1965 Mosrite Ventures Ii Electric Guitar For Sale (2024 Update)

Bought this on sale thinking it would be something I could loan out or let people play during jam sessions. But after spending about 2 hours trying to fix the intonation and an annoying buzz on the lower strings between the 10th – 14th frets I gave up (yes I adjusted the truss rod). The intonation was the biggest issue. Even with my strobe tuner and lots of tweaking at the bridge with the saddle lengths, I could never get the basic open chords at the bottom of the neck to play remotely in tune with each other. The string buzz would probably be solvable with some fret work but why bother if the intonation is so far off? You'd think with modern machining the fret spacing and intonation would be a non-issue. Oh and if for some reason you do buy this, you'll want to file down the edge of the frets. They are a tad sharp. Not awful but enough to annoy you. The electronics are actually OK and the humbucker at the bridge packs a decent punch. Personally, it would have made more sense to put the single coil at the bridge for some snap and move the H to the neck or mid but whatever. It sounded nice for a cheap guitar. Oh and the finish was excellent. No glitches, neck had a nice satin feel. Yeah you can see the wire leads off the two single coil pickups in the cavity but that didn't bother me at all (like it does others).

Sound: Today's guitars are all made on cnc's unless you get something like a US made G&L, those are cut out with bandsaws and routers, like fenders in the 50s up to the 70s. The neck pocket in mine is very clean and neat, the body routing is very clean, the frets were nice out of the box, no misaligned screws or parts, no blemishes in the finish or anything. Features: The least useful feature for a majority of people will be the rhythm circuit, it has its own volume and tone pots and is neck pickup only, with a much darker tone than the neck pickup on the lead circuit, leave the switch in the down position, and you never have to worry about it unless you want an old school jazz guitar tone. Then push that switch up. (It does old jazz guitar really well) Ease of Use: The jazzmaster has quite a bright bridge pickup, makes it well suited for surf, or spaghetti western guitar, but it also means distortion on the bridge pickup will cut through rather well. the neck pickup is strat like, but bigger and thicker. Like a strat neck pickup on steroids. Both pickups together results in a sweet soft sort of quack tone, due to the pickups being so far apart, it's not the same as a strat quack tone, but its very nice sounding. Then of course there's the neck only rhythm circuit which is very much like an old jazz tone (hence the name Jazzmaster)The pickups are generally higher output than most other fender pickups, and work well with distortion. A lot of people still think jazzmaster pickups are p90s. Nope, real jazzmaster pickups are roughly the same size, but thats where the similarities end. They don't even sound similar. This confusion is furthered by the old mexican player jazzmasters, the j mascius, and others that have P90's. Quality: Fender mexico didn't skimp on the electronic parts, the pickups are very much like a mid 60s jazzmaster in sound, even down to the gray bobbins and enamel coated coil wire. Pots are CTS, both switches and the jack are switchcraft, just like they are supposed to be. They should last forever. The trem is built well, but not exactly the same as the old ones, the trem arm is screw in, it really should be a push in arm, like all the old ones. Also, I think the hole of the trem arm in the top plate is way way too big, it only needs to be slightly bigger than the trem arm collet.The tuners are kluson like split shaft, loke fender used from the very earliest days until 68, they're not made by kluson but it doesn't matter the design is too simple to screw up. The frets are vintage, they're always described as tall and thin. They're not tall, but they are thin, it is a 60s styled guitar after all. But I think a lot of people used to 9.5 and flatter radiuses will have problems, it's a 7.25" radius fretboard, requires a bit higher action but a half hour or so of playing, you get used to it. It also has a truss rod nut at the heel of the neck, its a correct feature for all fender's prior to 1971, but man was that a bad design choice on leo fender's part. You either have to loosen the neck a lot or take it completely off to adjust neck relief, and hope you got it right.Now when I got my guitar I took it completely apart (I always do). What I found on the inside could be improved. First was an excessive amount of wire. There is a lot of wire in a jazzmaster, but they didn't even bother cutting the pickup leads to length. Both pickups had about a foot of unnecessary lead wire, so I fixed that.The other issue was a bad conductive paint job in the cavities. The jazzmaster is an electrically noisy guitar, they need all the shielding they can get. The conductive paint was one thin coat, and didn't even go up the sides of the cavities, it wasn't doing anything. From 1958 to the end of the original run around 1980 each jazzmaster had brass tubs in all the cavities, all soldered together and grounded. I don't expect that in a new jazzmaster, but they knew then that it needed shielding. The pickguard in 58 was also gold anodized aluminum, which was excellent for shielding. But the anodizing wasn't good, and the gold wore off after a few months so and looked awful. In 59 fender switched to plastic tort pickguards, with a thin pickguard sized aluminum shield underneath. Anyway I properly shielded the cavities. Also the pickguard only had aluminum tape for the toggle switch to the jack, and another piece for piece for rhythm circuit switch and pots. That ain't going to do it. I added more shielding, put it all back together and it was a major improvement. Recently I decided to see what a proper gold anodized aluminum pickguard would look like on ice blue metallic, and its VERY cool, looks like a 1960s california speed shop modded my guitar, might put some tele knobs on it sometime.I also made another modification, I had a 65 reissue trem and bridge laying around, so I put them on it. In the old days, the lock button, trem

