I’ve reluctantly decided to sell my vintage Mosrite. This is a Pearl White Mark I model from 1965 and was made famous by The Ventures!
I've played Hallmarks and other modern equivalents, and nothing sounds quite like a vintage Mosrite. They have a snarl, growl and kerrang that just can't be matched. Goose this thing with a clean boost into your Blackface Fender of choice and it's pure Man or Astroman time, and of course the combo of this an any Brown/Blonde Fender is pure Ventures. I've also been running it into a Marshall setup for some punk stuff I'm working on, and man does this thing love gain, too!
This particular model beat out several other vintage examples for playability, tone and condition. Although it's a player grade instrument, it's in very good condition overall. The Pearl White has aged and yellowed beautifully, and while there are some dings and checking, it's pretty clean for being fifty years old!
Hardware, pickups, wiring, tuners and pickguard are all original. Neck, body and pots all date to 1965. Playability was pretty good when I received it, but the original bridge had a few saddles that rocked slightly. I sourced a NOS vintage Mosrite bridge as a replacement, installed a StewMac neck shim and now it has that famously low action and smooth playability that made Mosrites so much fun to play.
Frets are the legendary low Moseley speed frets. Some expected wear in the cowboy chord area but it plays well. The combination of the thin neck, shallow profile and low frets make it the fastest guitar neck I’ve ever played, hands down.
Only issues to mention are that the original switch is stiff, and the original tortoiseshell pickguard exhibits some shrink around the neck pickup. The switch works in all three positions, but going from bridge to middle can be tough (trick is to go bridge to neck, neck to middle). I always meant to wire up a new guard and fix both issues at once, but I'll leave that for the new owner to decide.
Oh, and we have to talk about the case! Bona fide mojo, easily the coolest guitar case I've ever had. It's all original, fits well and all the latches work. It sports plenty of honest wear from it's life over the years, with some cool stickers and even a homemade rope handle. Just too damn cool.
This is a fantastic vintage example and I’m sure I’ll miss it, but I need to free up some funds so I’m moving it along to its next caretaker.
Asking $3000 shipped to the lower 48 or best reasonable offer. Additional pics available upon request.
Not interested in trades at this time.
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Last edited: Nov 27, 2024 16:42:31