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Hola Mosrite gurus! I'm basking in the glory of a new (old) Japanese Mosrite (clone) - my 1st ever. WOW. I should have got one of these puppies years ago. I read and read and read into the history of Mosrite & particularly MIJ clones just prior to purchasing this guitar, as I'm a total Mosrite noob. I am only slightly more educated after reading the many confusing & contradictory statements on the web.

As far as I can tell - and please correct me of I'm wrong - what I have here is a Mosrite of Japan, ash-bodied "Ventures" model clone from the 70s. It was sold to me as a Firstman... but Tym guitars, who sold it to the guy I bought from, assures me that it isn't. Whatever it is, it sounds amazing and it plays beautifully. I have no idea how close it is to the real thing, but I checked it out before buying and was truly blown away by the quality and playabilty of this guitar. What a growly hot little number!!!! I was a little scared by the talk of tiny slim little necks, but turns out there's no issue there at all. Very comfy. All it needed was a little tweak to the string height (higher) and it is perfection.

Anyhow, I'm pretty much obsessed now. I may need to sell my les paul historic R8 & 1965 mustang & start looking at the real thing.... But for now, I am gonna play the heck outta this thing. It just loves fuzz!

Crappy pics here if you're interested:









By olofz at 2012-06-12

I'm betting you will enjoy many hours of playing this beauty... You didn't hear this from me, but sometimes, I think, clones try a little harder, and incorporate some improvements over the original. But then there are the knock-offs, where the objective is to just look like the original at much lower cost of production... The challenge for us guitar addicts is telling the difference!

I will reiterate - having a cople of these late-60s, early 70s Firstman/Fillmore Mosrites - that IMHO, they play about as well as any Mosrite I own, and the p'ups sound much "beefier" than my originals ... I like 'em.

Great report Olof, she certainly is a beauty! I love my Japanese Mosrite (Kurokumo) and also my Hallmark 60C, although they are not USA originals.

I hear wonderful things about those Hallmarks. I'm gonna just enjoy this one for a good while, but I already have an eye on one of those Candy Blue 60Cs. Great price on them, too.

The more I look into this guitar, the more it seems like its a Kurokomo built clone. Apparently Fillmore didn't build ash-bodied Mosrites til the 90s. Can anybody tell definitively which company built this one? I'm still very much an amateur spotter....

Check the neck plate - if it has the 'teardrop' at the bottom, it is an early Fillmore/Firstman, which I believe evolved into the KuroKumo brand ...
Dennis

Nice...I like the grain of the ash, makes it unique. Congrats!

congrats on the new mosrite clone. like I said before, I was always a gibson les paul guy until I upgraded to a mosrite

Wow!! Great looking guitar. I just have to love that wood grain. I'm finding a peculiarity in your pictures though that others may be able to help on. The knobs appear to be real Mosrite knobs. I have never seen knobs with both the "M" and "numbers on the knob skirts" on a reproduction guitar. I have seen them with just the "M" but never with the numbers. Maybe somebody could shed some light on this. Maybe somebody had some extra real Mosrite knobs and put them on this guitar.

GattonFan wrote:I will reiterate - having a cople of these late-60s, early 70s Firstman/Fillmore Mosrites - that IMHO, they play about as well as any Mosrite I own, and the p'ups sound much "beefier" than my originals ... I like 'em.

yeah I like em too.
i like the Zen-On/Morales clones with their mahogany bodies too.
had a Mosrite like above (had to check it wasnt mine first ) with the ash body but mine was alder.
a magnet swap on some of these pickups can work wonders too.