Mosrite 12-String

built in bakersfield calif in 1966 I believe. it is a caeved top slender body with good light wieght and good feel. the neck is so unbelievably slender, thin, with rosewood fret board .neck maple. low narrow frets, kluson delux tuners. painted pearl essance white. has two sngl coil humbucker style pick ups. a three piece laminated plastic pick guard, the Mosrite "hat" style volume and tone knobs and a 3 way toggle pickup selector. It has a stop tail piece and a Mosrite roller style bridge with 12 individual rollers.the pick ups and knobs have the moserite markings on them. the paint has taken on a bit of a very slight yellow tint told that it is the nature of the pearl essence to do so.
the guitar was bought for me by my older brother in 1969 later part I believe . the seller was a sessions and tour guitarest who had found god and gave up the evil music of the times. paid $150.00 cash for it.
We were told it once belonged to Merle Hagard inside the case was a back stage pass for merle hagard concert. along with severale other passes for other concerts.including one for jim hendrix at the filmore in san francisco,the serial # T 046 on the fret board. and a date as well the # 0003 under the chrome plate on the back side of the body.
this is were the screws holding body and neck together are.
in the original case also was a seconed set of moserite pick ups that were matched and ran a bit hotter than the ones on the guitar.
as well as extra hardware , bridge ,tail piece,tuners ,pots etc.

the sound was realy pretty realy good ,I played thru various amps over the years and with some exploration/ experimentation have been able to pull a wide range of sounds from it. a heavy handed player would not enjoy . lead riffs are as easy flowing as could ask for. all others who have played it have fallin under its spell.
I play it often . it has been used for jazz, blues, rock about every variation of thease. I have three differant pick up,pots,switch set ups for it. I can change one out for another with some ease. no modifications made to the body its self. and is now set to original configuration.

the guitar is solid, well built, holds its tune and settings very well.
intonation was a little off when I recieved it. the action is great. have done very minor adjustments to it. so its pretty well close to the way the factory set up originally. original neck is still in great shape.
have had it refretted a few times but stay as close to original specs.
joy to play it and is one of my favorites .

the guitar has seen a lot of miles , and a lot of history. it was played at filmore the last days in S.F. ,winterland in S F.and all across the country several times. used mostly on a song or two.
always know when I pick it up its ready to go and has never had it let me down. never had a back up for it as aposed to other guitars. it always does what I expect it to do. all hard ware screws etc are original even still has the original strap I bought for,

N/A

my seconed guitar, been playing for 36 yrs, have I believe some where around 80 or so guitars. 56 gib les paul, various strats from 57/8 thru to 70's, a couple tele's, a jazzman, 3 sg's, jackson, electric takamine,
6 custom built, list goes on. schecter.
the moserite has always come thru for me.easy to maintain, a pleasure to play. a great history of guest palyers. if it were stolen it would be a majore heart ache to me would try to replace if could not find the one I have now. have played a couple others moserite 12's just like mine. they also were nice but even owners of the others agreed mine has just a little something differant about it . my son now often plays it and is very caring of it. and has been promised it will be his . as well as others like the 56 les paul but he cares a bit more for it than others. as with me he will often pull it out and play it.
several times a month one or the other will spend time on it.

built in bakersfield calif in 1966 I believe. it is a caeved top slender body with good light wieght and good feel. the neck is so unbelievably slender, thin, with rosewood fret board .neck maple. low narrow frets, kluson delux tuners. painted pearl essance white. has two sngl coil humbucker style pick ups. a three piece laminated plastic pick guard, the Mosrite "hat" style volume and tone knobs and a 3 way toggle pickup selector. It has a stop tail piece and a Mosrite roller style bridge with 12 individual rollers.the pick ups and knobs have the moserite markings on them. the paint has taken on a bit of a very slight yellow tint told that it is the nature of the pearl essence to do so.
the guitar was bought for me by my older brother in 1969 later part I believe . the seller was a sessions and tour guitarest who had found god and gave up the evil music of the times. paid $150.00 cash for it.
We were told it once belonged to Merle Hagard inside the case was a back stage pass for merle hagard concert. along with severale other passes for other concerts.including one for jim hendrix at the filmore in san francisco,the serial # T 046 on the fret board. and a date as well the # 0003 under the chrome plate on the back side of the body.
this is were the screws holding body and neck together are.
in the original case also was a seconed set of moserite pick ups that were matched and ran a bit hotter than the ones on the guitar.
as well as extra hardware , bridge ,tail piece,tuners ,pots etc.

