Mosrite Mono 300 Guitar

[B52]

The Mosrite Mono 300 guitar is a single pickup (at the neck) with the same body shape as the Stereo 350.

None of the guitars have come up on ebay over the past 4 years; I have never been able to even find a picture of a 300 Mono; two Mono 300 basses have shown up on ebay, but never six string guitars.

I own a 1973 Mono 300 guitar (serial#0005); it is really heavy, I believe made of walnut, and feels very hand crafted; the neck is massive.

Also it as two initials (definitely stamped at the factory) just below the serial # stamp above the 22nd fret. I have never seen intials stamped with the serial # on a Mosrite. Has anyone ever seen initials with the serial number?

I have owned my first Mosrite (a 1971-72 serial# V0231) since 1981.

A have a couple more as well.

Does anyone out there own a Mono 300 guitar? I wonder how many were manufactured; and where are they all?

B52

[mosriteforever]

Hi,
I have one of these guitars and it is as you describe. Mine is dark Mahogany and is a low serial #. There aren't many of these and you are the 1st person I have heard of who has one, much less knows what they really are. A few people think the 2 pickup mono 350 are the 300. I am glad to have confirmation that there are more. They are described in the '73 catalog.
Mosriteforever

[Dennisthe Menace]

Welcome to the Site B52. MAKE SURE to say Hi to everyone over at the "INTRODUCTION THREAD."
I HAVE seen Mono 300s, but only as a 2 pickup Model. That IS a RARE GUITAR you guys have!
Is it possible that these were prototypes, maybe explaining the Letters B4 the S/N?? Because, the only Mono 300s I saw as a one pick-up, were the Basses. As far as I knew, I always thought the only difference between the Mono 300s and the 350s were that the Mono 300s were 2 single coil pickups, and the 350s were wired for Stereo (with 2 output jacks) and had Humbuckers. As far as I know, I thought the Mono 300 Bass was a 1 pickup, and again, the 350 Bass was Humbucker loaded with 2 output jacks.
BTW B 52, going by your user I.D., do you own a Blue Mark V??

[MWaldorf]

MosritesForever was kind enough to send me a picture of his Mono 300. Hopefully, he'll chime in with details:

[MWaldorf]

Again, care of MosritesForever, the catalog describing the 300 and 350:



and a close up of the 300 description:

[dubtrub]

Mel, who is MosriteForever that you are referring to? Are you referring to Michael Marks?

[MWaldorf]

He's a new member who posted a few responses up from this. He didn't know how to post pictures so I offered to get them up for him. I'll let him say anything else more about himself if he wants. So, MosriteForever?

[dubtrub]

Ooops! Sorry, I haven't read all the posts lately. I was thinking Micheal Marks form the Mosrite Forever website.

[B52]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the great responses. Yes, I forgot to cite that the Mono 300 does have a single Mosrite humbucking pickup.

And yeah the two intials are actually below the serial number, not in front of it; and the serial number is not above (in between the 21st & 22nd fret) the 22nd fret, but above the 22nd fret, and the intials are below the serial number.

I found this Mosrite by pure accident. I mistakenly typed in a word search back in 2004 for Mosrite, but I mistakenly typed in Moserite, and up pops a picture of #0005 Mosrite Mono in a guitar shop in California. When I called the guy, he said it's been around for quite a while, and he said that he would keep it for himself (because of the low serial number) if it had two pick-ups; well I bought it. And I have been trying to better understand it for the last few years.

Thanks to Mosriteforever for the picture of your Mono 300; they are out there, but I guess there are few in number.

To DennistheMenace: I don't yet have a Blue VenturesV but I saw Ricky of the B52's play his beauty a few times (before he died in the early 80's) in clubs in Boston. The first two B52 albums are all Mosrite!, and that's what made their sound. He played it without the D & G strings (I mean no strings at all); check out their first album inside cover, there it is.

I also have a 1972 Mosrite 350 Mono (no stereo, one jack input); it's dark chocolate brown and has a coil tap push-push button like the Bluesbenders and humbuckers; it also has stock Grovers; this is a hard rock machine.

The Forum is really a great thing.

B52

[mosriteforever]

Hello all,

My Mono 300 is serial # K0006! One away from yours B52! I got mine doing a search of Mosrite and got it from a guy I believe in California who called it a Mosrite studio model. I knew it was a 300 and jumped on the chance to get it. I can't remember if I have removed the pickup, but on the 70's models you will often find a date scratched into the epoxy on the back. That is the case with my Stereo 350. I don't know how many of these they built but I can't imagine the demand was that high for a one pickup model.

Mosriteforever!