The Mosrite Excellent Club

[Strat-o-rama]

Mods, I hope you don't mind, but set-up discussions and other aspects of these guitars tend to crop up in many threads elsewhere on the forum. While I don't own one, I thought it would be worthwhile to start a thread for these "clones". Artie has the Fillmore thing going elsewhere, so this is the place for those who own or want to talk about the Kurokumo line. Many of our members Down Under seem to have these guitars. So let the comments, questions and chats begin!
I'll kick it off, even though I'm a Hallmark kinda guy.
What is the difference between the Super Excellent and the Super Custom lines. I think the Super Customs are alder, and the Super Excellents are basswood. Anyone know if this the true, and any other differences?

Anyway, have fun discussing your Excellents, Super Excellents, Super Customs and Royals right here!

[mosman]

Now we're talkin'.
Excellents are available in Australia through a distributuion company called Lamberti and most guitar shops here have one of their catalogues through which us Mosrite fans can place orders; however the thing is there's so much disinterest in the brand from the shop owners that those catalogues are stashed away under the counter like dirty magazines and unless you ask to see it you'd never know Mosrites are available at all.
Many times I've walked into a store that's stocked to the rafters with Gibsons and Fenders and inevitally someones asks me what guitar I like. When I say Mosrite they either say they've never heard of them or they tell me that the Ex 65's are available through Lamberti, but even so they won't stock 'em.
Fortunately though a few brave souls have actually carried a Mosrite or two in their stores but mostly they end up complaining that they're slow sellers and I've seen a few of them turn up on ebay at reduced prices. One of my biggest regrets is passing up a natural finish Ex 65 which looked absolutely gorgeous and to this day I've never seen one like it—or even heard about it; in fact I'm not even sure I've seen it in the catalogue.
On a positive note, through a lot of hanging around and constant Mosrite talk, there's a couple of places that I go to which either have them in-store occasionally ( Global Vintage) or are willing to order them for me (Guitar Zone at Sutherland for any Sydney-siders)as is the case when I scored my Super Custom 64, so persistance can pay off.
All in all I love the Excellents and the pearl-white I scored last week has barely left my hands. Now if I could only come across another natural finish ...
Bill.

[jtr654]

Mosman/Bill you've said that the necks on most Excellents are a tad bigger than the original but what are the dimensions? How much do they list for $$ what I can find here in the USA is they go for about a $1000? Their one for sale here and I was wondering what a good price would be for it? Or would I be better off with a Hallmark Custom 60? thanks John.

[mosman]

When I mentioned the neck thickness I was actually referring to the differences between my new Ex 65 and the other 65's I've played or owned. I believe the new one is closer to the thin 70's style neck; I don't know why that would be but it just feels that way. I'll take some measurements to see if I'm right or not.
In Australia the list price for an Excellent is around $1900 Australian (approx $1570 US at the moment) but my mate at Global Vintage lets them go for $1550 Aus,($1280 US) though as a regular customer I got mine for $1250 Aus ($1037 US).
I've never played a Hallmark but they seem great value especially as they come with a case which is a huge plus as cases to fit Mosrite shaped guitars are very hard to find from my experience.
Bill.

[jtr654]

Thanks Bill for the Info . John

[FritzCat]

I paid $1300 for my Excellent, used with case. Worth every penny!

[MWaldorf]

As the former owner of Fritz's Excellent, I agree they're very nice guitars. I would have kept mine if I hadn't lucked into my '66.

I found the guitar to have a very similar feel to the vintage '66, with the exception that the frets, while small, hadn't been filed down to speed fret level. Nothing that couldn't be fixed if you wanted.

There's not much info on these guitars available in the US. From having seen a couple, there appears to have been some variation - some have serial numbers on the fretboard, some don't; some have "Mosrite" stamped pickup covers, some don't; some have 250K pots, some have 500K. Mine had 250K pots and I put in a 1 Meg volume pot which really openned up the top end, and it sounded much more like the '66.

As I understand, the Super Excellents have locking saddles on the bridge, where the standard Excellents have vintage type bridges.

I think there are also different designations for the pickups between some of the Kurokumo models, but I don't know if the difference is just in the looks or if the internal construction quality differs.

[TimR]

About 10 years ago, there was a guy in San Francisco that was marketing these thru a Japanese distributor. (I forget the names)

Anyway, I bought a "Royal 63" -the top of the line ($2500.00 US)
It was a gorgeous guitar, and a very accurate representation of a real '63 Ventures model. It was alder, with a Brazilian rosewood fretboard, binding, set neck, side jack, 3 screw pickguard, large "Ventures" logo, no logo pickups, and a beautiful sandcast vibramute tailpiece. Even the sunburst finish was very accurate, and the body shape was slightly different -as with the originals.
The pickups were wound hotter than on the Excellents, according to their brochure. The neck was slightly wider, and the frets slightly higher -a good thing in my book. It played and sounded fantastic. Even the alligator case it came with was pretty accurate.
I had owned a real '63 several years earlier. It was fairly worn, but the "Royal" was a very fair representation. About all you could tell, aside from it being new & perfect, was the metric measurements of the hardware -although the screws were "slotheads", and the tuners were not real Klusons, and the electrical components were all Japanese made. I wish I still had it. I'll have to post some pictures, if I ever get around to figuring out how.

[last]

I've been trying to trace the history of my guitar. It's a Johnny Ramone Ventures II Model I bought through Guitar Punk in the U.S. around 2000 or 2001. Pretty sure it's not a Fillmore. I've been told it may be a Kurokumo by a guy on this board and a fellow punk rocker told me that he thought whoever made the Mosrite Excellent made my guitar (please see pictures below). Anybody know? Or can you point me in the direction of a website dealing with Kurokumo guitars? Thanks.

[Strat-o-rama]

Here is what Kurokumo is currently offering.

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... qz4IlTvqpA

Don't know how the SD Mini-bucker fits into the picture.