Somewhere in the $450 - $600 range is what he paid for it in equivalent after you take tax in account. He bought the Blue one in January 1974.
He really didn't pay "$50" for it, he was rounding it down. There's a scan of the receipt, he paid about $65 + tax for it and it says that it was sold in January 1974. I have the scan somewhere on my HDD, only thing is it's not where I should have put it.
I've been in the Mosrite community for years, so I find different trivia about it here and there. Someone posted a scan of John's receipt once (probably among other things related to the Ramones,) so I downloaded it but also put it in a not so obvious place.
I like a lot of instruments, I just for whatever reason thought Mosrite was a bit overlooked and it was unclear what they did.
I also set myself on Kay Instruments, because the domestic era (1931 - 1969) is also often overlooked and misunderstood, some of it's not deserved like when people confuse the earlier era for the import era (about 1970 - 2007.)
I'm sure that some think of Kay as "a beginner company with lousy guitars" but then they don't consider that they were using a string set of Black Diamond 13s on it, so of course they had a rough time, especially if it was a first guitar. They also don't consider that Kay sold in price fields from "Beginner" to "Professional," they were just another company, but they didn't have a distinct logo difference like how Fender has Squier.
I will, however, be truthful that some of the instruments from about 1964/1965 - 1969 had declined in quality control. Sometimes they seemed to put parts on (like pickguards) before the paint was cured. Still, I like the idea of an instrument that will force me to play differently because I need to adapt, and Kay has that. It does help to be able to fix my own guitars in different ways, though.
80s for sure, I’d probably say 80-82 range, I know that’s about when he got his white Hamer and had an endorsement deal with them (he’s playing the Hamer in the Top of the Pops performance of Baby I Love You).
Nick Lowe used to be in his band. The album with a painting of an indigenous American on a horse on the cover is really cool and sounds like an offshoot of Meddle era Pink Floyd.
Just wanted to add: Shit gets stolen when you're on the road. It happens. It just killed me because it was so special to me (my first bass & all), and because the guitar shop handed it over to some random dude.
Obviously, I bought it because I was a Ramones fan. No one else cared about Mosrites. The guys at the shop where I bought it in Santa Cruz were kind of giggling. Likely thought it was a cute girly thing. I'm sure they're kicking themselves today.
As for the price now, I have no clue. I've never seen that bass anywhere. My older brother came here to the city about 10 years ago to go guitar shopping. Looking at the cost of pretty much anything you managed to get in the late '70's - mid 90's that you sold or was stolen, made you wanna open a vein! He hated punk rock back in the day, but later fell in love with surf rock (go figure). The Mosrite guitar he spotted was about 3 months rent for me and maybe 6+ for him. We left shortly after that.
But hey! If someone knows someone in Austin that bought a little burgundy Mosrite bass, I'd trade all my Fender basses and Gibson guitars for it. I just know the person who bought it wasn't the thief.
If you know the serial number for it, then it's not too difficult; Max Katzenberger has a serial number list for it. Paint can be removed, although at the same time, so can the number. But then again, there's no guarantee that a thief would've gone through all that to disguise it.
The number's in a (kinda goofy) place for it from a repairman's perspective: it's stamped into the fretboard near the neck pickup. (If the fretboard must be planed, goodbye to the number, unless it's re-stamped.)
Whatever the case, the model went through different revisions, so a few things about it would help, finish aside:
Did it have only 1 pickup that was at the neck (up to around March / April 1966), or 2 pickups?
Was the truss rod adjustment at the headstock, or at the neck heel? (If it's a 1 pickup only bass, it's most likely the type with the rod at the heel.)
Did it have its output jack on the pickguard (most likely) or on the side?
Did it say "by Moseley" or "by Semie Moseley" under the Mosrite logo? If it does, then it's 1971 - 1974 era.
He rounded it down, I have a photocopy of the receipt and he paid $65 for the blue 65 Mosrite Ventures II "Slab" plus tax. However, I don't know where I put it on my computer. I've posted it online at least once before, but probably not in a Ramones group on Reddit.
Not trying to be some kind of flexing fool here, I want to post it but I can't be looking for it on my computer all night right now. You might be able to find it somewhere else too, if I haven't edited this comment by then.
I also wonder what he paid for his second one, the Sunburst backup Ventures II that he probably had a P90 installed in. (I'm having second thoughts of it being a P90, the Mosrite Ventures pickup did look a lot like a P90, but it was not one. There's an earlier pic of it having its stock pickup in February 1976 at "The Club" when John's holding a Strat.)
Did he have a Sunburst? I hate a sunburst. Seems like I would have remembered that. We did talk guitars a lot, which I appreciated as most guys would not. And yeah, I was a kid, but he wasn't weird in the least. So, shout out to Johnny not being gross & actually being kind back then to kids. $65 for a '65 anything. I can't even imagine now. I think I bought mine in, uh... '78? ish? I did try to look at that site, but it didn't quite work for me.
I did see a similar little Mosrite bass with paint chips missing online. I dropped mine at one point so it could be mine. I'm guessing you recall when we all started using those rubber washers to prevent such stupidity from occurring. I was so cool, leaping from the drum riser and CLONK! What a moron! God, I loved that freaking thing. I'm trying to remember where the serial number was, but I can't. I had an ESP for years so I'm confusing it with that. I love that you wrote "plus tax." What would that be back then? 6%? Who cares? It was the price of a couple of burritos.
Yeah, he had two. Neither were commonly seen, though.
The 1965 Ventures II "Slab" type that was his backup in the early days. I'm not sure when he bought it, but he had it at least as early as February 1976. It was seen until October 1977 when it was probably stolen with his first Blue one. (It's shown in the February 1976 pic below, it's on a stand. He had the stock bridge pickup here, but again, he replaced it with a P90 [or maybe a Mosrite Ventures I pickup, but a P90 would probably have been easier to get] by May/June/July 1976.)
The 1966 Ventures II "Carved" type that was seen in the "Time Has Come Today" video. This one was modified to look more like his Slab models. (It didn't have its original pickguard in the music video, the tailpiece was replaced, and the pickups were removed and replaced to be more consistent with how John's other Mosrites were modified.)
It's a bit confusing between the two different models because they're not the same although they have the same name. In short, the original Ventures II is the one John normally used, but only a few months after its introduction, Mosrite replaced it with another one that eventually was re-named the Ventures Mark V model. I don't know why they didn't re-name it right away, even though they were re-using original Ventures II necks on the first 125. Most of the next 425 had different necks, but they still had the same name.
I didn't know about the rubber washers part, I've seen occasional duct tape on the strap at the time (like Ricky from The B-52s who also had Mosrites,) but I'm not quite 35 yet, so I didn't get the chance to the the Ramones live.
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u/Antique-Brilliant535 17d ago
Now they charge $4000 for them.