Wilson Bros. VM-75 Ventures Model

i am posting an addition to my previous post below...
if you have one of these..guitars....let me give you some helpful hints.....
first...i was having hell with the tremolo...and bad tuning problems....
i couldnt get it right...trem was too loose or too tight..
heres a tip..throw away the cheap *** springs that come with it..
i bought 2 real fender strat springs...real ones..they are heavy gauge..
they come in heavy , medium and light....get heavy..,
you only need two....i mounted two..one of each side...and i set them slightly to the center of the claw...and put the other end on each end of the block......it works perfect...you get good springy trem action and stable tuning..very much like a jazzmaster tremolo or a mosrite....not stiff like a strat.....its way way way better now..i love the tremolo now...its super cool.

also...pay 30 dollars for a pro to cut you a good bone nut..this will make the guitar play unreal good..the stock nut just sucks tone and causes problems.....the chinese dont know **** about making nuts....

i also..replaced the cheap tiny pots with 250 k brand name big pots...and the switch and jack too...these are easy fixes and cheap.....and you can do them pretty easy yourself....buy a good quality cap for the tone..like an .022 or something...the route for the stock electronics is kinda tiny....you may have trouble fitting the new pots back in the hole....but i worked it out on mine...

i went ahead and bought some nice p-90 pickups ..the stock ones were ok..but these are lots better...i got 2 vintage vibe models...


these simple things will cure your problems....and its still an inexpensive but great guitar...i love mine more now..much m0re...

it is a rather heavy guitar though...cant fix that.

it is a really cool looking guitar....

sounds way better now..i play surf and instrumental rock and country....it covers everything....the vibrato bar really adds some great sound...and its real easy to get your hand on the bar...it sits down nice and low....not a mile high tv antennae like on some fenders...

spend a little extra money on proper setup and you got a great playing ventures guitar...

yes to all those questions.
will it withstand live playing..?
as opposed to dead playing.?
who writes these lame *** suggested questions..?
can i depend on it..?
to do what..?keep me warm when i'm old and sick..?
to drive me to the store..?

the warranty is about 8 inches long..

i hate the weight of it....but i play sitting down mostly so it doesnt matter...i might buy this guitar again....if i had to...but i went thru a lot of time fixing it up..dont want to do that all over..this is one of the best ventures endorsed guitars in quite a while...i bought some kind of mosrite from the 80's once...a ventures style mosrite ...from the orient..it was god awful ..the worst guitar i ever touched....i cried tears of joy when i sold it on ebay....and the guy loved it...and i made money on it..!!!!!!!.sweeeet..

i got the sunburst vm-75 with the start style tremolo...it says made in korea on the neck....but in the neck pocket is hand written..made in china..so..you decide...2 duncan designed p-90 pickups..great pickups....nice looking finish...nice binding...this a very long scale guitar..they advertise it as 25 1/2 ..like a tele..but mine measures almost a 1/2 inch more than 25 1/2....i like it...it is almost as long a scale as the django selmer style guitars...i can see no bad faults with the guitar...

this guitar is great...it has lots of sounds....i am kinda in love with playing solo jazz and chet atkins style stuff on the neck pickup...the huge body gives a nice full resonance..like a nice jazz guitar would....sounds way more full than a telecaster or strat, but not muddy.....the tone control really works well....it actually changes the tone,unlike on some guitars you see...of course, it will do the ventures type surf sound really well...i play bb king style blues on it too and it sounds great for that too...its a great all around guitar....very full sounding..not thin....its fat...i know that the bald headed baseball hat wearing over 50 year old pseudo-bluesman guys would laugh if you brought this to a blues/jam or gig...but let them...till you crank it up...and wail.... i use mine around the house thru practice amps../.for loud stuff, thru my ac/30 , it sounds best on the normal channel...and i like to use a compressor with it too...and sometimes an overdrive pedal..it wails..thumbs up to the wilson brothers..

