As far as I can tell - and please correct me of I'm wrong - what I have here is a Mosrite of Japan, ash-bodied "Ventures" model clone from the 70s. It was sold to me as a Firstman... but Tym guitars, who sold it to the guy I bought from, assures me that it isn't. Whatever it is, it sounds amazing and it plays beautifully. I have no idea how close it is to the real thing, but I checked it out before buying and was truly blown away by the quality and playabilty of this guitar. What a growly hot little number!!!! I was a little scared by the talk of tiny slim little necks, but turns out there's no issue there at all. Very comfy. All it needed was a little tweak to the string height (higher) and it is perfection.
Anyhow, I'm pretty much obsessed now. I may need to sell my les paul historic R8 & 1965 mustang & start looking at the real thing....
But for now, I am gonna play the heck outta this thing. It just loves fuzz!Crappy pics here if you're interested:
By olofz at 2012-06-12
But then there are the knock-offs, where the objective is to just look like the original at much lower cost of production... 
The challenge for us guitar addicts is telling the difference! 
) with the ash body but mine was alder.