LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

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Salfaromeab
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Re: LVC's NGD 2:...

Post by Salfaromeab » Wed May 25, 2022 5:32 am

Morales? Univox? Aria?
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LVC
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Re: LVC's NGD 2:...

Post by LVC » Wed May 25, 2022 6:42 am

Salfaromeab wrote:
Wed May 25, 2022 5:32 am
Morales?
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Yes! It's a Morales ZES-300.
Congratulations! That wasn't an easy one!

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(Seller's pics from the ad — I'll take some when I get home)
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Re: LVC's NGD 2:...

Post by Fiddy » Wed May 25, 2022 6:55 am

None of your pictures are working

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Jonesie
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Re: LVC's NGD 2:...

Post by Jonesie » Wed May 25, 2022 8:30 am

tribi9 wrote:
Wed May 25, 2022 6:55 am
None of your pictures are working
They work fine on my end.

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Re: LVC's NGD 2:...

Post by MayTheFuzzBeWithYou » Wed May 25, 2022 8:32 am

Wow!
That‘s two nice surf guitars at once!
Takeshi Terauchi would send his regards! 🌊

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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by Salfaromeab » Wed May 25, 2022 10:00 pm

Sick Stuff!!! Looks great! Reshaped headstock? Never seen one with the proper Mosrite shape before
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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by Pacafeliz » Wed May 25, 2022 10:02 pm

:-* love these so much
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by LVC » Thu May 26, 2022 6:06 am

Salfaromeab wrote:
Wed May 25, 2022 10:00 pm
Sick Stuff!!! Looks great! Reshaped headstock? Never seen one with the proper Mosrite shape before
That's one of the first things I noticed on the seller's pics. The asking price was rather low so I suspected something was possibly fishy and the neck might not be original, especially since the Morales decal was missing... But a bit of googling turned up this other ZES-300 on Ishibashi with a similarly Mosrite-shaped headstock but with the decal still present. So I thought these might be early models, before Morales supposedly had to change the headstock shape...

That theory went down the drain when I received the guitar. It's pretty obvious the headstock has been reshaped, and a bit more amateurishly than on the one on Ishibahi. No big deal as far as I'm concerned.
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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by LVC » Sat May 28, 2022 3:32 pm

Pics at last... sorry about the delay.

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The inexpertly reshaped headstock

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I've been fascinated by Mosrites ever since I first heard about them. They're so incredibly cool! But while I've never had a chance to try one, their reputation for having toothpick necks and almost nonexistent frets was always a serious deterrent. That and the fact that they usually go for way more money than I can reasonably justify to sink in a guitar anyway.

One of the things I like best about the classic Ventures model is the way the German carve on the treble side of the body merges seamlessly into a much softer curve on the bass side. Unfortunately most affordable Mosrite-inspired guitars available today go for either a uniform German carve or a slab body, à la MkII and above. The only models with the desirable smooth carve I could think of are:
  • Hallmark Custom 60: almost perfect in my book, although I'm not crazy about the set neck. But the $999 price tag means something like $1500 once shipping, import duties and VAT are factored in. A little above my budget.
  • Japanese Mosrites: above my price range as well.
  • Danelectro '64: these have really nice looking bodies and some great colors (have you seen the aqua, indigo or orange ones? Yowza!). But wrong pickups, vibrato and bridge means spending extra to bring it closer to the real thing, and potential headaches in the modding process.
  • Finally there are these Morales ZES-300s. They definitely look the part, and several owners have posted good reviews on OSG. Quite affordable as well.
I had been loosely keeping an eye on ZES-300s for a long time, waiting for one that would be in decent shape and not too expensive. There's one that kept popping up on Reverb, but it turned out the seller is a notorious scammer. Finally this one showed up at a very good price, so good I couldn't turn it down even though I had bought another guitar shortly before.
Last edited by LVC on Sun May 29, 2022 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by windmill » Sat May 28, 2022 3:58 pm

well done.

Hope it plays and sounds as good as it looks

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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by Salfaromeab » Sun May 29, 2022 12:20 am

Nice stuff, headstock may be inexpert but doesn't look too bad! How's the sound? Also re-Hallmark, the 65 Custom has a bolt on neck.
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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by Odjuret » Tue Jul 19, 2022 3:28 am

Great looking guitar, gratulations!
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Re: LVC's NGD 2: Morales ZES-300

Post by LVC » Fri Jul 22, 2022 12:28 pm

Thanks! I'm truly amazed at how the finish on this 50+ yo guitar looks almost new after only a wipe... Gotta love that bomb-proof poly :-*

And I'm sorry I let this thread die... I was planning to do an in-depth review of this guitar but shitty things have been happening to me and I've lost my moxie.
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