ok....from out of the box, this guitar sucked eggs....the setup was god awful....if you picked it up in a store, like it came to me, you would not want it at all....the strings were too light...the action way too high and the neck needed to be tightened..,,but those things are fixable...i spent an hour or so tweaking on it...i strung it with 10's with a wound 18 third...then i put an 11 on the high e string..this works very well, for me...i had to take off the neck and put in a shim...the angle sucked....thats where i saw the 'made in china' written in red ....i tightened the neck with the allen wrench that comes with it.,.i had to dick around with the saddle heights...to get a happy balance between low action and buzz....i think i got a good balance...the long scale, would make using much heavier strings no good, for rock..unless you have giant hands...the reach on some of the frets is quite long.....its a long *** guitar..but i think it plays great now..it is very smooth...not cheap feeling...it is stout...you could kill a person with it.....the big problem is with the tremolo set up,,,it comes with 2 springs attached.,...this gives a super springy vibrato but makes the string tension way too loose...unuseable....i dicked around with it for quite a while...i put the third spring in it.,..and this made it very tight and solid...but way hard to use the arm,.....i dicked around some more...i loosened the screws that hold the trem to the body...and i moved one spring over towards the bass side...and it seems to work pretty good like this...it is not near as springy as i would like but i have to live with it....i prefer the kind where you can put your pinky on the arm and get some bend action, but this one takes more pressure than that to make much warble....but i am ok with it now...the trem has the cheap small block, but i dont think it is interchangeable with aftermarket steel blocks...as the spacing seems wider than a strat,,,the neck is wider than strat....it makes fingering weird chords easier....but if you have little bitty hands, i would not get this guitar...unless you just play cowboy chords all the time..

seems sound as a pound...althought the tuners look like kluson, they are a cheap knock off copy and i would replace them, eventually....also could really benefit from a new bone nut, which i plan to have made for mine....

dont know..but i'd love to meet don wilson.,...the ventures , chet atkins and the beatles, thats the stuff.. for me....

i have been playing since the 60;s....i plan on keeping this guitar and using it a lot...my other guitars are telecasters and i hope to get a good jazzmaster sometime soon...for 500 dollars, this guitar gives you an awful lot...the fret work is very good....the neck feels nice....i dont see how you could get much more for the money... i would pay more for one if it came with a good quality vibramute tremolo..i would much rather have this than an old mosrite..they have no frets at all and are impossible to bend on...and they cost too much now..,

This is my second VM-75 and my second review. I bought my first one in 2006 and sold it about a year later. I've missed it ever since. I just recently bought another one from Musicians Friend. The features are your basic two P-90 type pickups, tone, volume and a pickup switch. The neck and body are nicely bound. The finish is glass smooth. This one actually has a better finish than my first one. No imperfectins what so ever.

I now play through a Fender Supersonic amp. The VM-75 sounds fantastic on both channels. Its a bit noisy, but I should be able to ground it better. The VM-75 is way louder than my Strats, Teles and my one Les Paul Jr. For rock and blues its has a nice creamy sound as it just starts to break up with volume.

The reason for this second review, is that the set up was terrible. The action was pathetic. When I went to adjust the truss rod, it was loose. It took 5 turns before the truss rod tightened at all. Two more turns got the neck ok. I adjusted the saddles, so that the action was finally pretty good. The intonation was pretty good, at least playable. I have to fiddle with it some more. My first VM-75 was much better, but still needed some final adjustments. The finish is perfect. The pickups seem adjusted ok. My rating is 0 for the set up and 10 for the finish. Average will be a 4.

Everything seems hardy. The pickup switch feels cheap, but never let me down on my first VM-75. The guitar is heavy. The machine heads keep in tune.

No opinion.

I like these guitars and will never sell this one. I learned my lesson. It will probably not be my main gigging axe, but it will get played out a bit. These guitars seem built well. Keep in mind, this is a Korean made guitar and you get what you pay for. I feel these guitars are worth the money. They are a lot better made and a lot better sounding than the Korean built name brand guitars. For my overall rating, I'll ignore the crappy set up and assume this was an oversight.

I just purchased my second VM 75.
I also own Fenders and Gibsons. The VM75 plays and sounds as good or better than the other brands.
James Fox was very helpful with some backorder issues I experienced.

The VM 75 has a sound all its own.
You can customize the sound with the tone and volume controls.
I find the tone control especially resonsive without taking anything away from the body of the sound when adjustments are made.
I play surf, Jazz, rock, country.
The VM75 does it all.

I always set the action to suit my personal taste on every guitar I purchase.
Once I got the VM75 the way I like it, it has a feel that makes me reach for the VM75 first when I get ready po play.

I've done shows and sessions with the VM75. This is my Number 1 guitar.
This guitar is as tough as they come.

I do all my own repair.
James Fox at Wilson Guitars has spoken to me personally on the phone on a number of occasions and I am confident that he will stand behind the product 100%.

I've been playing for 45 years.
I just bought my second VM75.
It is everything I ever wanted in a guitar.
The looks attracted me. I had to take a chance and buy one. I was not disappointed.
I was shopping for a Mosrite. The Wilson was the right choice for me.

I bought my VM-75 new in 2006 from Musicians Friend. Nice heavy Alder body with a perfect finish. The tuners look like fake Klusons but seem to keep in tune, with the exception of the low E. I like glossy finished necks and this doesn't disappoint. It has a good average feel. Not Gibson clunky. I hate tremelos, so I blocked mine right away. There is an extra spring in the gig bag, but I like them solid. The P90 fakes sound good. A little darker than I expected, but nice shimmer and sustain to die for. The standard volume/tone knobs and three way switch were what was expected. I forgot these were made in Korea. Its made nicely, though.

