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In the 80's. After moving the factory from Oklahoma city in '76 to Yuba City, California in '77, then to Carson City, Nevada in '79 then to an old school building in Jonas Ridge , NC in 1981, Mosrite production picked up again thanks to orders from a Japanese interest. A chance meeting with a Japanese Mosrite enthusiast at a guitar show insured that Mosrite could start making bigger runs again, thanks to financial input for (unofficial) Ventures model reproductions. However after building 300 guitars of 700 guitar order, in November 1983 the factory burned down. Semie had little insurance on the building so production had to shut down yet again. Here's the factory as it stands today. 
Details around this time are sketchy but Semie continued to build Mosrites on a custom basis at a building in Morganton, NC and runs of guitars were fairly small through the 80's until the new factory was eventually set up in an old Wal-Mart building in Boonville, Ark on March 9,1991. During this period in the late 80's and early 90's Semie made runs of Ventures model "Reissues" including copies of the early '63 sidejack, set neck guitars, as well as the new V88 and M88. The V88's were Ventures reissues with Mosrite 1988 on the headstock and like most Mosrites throughout the 80's were signed by Semie either on the back of the headstock or the back of the neck, sometimes both. As was the M88 which was a Ventures shape with no scratch plate or German carve. Also made in 1987 was the 25th Anniversary Ventures model. This was a Ventures reproduction with a metallic silver body and "sunburst" black and silver scratch plate with an "M" embossed into it. There were only ever 7 of the original 25 finished. Mosrite was back and the number of models were increasing quickly. Vibramute vibratos were back on most Ventures shaped models with a rarer Semie Moseley labeled Vibramute appearing on some guitars throughout the 80's and early 90's as seen here. During the 80's there were quite a few Ventures shaped guitars being made with and without German carves and scratch plates. The VII and VIII carve top models with no scratch plate were made from around 1984 up until the end of the 80's.
There were quite a few "new" models in the works during the early 90's including a slab body Ventures shape Mosrite with the timber/aluminium hard tailpiece aimed at a cheaper market. Also in full production were the '63 sidejacks and 64/65 Ventures reissues using the Ventures logos. Also made in small numbers was a Nokie model that has become quite collectable now due to the association with the Ventures and the very small production run. The last "production" Mosrites to made in 1993 were the
30th Anniversary Nokie models. These were set neck, fully bound
Ventures Reissues based on the early '63 sidejack. page 1 - page 2 - page 3 - page 4 - page 5 - page 6 - page 7 |
