Mosrite II pickup question

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Dennisthe Menace
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Re: Mosrite II pickup question

Postby Dennisthe Menace » Wed Jan 28, 2015 10:20 am

Greg_L wrote:
zarfnober wrote:There are photos in the very early days where he ran 2 heads into a full stack. IIRC, the channels were also jumpered on each amp, checkerboard cabs and the blue guitar. But you can read his book, where he says 1-4x12 full, one empty. But there were always spares.

I haven't seen any pics of Johnny jumping channels, but those old Super Leads could be daisy chained with a little creativity (Hendrix did it), we know he used a A/B splitter as an on/off switch, and he could have ran two heads into two cabs as a stack. But that would be unbelievably loud for just about any venue they would have played in those early days and two heads can't go into one cab. It would blow that cab to pieces, or the amp's transformers would nuke themselves right away from the impedance mismatch. I don't claim to know what Johnny actually did, but I know those amps and cabs intimately. I have them and have been using them for years. So I'm just thinking out loud here. The only way he was using more than one head at a time was if he was using more cabs than one, and like you mentioned he said in his book that he quickly switched to only using one cab. But when I saw them later on in big venues, he definitely had guitar sound coming from Dee Dee's side of the stage, so at that point he was running his main amp feeding multiple cabs, or a second amp sent to the bass side.

My own personal assumption from reading his book, seeing bunches of pics, knowing those amps very well, and using those amps myself in similarly sized venues, is that in those early early days he ran one amp and one cab for sheer noise consideration, and the other amps and cabs were stage props and/or backups. The second/third amps that appear to be on and connected could be running idle ready to go as a backup, or his guitar could have been split to feed more than one head feeding multiple cabs. Some of those Super Leads from that era could power four cabs at once, but you couldn't run more than one amp into a single cab. I tend to believe that he ran his guitar into a splitter for his on/off switch, which we know he did, then that went to both amps with one being on standby, or it went to another splitter side-stage in case of an amp breakdown, where Mickey could switch amps on the fly.

Another assumption I have is that Johnny is rolling his eyes at us from heaven as we try to dissect his stage rigs. Sorry Johnny, this stuff fascinates me and we just love you dude! :lol:
Hey Guys,
No offense considering this is a very interesting subject with the amps, but I would say you guys did a
complete 180 from the "Mosrite II pickup question" in which this subject first started......:roll:
make the Mos' of it, choose the 'rite stuff.
.........Owner of 9 Mosrites...
.....proud owner and documented:
1963 "the Ventures" Model s/n #0038
http://www.thevintagerockproject.com/

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Greg_L
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Re: Mosrite II pickup question

Postby Greg_L » Wed Jan 28, 2015 11:55 am

That is true! My sincerest apologies for spinning way off topic.

I'll try to give an answer....I've never played a Ventures II. But other Mosrite pickups are pretty hot for a single coil, and it sounds like Johnny's bridge pickup drove his amps pretty hard, so I would assume the Ventures II pickups are very hot single coils.

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zarfnober
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Re: Mosrite II pickup question

Postby zarfnober » Fri Jan 30, 2015 4:26 pm

Never measured mine, but I believe I read that they are somewhere in the range of 8.5-9 ohms dc resistance, IF you use the correct amp and speakers :mrgreen:

Seriously though, you can get pretty close to his sound if you have an EL34 amp, or an EL84 powered amp if the circuit is close, going through the greenbacks. It helps if you have single coils that are close in resistance. But take time using the above combo with a lot of practice in your right hand, and you will eventually get there. His right hand was a huge part of making the above work.

Rocco
www.rockometeramp.com Vinatge spec American and British style cabs, custom cabs, recovers, regrills and restorations.

timmat
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Re: Mosrite II pickup question

Postby timmat » Thu Feb 12, 2015 9:27 pm

With regards to capturing the recorded tone of the first few albums. - it has been stated that Johnny actually tracked with a standard Ventures model. There is a photo of him in his book recording the first album and he is very clearly using a standard Ventures model. Having owned both a stock Ventures and slab body Ventures II, the standard Ventures pick ups have a little more depth to the tone. The ones on the VII have a bit more scream, if that makes sense. For playing live, a good set of P90s would get you pretty close, if coupled with a cranked 80s Marshall and relentless downstrokes.

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Re: Mosrite II pickup question

Postby Crestwood » Fri Feb 13, 2015 2:26 am

Hi guys, I just joint the forum to give some input to the Johnny Ramone pickup discussion. I own one of the 65 slab body Ventures II models and can tell you it's not only about marshalls, it's also about this particular guitar and its pups. When I recieved my Ventures II the wire of the bridge pup was broke so I had to let it rewind. What I saw after we went through tons of wax was one of the biggest and most archaic looking magnets that I ever saw in a guitar, surrounded by loops of very thick looking wire. We rewired this pup to the specs of the still original neck pup, which measured 14 Kohm. So, these pups are extremely loud for single coils, drive every amp really hard and they are a bit microphonic and pretty noisy when you stop playing. This might be one of the reasons why the Ramones made no breaks in their set: when you take your hands from the guitar while being plugged in a crancked up amp it starts feedbacking wildly. However, this can be handeld by turning the volume knob down. Even if you have no Marshall amp at your command: you get very close to the Ramones sound even with a small practice amp an overdrive pedal and this special guitar. By the way: it has also a very nice clean sound and the stone age looking vibrato unit is the smoothest trem that I have ever experienced.
Regards, Stefan

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zarfnober
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Re: Mosrite II pickup question

Postby zarfnober » Fri Feb 13, 2015 7:37 am

timmat wrote:With regards to capturing the recorded tone of the first few albums. - it has been stated that Johnny actually tracked with a standard Ventures model. There is a photo of him in his book recording the first album and he is very clearly using a standard Ventures model. Having owned both a stock Ventures and slab body Ventures II, the standard Ventures pick ups have a little more depth to the tone. The ones on the VII have a bit more scream, if that makes sense. For playing live, a good set of P90s would get you pretty close, if coupled with a cranked 80s Marshall and relentless downstrokes.


Yes, you are correct. I don't know though if he recorded everything on any of those records with that guitar. Also, I've seen pictures of him in the studio with a later blue carved body, so still a guessing game as far as the studio goes, guitar wise anyway. Now let's get back to the live sound, listen to them at the Whiskey or Roxy, they released a cd with this early show, with no studio overdubs. And that, among others is the early sound. Then listen to later records and live shows, the sound does change, and it's pickups and amps. Those were changed. And it all sounds good to my ears.

Rocco
www.rockometeramp.com Vinatge spec American and British style cabs, custom cabs, recovers, regrills and restorations.


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