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Mosrite Basses

#21
Oren Hudson said:
A little history and clarification condensed. Semie Mosley (the maker of Mosrites) was a great luthier, but poor businessman, with constant financial difficulties. In exchange for rent/money, he was commissioned by The Ventures, Don Wilson and Bob Bogle (who died a couple of weeks ago) to design a signature guitar and bass for them. One of their requests was that they resemble Stratocasters. So Semie took a Strat, turned it upside down and had the basic shape. The Mosrite "The Ventures" guitars and basses were obviously not the first Mosrites, but they were the first to be played by The Ventures. When the sponsorship by The Ventures ended, Semie continued to make Mosrite Ventures guitars and bases for a few years, pretty much identical, but they no longer had "The Ventures" logo on them. :cool:
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I never got to play the bass models but kick myself for not picking up a guitar when they were in pawn shops for $300.00.
I have played one of the first early 60's models hand built by Semie and owned by Brian Lonbeck. Brian played a double neck with Barbara Mandrel back in the 60's. Before the Ventures endorced Mosrite the design was already pretty much similar so their story on the strat thing is sort of suspect. The Joe Maphis model is very similar and was built in 62. Semie started building guitars at 17 in 1952. It was the Ventures however that put them on the map. You can look up Brian Lonbeck on a google search. He is one awesome guitar player.
 
#24
GeneralElectric said:
Its a sunburst model with one pickup with what looks like a sponge shoved under the pickup and its rotting. Unfortunately, this means you can't rest your thumb on the pickup as it'll cause the pickup to sink into the body and you'll get uneven string response. I don't know if this is stock or not.
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Unless the design changed that isn't stock. The pickup on my bass has metal tabs extending from each side IIRC. Or there might be a piece with the tabs attached that the pickup sits on. Haven't had the pickup out for a while. The 2 screws in line with the pickup poles on the mounting ring adjust the pickup height.

Rick B.
 
#26
If you want a mosrite-style bass, go to the Eastwood website and see the Hi-Flyer Bass. Its the same as the Ventures model shown by Rick Blair on page 1 but has 2 pickups, a pickup selector, doesn't say Ventures and comes in white, sunburst or left-handed sunburst.
 
#27
The Ventures themselves have their own line of guitars and basses close to the original Mosrites under the Wilson Brothers guitar company:

http://www.wilsonguitarventures.com/wgv.html

I have the Eastwood Hi Flyer Mosrite-style model, and quite frankly, it's junk. Chinese made and poor build, it even came with unmatching tuners (3 are "chrome backed and 1 has a matte finish), and a neck pickup that fell into the bass out from under the PUP cover. I bought it strictly for looks, and that's about all it's good for.
 
#28
Squierbassboy said:
If you want a mosrite-style bass, go to the Eastwood website and see the Hi-Flyer Bass. Its the same as the Ventures model shown by Rick Blair on page 1 but has 2 pickups, a pickup selector, doesn't say Ventures and comes in white, sunburst or left-handed sunburst.
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That sure sounds the same to me. The Eastwood basses are Mosrite-style but they look like they were designed by someone who looked at a picture of a Mosrite and free-handed a drawing. The Mosrites that Ed Roman makes are the closest thing I've seen to the 60's models. There are some good Japanese models also but usually you can't read the web pages they are featured on.

Rick B.
 
#29
Din Of Win said:
Branching from my last post, I spent the last three days at a punk festival with entries spanning the flavors from pop to hardcore.

I had never seen before and of the Mosrite instruments before this and one bassist and three guitarists used them.

They were really cool in look and sound and i know practically nothing about them. What's the TB take on them? Anyone own one that wants to share a picture?

I hate seeing new cool basses because then the GAS pains start...
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I've never owned or played one, but I have always loved the sound. Venture, surf rock. I've looked for one to throw in the collection, but the opportunity has never been there. Got to love the style. Rumor has it that Semie turned a P bass or a Stratocaster (I forget which) upside down to come up with the shape (The longer bottom horn). Then he added the German Carve. I think in the begining he used Carvin Pickups but soon wound or had manufactured his own. They were hot sounding. I'm sure there are other basses out there with a tremelo, but I can only ever remember seeing one on a Mosrite. Shame that the only "new" ones are the imports that Roman imports and says are real. Even if they are supposed to be very good.
 
#30
mndean said:
ISTR the MC5 lead guitarist using a Mosrite. That was soooo long ago and I was hardly 10 years old then, so I could be mistaken.
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Fred "Sonic" Smith. Although I tend to think Wayne Kramer as the lead guitar for the 5. Both did do solos. The intro to Starship on the Kick Out the Jams album has Fred doing some very cool feedback stuff. Fred later married Patty Smith (the original "Because the Night...)
 
#33
RickBlair said:
Here's a pic of my 65 Mosrite Ventures bass. I bought it new in 1965.

Rick B.

MosriteVerticle.jpg
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I had that identical bass in white. Skinny fast neck. I don't recall mine being as heavy as JimmyM remembers.

Kind of a one trick pony soundwise. But I liked the fast neck.
So, I wound up routing her for two DiMarzio jazz bass pickups (with the cream-colored covers), refinishing her in Lake Placid Blue with a new white pickguard and adding a BadAss bridge.
What can I say, it was the 1970's.

Traded that one in at Guitar Center in San Jose about 25 years ago. Maybe someone out there has it? Can't be more than one Lake Placid Blue Mosrite Ventures Bass with dual jazz pickups.
 
#36
I am from Swainsboro GA. When I was in high school (ca early 70's), the town's resident bass master was Jerry Waller. He had the exact Mosrite pictured above, but the 2-pickup version. This he played (with a pick) through an Ampeg V4B cabinet with 2 fifteens in a folded cab design. Jerry ( a true innovator for the time) powered this with a Crown DC300, along with the preamp section of the V4B head. The bands he would play with were rocking Allman Brothers, British Invasion repertoire, and American bands like Spirit, Amboy Dukes, Buckinghams etc.
Brothers, let me assure you that one word comes to mind....heavy. You could hear the bass a block away.
 
#37
In the early/mid 70s, Mosrite build some guitars and basses for Acoustic, the amp company. (Previously Acoustic had instruments built for them by Matsumoku in Japan, but towards the end of their instrument program they switched to Mosrite.) In this picture is a Mosrite-built Acoustic Black Widow bass. It doesn't look much like other Mosrite basses, but I had a Mosrite guitar for a while and there are a lot of little things about the bass that are very Mosrite-esque. It has a humbucking pickup, which I don't recall seeing on Mosrite-braned instruments, but I'm far from an expert.

3729539896_f078e2dbb9.jpg
 
#38
bongomania said:
OK, in your case it was a Mosrite. I would still be very surprised if any of the other guys had originals.
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Most of the "Mosrite" guitars kicking around this scene are GPC Weaselrites, which is a copy of Ben Weasel's Mosrite copy. HEAD EXPLODE.

Sometimes I see a Filmore Mosrite, or even an Ed Roman Mosrite but not often.

I've been looking for a reasonably priced Univox Hi-Flyer for a couple years now. I currently use a J/P- pass combo as a backup. My girlfriend has one of their mid 70's Scroll basses, and I'm pretty impressed with the sound/feel, I'm just not impressed with the price these days.
 

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