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I was up in London for the weekend for a birthday outing and made the fatal flaw of dropping by Denmark Street. Ended up walking away with this 197-something Mosrite *EDIT: after a bit more research (read: a lot) it seems this is a '69* Plays great, neck isn't actually as thin as I've read they can be sometimes and the frets are, predictably, flat as hell.

I've wanted one of these for the longest time but just never got around to playing and getting one. So the planets aligned and it came home. From what I can glean off the internet theres no real way of dating these from the serial number but happy to be pointed in the right direction if someone knows.

Being one of the earlier Firstman-built ones apparently makes it one of the more sought-after Japanese versions. I don't really care about that as it plays and sounds fantastic regardless. And it wasn't £4-6k hahaha

Oh man, that's a killer guitar!!

Congratu-fucking-lations!!!

That's absolutely gorgeous... I'm green with envy !

Awesome score. Looks to be in great condition. Gotta let us know how it sounds.

Very cool! Had one way back, also I thought they were ‘60’s.

Scout wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 3:34 pm

Very cool! Had one way back, also I thought they were ‘60’s.

Yeah, the proper Mosrites were. This is one made in the late-60s/early-70s by the Firstman Japanese guitar company who partnered up with the original Mosrite Of California after making illegal copies for a while.

After extensive deep-diving and googling, and asking some people, it appears this is likely a '69 but I'm still trying to confirm that more solidly

Veitchy wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 3:28 pm

Awesome score. Looks to be in great condition. Gotta let us know how it sounds.

It sounds great. It has that classic 'overwound' sound the original Moseley ones are known for which is nice and warm. Great for surf (obviously) and sounds fantastic tuned flat and in drop-d through some overdrive/fuzz

johnnysomersett wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 10:15 pm

Veitchy wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 3:28 pm

Awesome score. Looks to be in great condition. Gotta let us know how it sounds.

It sounds great. It has that classic 'overwound' sound the original Moseley ones are known for which is nice and warm. Great for surf (obviously) and sounds fantastic tuned flat and in drop-d through some overdrive/fuzz

I’m well interested in the pickups on these. What output are they?

garyptaszek wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 01, 2021 12:40 pm

johnnysomersett wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 10:15 pm

Veitchy wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 3:28 pm

Awesome score. Looks to be in great condition. Gotta let us know how it sounds.

It sounds great. It has that classic 'overwound' sound the original Moseley ones are known for which is nice and warm. Great for surf (obviously) and sounds fantastic tuned flat and in drop-d through some overdrive/fuzz

I’m well interested in the pickups on these. What output are they?

A quick and dirty measurement from the output jack shows about 12.6 for both, so pretty hot

johnnysomersett wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 01, 2021 12:55 pm

garyptaszek wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 01, 2021 12:40 pm

johnnysomersett wrote: ↑

Mon May 31, 2021 10:15 pm

It sounds great. It has that classic 'overwound' sound the original Moseley ones are known for which is nice and warm. Great for surf (obviously) and sounds fantastic tuned flat and in drop-d through some overdrive/fuzz

I’m well interested in the pickups on these. What output are they?

A quick and dirty measurement from the output jack shows about 12.6 for both, so pretty hot

I love the sound of Mosrite pickups - real singular sound. I keep thinking of doing a Mosrite-inspired JM one day - do a German carve around the top and all, just to have an excuse to stick some of those Novak JM-Mosrite pickups in it.

Congrats! I love old Mosrites. They have such a sleek sexy design. I’ve never gotten the chance to play one unfortunately, and the super skinny neck reports always scares me away.

CorporateDisguise wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 03, 2021 1:31 am

Congrats! I love old Mosrites. They have such a sleek sexy design. I’ve never gotten the chance to play one unfortunately, and the super skinny neck reports always scares me away.

Maybe I got lucky as this one is about the same thickness as a Japanese Jazzmaster. Feels pretty good

I think these Morales ones came out of the same factory? The neck's not skinny but it has this odd laminated structure so it looks like a bowling alley.

MatthewK wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:35 pm

I think these Morales ones came out of the same factory? The neck's not skinny but it has this odd laminated structure so it looks like a bowling alley.

Not quite. Morales came out of the Zen-on factory (along with Beltone). These Firstman ones were built in the FugiGen Gakki factory (Greco, Ibanez, etc).

Amazing that they doubled down on such precisely similar models, perhaps even shared templates!