June Birthdays 
I just got back from Baja Marty's B day bash at Suzy's in Redondo Beach. Great event, way to go Big Tiki Dude! Really great sounds and vibe.
As usual, not a single Mosrite to be seen. All Fender, end to end.
Dave Wronski freekin reinvented the surf guitar yet again, unbelieveable. He played his custom sparkle red jag with Burns pu's. Fantastic. All the bands were great. Outter Wave taught a class on perfect tone, sound and execution.
Of course all this debate is a matter of tastes, but I am 100% in peace with this statement: Mosrites are very hard-to-play instruments in terms of their neck-width and microscopic thin frets. I don't know about vintage ones, but the newer ones are fascinating and beautiful yet useless if you REALLY play guitar live. You just can't friigin get three fingers together to form an open A chord without muting the strings above and below it. I have been playing now for 30 years, for the record. Maybe with time you can somehow adjust your style to that thinness, but why should you?
At our show at Surfin' Sunday's opening for The Surfaris last May, I brouth along my Blonde 63 Bandmaster, matching blond verb tank and my AVI Jazzmaster and my Mosrite Excellent. One of my bandmates had his brand new sunburst VM-110 that he had played earlier with The Fabulous Planktones and I loved how it sounded, so I used it instead of my Jazzmaster or my Excellent. It ROCKED. I picked up that guitar for the first time and it was like BUTTER for me. We were recorded live on DAT and the tone on the recording kicked ass even though it was my first time ever playing that guitar.
That same VM-110 now belongs to me, and it has a mosrite-like vibe and sound (VERY CLOSE) but with an easier to play neck +frets and beefier, fuller sounding pu's. Clear, insolent, tight bottom, reactive to picking, Phat and lovely:)
Tremolo: I admit that I like the Vibramute-style trem better, but the VM-110 has a great Jazz/Jag term on it that works GREAT.
The VM-110 without any pro setup stays in tune better than any of my other guitars w/trem. My Mosrite, like I said in an earlier posting, is a basket case when it comes to tuning.
Johnny: do you gig with your vintage mosrites? and when/if you do, do they stay in tune between songs if you used the trem? They have a reputation to NOT stay in tune, and my Excellent is proof. I simply cannot use that guitar live.
Re. WB: They are not a reliable outfit as a supplier. They have never given me a clear answere re. when they expect to receive VM-110's. Their response: "maybe sometine in January". The same thing last year when the 110 first arrived. They obviously have lacked the capital to maintain a continuous production of their instruments. Nonetheless, the VM-110 is not just a remarjkable baing-for-the-buck; it's a real practicing guitarist's (pro) instrument; well designed, SUPER well built and ultra-playable, designed by The Ventures themselves!
g