the sound was realy pretty realy good ,I played thru various amps over the years and with some exploration/ experimentation have been able to pull a wide range of sounds from it. a heavy handed player would not enjoy . lead riffs are as easy flowing as could ask for. all others who have played it have fallin under its spell.
I play it often . it has been used for jazz, blues, rock about every variation of thease. I have three differant pick up,pots,switch set ups for it. I can change one out for another with some ease. no modifications made to the body its self. and is now set to original configuration.

the guitar is solid, well built, holds its tune and settings very well.
intonation was a little off when I recieved it. the action is great. have done very minor adjustments to it. so its pretty well close to the way the factory set up originally. original neck is still in great shape.
have had it refretted a few times but stay as close to original specs.
joy to play it and is one of my favorites .

the guitar has seen a lot of miles , and a lot of history. it was played at filmore the last days in S.F. ,winterland in S F.and all across the country several times. used mostly on a song or two.
always know when I pick it up its ready to go and has never had it let me down. never had a back up for it as aposed to other guitars. it always does what I expect it to do. all hard ware screws etc are original even still has the original strap I bought for,

N/A

my seconed guitar, been playing for 36 yrs, have I believe some where around 80 or so guitars. 56 gib les paul, various strats from 57/8 thru to 70's, a couple tele's, a jazzman, 3 sg's, jackson, electric takamine,
6 custom built, list goes on. schecter.
the moserite has always come thru for me.easy to maintain, a pleasure to play. a great history of guest palyers. if it were stolen it would be a majore heart ache to me would try to replace if could not find the one I have now. have played a couple others moserite 12's just like mine. they also were nice but even owners of the others agreed mine has just a little something differant about it . my son now often plays it and is very caring of it. and has been promised it will be his . as well as others like the 56 les paul but he cares a bit more for it than others. as with me he will often pull it out and play it.
several times a month one or the other will spend time on it.

Mosrite 12 string / Production location: Bakersfield, California, USA / All original parts ( Nothing is modfied or altered )

Color: 3-color Sunburst / 22 Frets / Serial # T 424 /

I played through a Musicman amp 112 RD with a foot switch. / Very rich and bright sound were created. / A real Venture's sound created !

No visible rust. / A few very tiny dents are visible. / Body paint is 99.9 % OK.

This guitar is in pristine condition.

Very thin neck and very easy to play.

Every thing is OK. A well-made guitar.

This guitar will probaly last another 50 years. I will be giving this guitar to my son, who just started to play some Venture's music with me approximately a year ago. Also, we play some Shadows ( UK players in the 60's & 70's ) music with this guitar.

This guitar company " Mosrite " does not exist any more. No warranty whatsoever.

One of my associates is an excellent electrician, who can repair almost anything, therefore, we do not need any warranty.

I have been playing guitar since 1965.

I was born in the West Kanda section of Tokyo, Japan. When I was an early teenager, we copied the Venture's music from the US & the Shadows music from the UK.

In 1966, my father bought me a Japanese electric guitar for $ 165. In those days, an university graduate's 1st monthly salary was $ 150. The 6-string Mosrite guitars were sold for anywhere from $ 2,000 to $ 3,000 in Japan. The 12-string Mosrite guitars were $ 3,500 to $ 4,000 since there was no import of US guitars in Japan during the early and mid 1960's. The Fender Jaguar guitars were sold for anywhere from $ 2,000 to $ 3,000.

I came to San Francisco in August, 1971 and started to look for a decent Mosrite guitar. I could not find any.

I purchased my 12-string Mosrite 3-colored Sunbust guitar in 2004 from the E-Bay Auction site. The price was $ 1,250. I have located a few of the 12-string Mosrite guitars with same model & same color but inferior quality in the past 6 months. The price what the sellers were asking was anywhere from $ 2,800 to $ 3,500. Simply amazing that the price went almost double or triple !

My son and I own a little over 30 guitars. We have only 4 vintage guitars in our collection.

The craftmanship of Mosrite and Fender Jaguar guitars is simply amazing. There is no comparison ! I pesronally do not like the re-issue or Japanese made guitars. Nothing is better than the real thing !

I restore Japanese swords for living and I know that they are the best. So are the Mosrite & Fender Jaguar guitars. I wish I knew how to restore the American-made guitars.

