Mosrite Ventures II - December 1965 - 1 of 400 - Factory Custom Color? Refinish? - Price drop!

For sale is a 1965 Mosrite Ventures II.
Serial B297.
Neck date stamp: Dec 17 1965
Neck pocket date stamp: Dec 7 1965

Price negotiable!
2015-03-08: Price drop.
2015-03-22: Price dropped again!
2015-04-02: Price dropped again!
2015-04-13: Price dropped again!

From what I’ve been able to gather by reading the extensive catalogue of Mosrite II serial numbers at hang10.de, this particular guitar was one of about 400 of this type produced, with some features held over from an earlier batch of 100 Mark II’s that this particular Mark II is separated from by only about 40 guitars inbetween.

I purchased this guitar locally through a private sale at the beginning of February. Two days later I lost my car in an accident. Freedom of movement is more important to me than owning a Mosrite, so it's going back on the market.

Notes:

• I do not know with 100% certainty whether or not the finish is original. It’s a maroon/dark cherry red, almost with a hint of purple; not the ordinary light cherry red you see on many other Mosrites, but not exactly the factory custom colour Maroon that you can find on various rare examples like this Ventures I at . If it’s a refinish, it’s probably about as old as the guitar judging by how nearly completely the paint is checking. There are multiple dings, chips, and dents that show through to a light grey undercoat in some areas and a sea foam green undercoat in other areas, sometimes even right next to each other. I surprisingly managed to dig up a thread on Mosriteforum.com from August 2009 asking about the finish ON THIS VERY SAME GUITAR! In the thread, another maroon Mosrite is posted half way down the first page with similar paint damage showing an undercoat beneath the top layer, and the last post in the thread is a member of the forum anecdotally relating that his own blue Mosrite has at least 3 undercoats. With that in mind, I don't believe it to be out of the question that the finish is original. The thread can be seen here: .

• Update: I've been getting some messages from people claiming that they know for a fact that this is a refinish and how dare I speculate otherwise? Cool your jets before you send me another one of these. You'd think I set an orphanage on fire with the attitude I'm getting over this, so let me repeat: I DO NOT KNOW IF THE FINISH IS ORIGINAL OR NOT. The price is set to reflect the possible non-originality of the finish as-is, so let's all just relax now.

• I am assuming that this pickguard is original to the guitar (or that it is at least period correct) because it is made of the kind of "highly-flammable" celluloid plastic that fell out of favour when gas-cooled injection molding became viable in the 1970s and made the mass-production of plastic items a whole lot easier and safer, and because the pickguard itself has shrunk and warped slightly over time (which celluloid but hardly any other plastic has a tendency to do). This is most notable in the way the strip that comes up behind the neck pickup curves up about 1/4" from the body (or about as high as the top of the pickup mounting ring.)

• The neck is incredibly straight but the frets have been sanded impractically flat, and some appear to be lifting. As a result it’s a great rhythm guitar but any solo or lead work with even the slightest bends can be tough to pull off with the strings dragging across the fretboard like that. If I were to keep this guitar, the first thing I would do would be to take it to a tech and have it re-fretted, but because circumstances won’t allow, I will leave the choice of replacement fret style up to the new buyer. It doesn't make sense for me to put my own preference of frets on this guitar if I'm not going to be playing it. I've never even touched another Mosrite before so for all I know this might be what they're all supposed to be like, and I would hate to ruin it for someone else if they wanted to keep it like that.

• The string guide at the nut is loose and ought to be re-set. It doesn’t affect the playability of the guitar when the strings are at tension, but it fell off when I replaced the strings. I thought about applying a dab of glue to re-set it, but the glue from the original set-job (or prior additional set-jobs) ought to be chipped away first to prevent unevenness.

• The diagonal grain of the fretboard wood (Brazilian Rosewood?) is phenomenal, but it seems to have been cleaned a bit abrasively with steel wool one too many times in the past.

• The tuning peg shaft for the G string is slightly bent off to one side. The tuners are all matching Kluson Deluxes with white plastic pegs.

• The bridge pivots freely when using the vibrato and I haven’t noticed any detuning issues after having used it.

• Pots were a bit scratchy when I first got it, gave them a quick spurt of Deoxit D5 and now they work perfectly.

• Case is non-original, custom built. The guitar fits a bit tight inside but the case is sturdy as all hell and apparently reinforced throughout. Just check out the size of the wood braces. The interior of the case reminds me of something I would expect to find in a sushi restaurant or something.

I tried taking as many photos from as many angles as I could. Please refer to the images to see the paint checking, the dings, and the damage. The damage is mostly superficial but some dents have taken out small bits of wood.

Feel free to send me a request if you would like more photos of a particular area of the guitar.

I've listed the condition as 'fair' because it's not in 'good' shape but it's not 'poor' either; all of the original hardware is there and everything functions like it should. After a refret and possible body/neck refinish this thing could look and play as good as new. I’m not trying to hide anything here or sugarcoat any of the issues this guitar has. It's a 50 year old instrument, and it shows. It’s not a collector grade guitar by regular standards, but if the finish is original it would make it one of those rare and illusive custom colours that are usually priced out of the reach of most casual players. This is a guitar to be played. This is not a guitar to sit in a closet for 50 years as an "investment." You don’t often see a Mosrite come up for sale that you wouldn’t feel to scared to touch, so here’s your chance to own one.

PRICE DROP: $1999 to $1699 to $1499 to $1399. Please feel free to make what you consider to be a fair offer if you are seriously interested. I would rather field a handful of lower offers and be able to select one in a relatively short period of time than be waiting months for this to sell. This could be the deal you've been waiting for.