Amazing, right out of the box! Gorgeous maple top and headstock design along with the flag inlays and black/chrome hardware. But how it handles…wow! The 'U' shape neck is just like my '72 Strat so the LTD felt familiar right away. (The U neck is chunky and may not be right for everyone) It's really well balanced sitting down or standing with a strap. The action is spot on and access to the higher frets not a problem. The bridge is comfortable on the right hand. And the specific instrument that I ordered is HEAVY. It feels like I'm playing a full guitar, not just a slice of a guitar! And the sound… THE SOUND!! The EMG 81 is incredible! It's actually making me play more accurately and deliberately because it will not allow sloppy playing. Play sloppy on the 81 or 86(neck pickup) and there's NO hiding it. Took a little while to get used to the high output of the EMGs but well worth it. I could not be happier with this guitar and the price is incredible.

I started taking lessons again after a long break. I bought this to take with me on my trips, as an airline pilot I'm on the road constantly. It's perfect to sit in my hotel and play, and the size makes it easy to travel with. The neck is a great size and the action right out of the box was perfect. I can plug in the headphone amp and play no matter what time of the day or night it is. I'm glad I picked this up.

I have always wanted a guitar small enough and rugged enough to take on deployments and military exercise. It is quiet enough to play in open bay barracks while others sleep, or I can tune out the clowns and play in my rack using the stethophone headset. This Pro-series Traveler Guitar is everything I was looking for. As a bonus it has already stood up to the beatings of my 3 year old son who broke my last guitar within 24 hours of purchase. I don't think I will ever need another guitar; but you know how it goes.

Ordered this because I do a lot of traveling for work and play. Hated taking my main guitars on any trip due to theft and damage risk. This beauty is just what the doctor ordered. I originally had Sweetwater put heavier electric strings on it to toughen up the sound. Big mistake. Changed the strings to light acoustic bronze ones from Elixir, and that made it nearly perfect! The stethophone is my favorite method of playing. The true acoustic sound is as huge as my Ovation Celebrity Elite, without the volume to disturb others. When I plug in a VOX headphone amp or other headphone, the pickup cranks out like a Strat on bridge position. When plugged into a serious amp, all doubts about this guitar's capabilities disappear immediately. The sound is everything any of my Strats or SGs can pump out, period. I would gladly play this axe in any situation. The quality is excellent. I have had it for about 4 years now, and I never travel without it. Even on a motorcycle trip, it can be easily carried in backpack mode or strapped to saddlebags. When strapped to the saddlebags, it does not interfere with riding in any way. Would give 10 stars if I could!

I've owned an Ultra-Lite for many years and all the comments are spot on — these guys are fun to play, and an excellent road (and studio) companion, for sure; they also stay in tune, have excellent neck and hardware, and stand the test of time and trekking. I recently had an opportunity to handle the Travel-caster model, and it was a real pleasure to play and would definitely recommend it. The value of all of these guitars is their absolute lightness and compactness and the quality of products in general seem very reliable as far as i can tell. I really am happy to give a shout out to this company and their line of products. Kudos! I'm still looking at the possibility of nabbing another of these fine products sometime in the near future.

The travelcaster deluxe is everything I wanted it to be. It's a Strat, plain and simple. It has a proper maple fretboard and correct scale length. I was able to play it everyday in the hotel and it performed wonderfully. Sounded great acoustic or through a headphone amp. Went through airport security without a problem and fit easily in the overhead compartment.I don't know what else to say. I love it!!

I'm about 15 minutes into this guitar, and after going it with a fine tooth comb, I have it adjusted and it sounds great. The shape is a little adjustment, but I plan to take it on vacation with me. I've been winding my own pickups for 11 years, and I thought I would want to do a pickup swap with it. Well, that's not needed. These pickups are loud and strong. Neck feels good too. I'll probably need to polish the frets because they feel a little rough, but initially this has exceeded my expectations.