Wilson Brothers Ventures Model. Missing In Action

[LOSTVENTURE]

When I first started my search for a Mosrite, or something reasonably close, the most apparent sources were the Eastwood site and the Wilson Brothers site (referenced directly from the Ventures site) and Musician's Friend on-line. I quickly got away from Eastwood and called MF to get information about availability, brand reputation, cases and so fourth. They said that the guitar was not currently in stock but that they would put me on the waiting list for the next one available. In the meantime I decided to go with the Hallmark, but decided to watch for availability of the Wilson's guitar. My original contact with MF was early June of this year, and I am so glad that I did not get on the waiting list. They still have not received a single guitar according to my last contact earlier this week. Same thing for Guitar Center.
I was just wondering if anybody interested in the Wilson's products had had any similar experiences.
Don

[thunderhead]

I bought a couple of them in 2007, in stock and shipped to me in four days. Not bad for the money, I still have a VM-75 that our second guitarist uses. The Hallmark is a much better Guitar and I ended up selling a VM-65 and VM-110 when the Hallmark arrived. I also still own and play a 1965 Mosrite Ventures, 1983 Mosrite Ventures{Side-Jack} and 1991 Mosrite Ventures. The Hallmark lives very nicely with the Mosrites

[Veenture]

I was once tempted to buy a Wilson Brothers' but what held me back was it's shape and the JM tremolo on it. (I think the pups are OK). I can live with the headstock design but I find the body contours depart too far from those of the original Mosrite Ventures' Model...

I'm afraid that's the closest I came to a Wilson's products experience up to now (no offence to W.B. but glad I found Hallmark)

[Haole Jim]

As a long term Ventures fan, when the Wilson Bros instruments were announced, the attention here was rapt. 'Watched and listened, 'never did see one in Chitown. They were interesting but "unproven and unknown," at best. Then discovered Ed Roman's inventory and made a biz trip to Vegas when he still had he big store and....

[Nokie Van Reinhardt]

I had the same problem with MF a few years back and I thought they had stopped offering these. I eventually did get a WB VM-65 on ebay ($275 + $25 shipping. Mint unplayed.) and I enjoy it. If you like Jazzmasters then you'll love this guitar's tones and at least on mine the tremolo is floating and much better than a Jazzmaster's. The tone control also actually changes the sound of the pickups rather than just rolling off treble.

[jfine]

I ordered a Wilson Bros. guitar in '05 after seeing a mention in Vintage Guitar magazine and reading some rave reviews on Harmony Central. I got one of the upper-line Japanese models (Candy Apple Red, Jazzmaster trem, no body binding)--ordered it direct from Wilson Bros. as they had no dealers in Northern California at the time. What I wanted was a sunburst one with binding, but they didn't have any left. Great people to deal with--unfortunately, I can't remember the name of their sales rep, and I must have spoken with him on the phone a dozen times. Very nice guy, as was everyone I dealt with there. The guitar arrived a week after I made the order, shipped in a very cool alligator case. It looked great, sounded great, played great--unfortunately, I had problems with the Jazzmaster bridge. I sent it back, they sent it to a tech up there in Tacoma who deepened the grooves in the saddles, they sent it back to me, the strings still kept popping out of their slots. Back it went, they sent me another one--it did OK for a few days and then developed the same problem. So I sent it back, with much apologizing. Got my money back, no problem. I told them that if they ever decided to do a model with a Mosrite-style tremolo (Don Wilson has one like that, but I gather it's the only one), I'd take it sight-unseen. Everything about mine was top-notch except for that darn tremolo, and I felt really bad about having to send it back. Their service was also top-notch.