I play Rock and Blues. For fun we play a surf song now and then. My pedals are a Mesa Boogie V twin, and a tube screamer. The pickups are not as thin as Fender stuff, but not as hard and crunchy as most newer Gibsons. Sustain goes on forever, and this thing can rock. There was no buzz or hum. There was not muc flexibility in the tone. Both neck and bridge pickups sound similar, with the bridge just slightly brighter. I play mostly in the middle position.

There were no defects. The action was OK, and I should be able to adjust it down a bit. There was no string buzz as it was set up. Until I blocked the bridge, I noticed it was rising up as I tuned it. It seemed difficult to get all strings just right. I didn't add the extra spring, and that might help. It was a snap to block the tremelo the way I like it. I'd probably mark it down for the bridge

It seems solid. I'm not hard on my instruments, so I think it will last. I always take a backup, so that's not an issue. I played it for three sets last night, right out of the box. The finish seems thick, but I haven't banged it yet. I think Korean guitars are fine for the price.

The Wilson Guitars website seems helpful. Like you can contact them with questions. Haven't tried it yet.

I'm not sure this guitar was designed by the Wilsons. There are lots of Mosrite copies out there, and some are quite nice. The Wilsons may have stuck their name one one. I think this is a nicely made and good sounding Korean copy of a Mosrite. Its a fun guitar, but not an overpriced vintage guitar. You are getting what you pay for. If that is ok with you, then this is a good buy.

As an owner of several Mosrites, both originals and repros I thought I would give the VM-75 a try. To try to be fair, I found that this guitar is just what I thought it would be, a fair copy of a Mosrite. By using a Jaguar/Jazzmaster type vibrato setup, the guitar has the same issues...string buzzing due to the angle of the strings over the bridge. The tuners are not of very high quality either.

The guitar has a basic P-90 surf sound,kind of bland without anything special to it, but then again, so does a 20+ year old Univox copy of a Mosrite when you play it thru a Fender tube amp and reverb unit. It's NOT a Fender or a Mosrite.

The set up from the factory was playable, but it took several hours of tweaking to get the action down to a comfortable level, and the intonation right. The rest of the guitar was ok, and the finish was ok.

I haven't really had the guitar long enough to comment on the reliability. I plan on taking the guitar to gigs to use as a backup, rather than carrying 2 expensive guitars.

Haven't needed any customer support yet

I've been playing since the sixties, and have Mosrites, Fenders, a Jerry Jones and a Burns. I feel these guitars are overpriced for what they really are, an economy version of a Mosrite. The Eastwood Sidejacks are Korean copies of Mosrites too, at half the price. I only paid $299 for the Burns Marquee new, and quite honestly thing that it's the equal to the VM-75 at half the price.

Mine is a 2004 model, sunburst as apparently all VM-75's are. In fact I gather, the only difference between the VM-65 & the 75 is the 75 is sunburst -and therefore has an alder body, instead of agathis -as the wood grain shows through. The body style is similar to the old Ventures Mosrite, with the German carve, the slanted neck & slanted neck pickup & shape of the pickguard -but the actual body shape is more like a Strat, with the offset of the "horns" the opposite of the Mosrites, with the bass side horn protruding longer than the treble side. The contour of the lower body is also more typical of a strat. The black, plastic single coil pickups are very hot & reminescent of the Mosrite. The dual pivot strat type tremelo was a cheap compromise, though. For the money, they should have been able to use the the Jazzmaster/ Jaguar type tremelos, the more expensive VCM Japanese ones use. The tremelo seems to work OK, though. The pickups also could use some trim rings, as they don't quite fill up the hole they're set in. Mine came with a cheaply made gig bag, with "Ventures" logo, a couple allen wrenches and an extra tremelo spring. The neck is maple, with rosewood board & is actually kind of beefy and wide, with medium frets -a vast improvement over those "pencil thin" Mosrite necks one reviewer mentioned.

I play a lot of surf, some blues, rock, country, and rhythm guitar. This guitar is geat for the surf sound with the hot single coils, with a lot of deep low end twang. It sounds great with delay & reverb. I have a Gretsch 6120 for the rockabilly and rhythm work and a tele for the country stuff. This guitar is no threat to them in those categories. It does the surf thing very well, though

The action was pretty high, but was easily adjusted down. I still can't get it quite low enough without some string buzz. I'll sort that out, though. Fit & finish was excellent, about the best I've seen on a Korean guitar. Fretwork is excellent and the body, neck & headstock binding are very cool. Headstock design is perfect. I love the way Don Wilson ripped off Semie Moseley's old "M" logo, by simply turning it upside down to make the "W". Kind of makes up for all those years Semie used the Ventures logo without their permission. Imitation Kluson tuning machines seem to work fine,and electronics are plenty quiet

Seems like a tank. Very heavy & solid

Warranties are for appliances and cars, I've never used one on a guitar. If I don't like something, I fix it.

