore
than what we already know. And again, I think this INFO mentioned above also puts
the other rumor of the Dobros driving Mosrite bankrupt into the ground to rest......

[Nokie]

Yes, we would still like to know who actually designed the true Mosrite amps and if that is your primary interest, then the info is lacking but from a perspective of "what the heck was behind that Award Amp", which was my primary interest, I see at least three "newish" things we get from the book:

1. You were asking if the Award Amps were the first generation of Mosrite amps and we now know they were. Some may have suspected that but it is now confirmed.
2. You had only seen the one picture of the Ventures using the BG-1000 in 1967 but the book shows that it was used through '68. This helps confirm that it was a decent enough amp to last through some significant Ventures touring over some great distances. Don Wilson has more quotes in the book that praise the BG-1000.
3. As you say, it really puts to rest the Dobro rumor.
4. I also hadn't seen posted here before the who, what, why, where and how of the Award Mosrite Ventures amp. We now know who and where the Award organization was, we know why they made the amp (Ventures impatience with Mosrite's amp development), we know it wasn't designed by Sanner or Dumble (that may not be such new info), we know what the amp was in terms of power and speakers and that there were two models, and we now how it's production was funded.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Yes, we would still like to know who actually designed the true Mosrite amps and if that is your primary interest, then the info is lacking but from a perspective of "what the heck was behind that Award Amp", which was my primary interest, I see at least three "newish" things we get from the book:

1. You were asking if the Award Amps were the first generation of Mosrite amps and we now know they were. Some may have suspected that but it is now confirmed.
2. You had only seen the one picture of the Ventures using the BG-1000 in 1967 but the book shows that it was used through '68. This helps confirm that it was a decent enough amp to last through some significant Ventures touring over some great distances. Don Wilson has more quotes in the book that praise the BG-1000.
3. As you say, it really puts to rest the Dobro rumor.
4. I also hadn't seen posted here before the who, what, why, where and how of the Award Mosrite Ventures amp. We now know who and where the Award organization was, we know why they made the amp (Ventures impatience with Mosrite's amp development), we know it wasn't designed by Sanner or Dumble (that may not be such new info), we know what the amp was in terms of power and speakers and that there were two models, and we now how it's production was funded.

Real nice Info Nokie.....From what I had understood, it has been said that the Bigger Amps (BG-1000?) were pretty much OK.
However, the smaller model amp (BG-500?) seemed to have some kind of design flaw in the circuitry. Now, this is where it
gets crazy. Some folks had mentioned it was the later version that had a problem (Model-450?), but that doesn't make any
sense, or at least to me, it doesn't. If the BG-500s and the 1000s were all OK, then why would the Ventures come out with
the 2nd GENeration so soon? "AND I MEAN the Ventures come out with a 2nd GEN" since Semie had no say so in the matter,
only to watch his Company fold up, after the AMP Nightmares began.....

[Nokie]

Real nice Info Nokie.....From what I had understood, it has been said that the Bigger Amps (BG-1000?) were pretty much OK.
However, the smaller model amp (BG-500?) seemed to have some kind of design flaw in the circuitry. Now, this is where it
gets crazy. Some folks had mentioned it was the later version that had a problem (Model-450?), but that doesn't make any
sense, or at least to me, it doesn't. If the BG-500s and the 1000s were all OK, then why would the Ventures come out with
the 2nd GENeration so soon? "AND I MEAN the Ventures come out with a 2nd GEN" since Semie had no say so in the matter,
only to watch his Company fold up, after the AMP Nightmares began.....

I have to question if there was any real difference between the BG-500 and BG-1000 other than the power transformers and speaker compliment. The face plates are identical and only the speaker cabinet is modifyed for the extra speaker. My BG-500 works fine after 40 years though I don't know if it was just sitting around for most of those years. I could see playing it at "a" gig but I feel it is too fragil to use regularly. The BG-500 and BG-1000 are indeed the ones that got returned and of which very few got produced. Why were the 1000's that the Ventures used so good? They were the first off the line and Award made those specifically for the Ventures so I think extra care was used in their construction and less care was used in the models quickly produced to catch up on the many orders that were pending.

What you are calling the 2nd generation of Mosrite amps is really the first generation of true Mosrite amps. The bottom line is that The Ventures wanted an amp to sell along with the succesfull Mosrite Ventures model guitars. Mosrite wasn't able to give The Ventures a reasonable ETA so they went with Award. At the same time Mosrite did commence with designing a Mosrite amp without the Ventures backing BUT it did see production shortly after the Award saw production. The question is did the Ventures distribute the true Mosrite amp (model 450)?
-Marty

[Dennisthe Menace]

As Arte Johnson from "Laugh-In" said in the 70s.....eeenteresting...Veerry Eeenteresting...

[MoishesRight]

As far as the question about the BG-450 having a circuit flaw, I can say that my BG-450 plays loud and strong with a very warm sound for a solid state amp. No problem with the one I have. However I don't know if anything was ever repaired by the previous owner.

MoishesRight