Hey everyone,

I bought this guitar new in 1995. At the time I wanted to learn to play guitar and decided to find a Mosrite. After finding one I decided this wasn't a guitar for a beginner so bought a Fender (cheap). Long story short this guitar has never been played except for me plugging it in 2 weeks ago to see if everything still working. When I bought it, it was in a shop with two other Ventures models and two V-88's that were signed by Semie. I was told that they were assembled from parts leftover after Semie died. It sounded right to me as the truss rod cover doesn't look right. I am curious as to were this guitar was assembled and if anyone recoganises the initals on the check tag. Was it assembled in Jonas Ridge or up here in Canada?

Thanks for your input.
Kevin

It looks nice Kevin, but the images are awfully small. Can you make them bigger?

I'll try the pictures again

Kevin

It looks nice, Kevin....I agree that the truss rod cover does look odd.....
I'm not knowledgeable with serial numbers, etc, but lots of other forum members are really good with the history and serial numbers of the Mosrites, and I'm sure you will get some helpful comments soon.......btw, did you ever learn to play that Fender?

Roger

I suspect it's from the Canadian parts stash. I've never seen a Ventures labelled guitar with white pickup covers. I'm pretty sure the Ventures models over the years were pretty close to the originals, and would have had small fret markers and slotted tuning pegs. Also, the switch tip is not the proper Mosrite part.

Regardless it looks like a cool guitar and if it plays good and sounds right to you then it's a winner. I actually think that truss rod cover is pretty groovy, too.

On a 'Partsrite' I would have no hesitation modifying the trussrod cover...

I like the truss cover shape, it matches the general shape of the headstock. You could notch the "M" shape at the top of the truss cover and then it would be an exact mach to the headstock

Very cool Mark 1/The Ventures style. Rare color too!
Truss rod cover does look funky. Maybe a forum member here could trace one of their tear drop shaped covers and you could have one cut (or do it yourself)?
If you look at the pictures on The Mosrite website (Swing Science), there are many pictures posted of guitars from the 80s and you do see the occasional white pick-up covers on a Mark 1. Also, the metallic burgundy color w. gold hardware is one of those cool, rare finishes from the later days of Jonas Ridge and Arkansas. I have never played any of these later, small production number guitars, but I have a feeling these instruments may have been Semie's best.

I've seen white pickup covers on Mark I's before too, but I've never seen them on a guitar with a Ventures logo on the headstock. Also, this guitar has chrome hardware, not gold, so probably the color is called burgundy gold metallic.

One other possibility is that the guitar is a factory Mark I and somebody added the Ventures logo and wacky truss cover after the fact in hopes of selling the guitar more quickly. If you bought it new in 1995 it would have been sitting for over a year. Does the Ventures logo look screened on or could it be a decal underneath the clearcoat? It's also possible that as the factory was failing someone actually screened a Ventures logo on this guitar to make it a better sell.

MWaldorf:
"I've seen white pickup covers on Mark I's before too, but I've never seen them on a guitar with a Ventures logo on the headstock. Also, this guitar has chrome hardware, not gold, so probably the color is called burgundy gold metallic."

You're right. This morning on a small screen monitor the hardware had a yellow hue to me...and I could barely make out the tags. "Burgundy Gold Metallic" it is. Good point about the guitar being one of the last out of the factory.