I've been playing over 40 yrs. & owned hundreds of guitars, including about 50 Mosrites. I'm well past trying to impress people with high dollar Vintage pieces. I now look for stuff that plays good, looks good & does what I want. I could care less where it was made, or what some rock star uses. This guitar works for me. I recently got rid of my Mosrites as I was never using them. I missed the unique vibe, though. This guitar delivers that, at a fraction of the price, with a useable neck to boot. My only real beef is the cheesey strat type tremelo. I much preferred the Moseley tremelo, or even the Bigsby or the Jazzmaster type. I would love one of the VCM models, like the Ventures actually use nowdays -but not for $2500.00.

Crafted in Korea in 2003, this guitar(Serial# V008703)is one of the first 100 off the production line.
Features include the following:
* SunBurst, Alder/Agatis-wood, bound carved-top body with a matching SunBurst back. (Trademark body style resembles some of the early Ventures-model Mosrites).
* Bound maple neck with a smooth bolt-on joint . The head is also finished in SunBurst with a "Wave-like" V-Shaped end design. "The Ventures" Logo and the "Wilson Bros." Logo tastefully identify the guitar with a subtle nostalgic reminder of it's Mosrite influence.
* Rosewood fingerboard with 22 nicely finished medium frets; Pearloid dot position markers. The fingerboard terminates at an angle (after the 22nd Fret). This too is fondly reminiscent of the Venture Model Mosrite.
* Black pickups are APS-10 single coils (x2). The neck pickup is angled and parallel with the fingerboard angle. Again, another "Mosrite-like" feature. The 3-ply pickguard is "off-white" and has a "Mosrite-ish" shape.
* 1-Volume and 1-Tone control with black Gibson-style "Bell" knobs; 3 position toggle switch with a Les Paul-style black knob; top-mounted output jack.
* Chrome VFT(2 Stud Type)tremelo tailpiece (with black-tipped chrome tremelo arm).
* Chrome "Kluson-style" tuners with "Fender-style" chrome knobs
(3-left/3-right).
* A black-hardshell "Wilson Bros. The Ventures" Logo Case was also included at no extra cost.

The guitar sounds incredible. With it's single coil pickups it can easily produce the Classic sound of The Ventures and all the other Surf Bands from "The Good Old Days".

The factory set-up and the factory finish are really nice overall. However, a few minor finish blems, an annoying "buzz" from an open 6th sting, and a slightly offset bridge pickup mounting keep me from giving the guitar a solid "10". If I could, I'd easily give it a 9.5 rating in this category.
The action was good and the neck was properly adjusted. A slight tweaking of the bridge saddles was needed to calibrate the intonation and string height.

The guitar looks and plays like it could withstand the "rigors of the road". The finish is glossy and thick, and all of the hardware and components are solidly attached. All moving parts are smooth and have a high quality feel.

J.C., the store owner, was very helpful and very friendly. He had a personal interest in the Wilson Bros./ Ventures Guitar Company. He said he is a nephew of Nokie Edwards, one of the original Ventures. He also had Don Wilson, one of the Wilson "Bros.", and founding/current member of the Ventures, sign my guitar. J.C included 2 Photos of Don autographing this "87th" VM-75.
Prior to my purchase, I spoke at length with James Fox, The third Wilson "Brother".(James, Don, and Don's son Tim are the actual "WILSON BROS."). James was very infomative and also very willing to give this guitatist his personal attention and service.

I'v been playing for 40 years. Over the past 4 decades, I've played and owned a number of guitars. My current collection includes a Vintage 1987 PRS Custom 24 w/ Birds(#7 2051), a 1967 Gibson ES335TD (w/factory Bigsby), a 1975 Gibson Les Paul Standard (w/factory humbuckers), a 1966 Hofner Violin Guitar, a 1939 Epiphone Triunph, a 1971 Martin D-18, and an assorted variety of high-quality Asian-made
6 stringed instruments.
In comparison to my other guitars, this particular VM-75 stands out as one of the best. With all of its' current and future "collector" features, this guitar woud be hard to replace "as is". And, in concert with the fact that this is simply "ONE GREAT GUITAR", I'm confident that "Number 87" will be a "Keeper" for many years to come.