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Mosrite one offs and custom orders. Mosrite and Semie Moseley made so many one offs and custom orders it is almost impossible to list them accurately. I still come across "new" Mosrites that I haven't seen before and there are literally 100's more of them out there. You can usually tell a "real" Mosrite by it's hardware and feel. They had necks like no other guitar. The hardware was mostly made in house, so not many other manufacturers have Mosrite hardware on their guitars. There are several ex Mosrite employees who still have NOS and have built Mosrite for people since the end of the company. For all intents and purposes these are generally looked on as being "real" Customs varied from Standard shapes with custom paint or hardware to wild and crazy shapes like no other guitar. The Strawberry Alarm Clock guitars are a great example of how out there Semie could be. Only three of these exist, a bass, a 6 string and a 12 string guitar. Semie also made a guitar for Johnny Ramone and a handful of official Ramones models as well as a bass for CJ Ramone in pearl white. If you find something that feels like a Mosrite and has Mosrite hardware, it could be a VERY rare piece indeed. Don't just pass it by as a bad copy or someone's attempt to sell you a fake. Check it out, it might be real !! Mosrite copies. Many companies (including my own) have made Mosrite copies over the years. This is probably due to their appeal and relatively small production numbers. Companies such as Aria, Onyx, Tiesco, Coronet, Silvertone, Firstman and Guyatone have all made Mosrite copies mainly during the late 60's and early 70's , when Mosrite were at their height. However Fillmour and Mosrite Japan still make reproductions of some Mosrite models, especially the Ventures model. Despite using the Mosrite names, these two Japanese companies were not affiliated in any way with the actual Mosrite company of USA. There has been years of legal action as to who owns the rights to make Mosrites, but as far as many are concerned, you can not buy a "real" one at present. Both these companies make very good and faithful reproductions of a Mosrite. If you have read the previous pages and are still not sure here's a couple of points to help you decide if a Mosrite is infact a copy. I'm dealing with primarily copies that are as close to the real thing as possible. Many manufacturers made "Mosrite copies" that were really just Mosrite inspired and these are easy to tell apart. Some Japanese copies do have Mosrite of California written on both the headstock and trem unit. The trems can have Moseley or Vibramute but not all have the "of California" under the Mosrite logo and name. The first "replicas" were built by the Firstman company in Japan and these are almost impossible to tell from a real USA one. The first Japanese copies commonly available were called the Mosrite Avenger. I'm pretty sure these were made by Firstman as well. Generally speaking you could say that recent Japanese copies are going to have better finishes than an original Mosrite because age has not checked the finish. Mosrite used nitrocellulose which does check badly in some cases. The toggle switch on all Mosrites was a blade type switch made by Switchcraft. Most Japanese Mosrites have a box type switch. Original pots were Centralab brand and will have production dates and a fine spline shaft. Japanese Mosrites have a generic Japanese brand with a coarse spline. Mosrite fretwire was very small this is not being made at all anymore. Current Japanese copies have a small wire close to this, but not exactly the same. Some of the '60's copies have wire almost identical. The current Japanese copies have Kluson style tuners with Mosrite stamped into the housing where Kluson was written. Mosrite NEVER used these tuners. It's a little hard to tell this, but US made Mosrites used imperial measurements where Japanese copies use metric. The bottom line is, if it's a nice playing and great sounding guitar and it's not too expensive, then buy it. If you're buying it as an investment, then make sure it's real. If you're buying it to play, then make sure you like it. page 1 - page 2 - page 3 - page 4 - page 5 - page 6 - page 7 |