This combi 12 was made in California (where else) in '66 or '67. Nearly identical to the other review above. Serial G-0018.
This has a unique and bizarre thin-line hollow construction: A thick solid flat ash(?) top with a "german carve" (thick fluting) at the edge, narrow sides and a thin flat back slapped on like an afterthought. It is an offset contour, backward double cutaway, with the lower horn longer than the upper, one f-hole. It is a nail polish red with cream binding. The thin profile, beautiful bird's eye maple neck with bound rosewood board is bolted on. It has a 12-roller adjustable bridge, I don't know why as there is a stop tailpiece of aluminum and rosewood. Kluson pegs, vol & tone pots, 3-way switch, floating pickguard. Original angled sigle coils replaced long ago with Gibson sticker humbuckers.

The sustain is amazing for a hollow-ish instrument, and feedback is very easily controlled due to the heavy, thick top and dense neck.
This is a ringer not a twanger thanks to the humbuckers, very 60's. I use this for finger picking rather than strumming as it gets kinda muddy and distorts like crazy when played hard- again the h/b's. Does a fair Mahavishnu impression as a lead guitar.

The action on this is rediculously low with no buzzing or dead frets. A really well made neck. The frets are super small and low which is just wrong for a 12, as your finger hits the board with the wound string fretted, and it takes concentration to fret both strings.
Overly thick varnish on the neck, the grain is beginning to show through on the top, scratches were conveniently covered with nail polish.
Definitely original stop tailpiece is home-made looking, crooked and lumpy.
The paper thin neck is really flexible, even worse than a my old Coronado, but the unlike the Fender, the Mosrite holds its tune for ever. I bend notes with the neck and it goes right back to straight. Hilarious. I left it in a closet once for 4 years and it was still in tune.

This thing is old, I have had it for 24 years and it is in better shape than me. I used to gig with my old guitars but this is worth too much now. Too bad as nothing I have ever played sounds like this.
The original swithches and pots are smooth and silent.

Mosrite is defunct.

I bought this as the only old 12 I could afford in high school. Since then I have had a Wildwood Fender Coronado 12(shouldn't have sold that one) and a Ricky 360-12 but I only kept the Mosrite, for the unique sound and look. I also have a '66 special order maple Jaguar (a rare mistake from fender), '67 Gretsch Tennesean feedback queen (stolen), '52 arthur Hansel, '38 Washburn 000 copy, etc. I tend to play everything too loud and favour giant tube amps and old noisy electronics if any. They are too heavy to steal. I play a $200 Tokai strat phony in public. I really would love some original p/u's, the only thing missing from this oddity. I could never afford another if it was ripped off. Youu could never find another.

This guitar was built in Bakersfield California in 1966. It is a semi-acoustic with a carved spruce top and walnut back painted in an opaque lipstick red with cream binding on the back and top. The thin two piece maple neck has a rosewood fingerboard with low and narrow frets and is painted with a clear laquer and has cream binding as well. It has Kluson Deluxe tuners, two large single coil pickups bearing the Mosrite logo, a three piece laminated plastic pick guard, the Mosrite "hat" style volume and tone knobs and a switchcraft 3 way toggle pickup selector. It has a stop tail piece and a Mosrite roller style bridge with 12 individual rollers. The serial number is G0004. I bought it from a fellow in Washington DC in Jan. 2004.

This is one of those guitars that plays you, not the other way round. It smacks of 60's twang. I write music for commercials so I have to play all styles and this guitar really fills that 60's niche quite nicely. It can also sound very modern if used properly. I use it DI or with a Line 6 Pod. The guitar is a bit noisy due to the single coil pickups but it's no big deal. I really like how the guitar feels, it has a great neck.

I've seen stratocasters this old with not much finish left on the neck. This guitars' neck is still in good nick. The body has a couple of scratches in the paint but overall it is in very good condition so I would have to say it got a good paint job at the factory. The guitar is set up beautifully, I did it myself, though it isn't much different from the way it was when I got it, I just lowered the action a tad and setup the intonation. Twelve string guitars have inherent intonation problems with the G and D strings due to the mismatched pairings of wound and unwound strings, so you live with it.

This guitar is in excellent shape, is road worthy and will probably last for years to come as it is well built with quality materials, the volume and tone pots don't even scratch.

There is no customer support available for these guitars as the company no longer exists.

This is one of those classic guitars. It is very playable. The Rickenbaker 12 string looks nice but it is tough to play as the neck is too narrow. Its like you have to put your fingertips into a pencil sharpener to play one. This guitar has a kind of funky looking oversized body but the neck is just right. The Mosrite Ventures model twelve string has a tremolo on it and the Combo model doesn't, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing. I also have an '86 Les Paul Custom, an 80's Stratocaster, a Hamer Phantom, a Dan Electro, an Airliner Hawaiian guitar an Ovulation and a Rioji Matsuoka Classical guitar.