Yeah, I know- it says "The Ventures model" on the headstock but as far as I'm concerned, it should say "The Johnny Ramone model." Here's why; When I was shipped to Erlangen, Germany in February of 1982 for my overseas tour of duty in the U.S. Army, I soon met a guy in Bravo Company, 3/34th Armor named Garth Abatiel. Let me be clear: Garth had the absolute greatest punk rock record collection I'd ever seen. From Fear to Agent Orange to The Germs to The Ramones, Garth had it. His record collection was huge and so when I would hear some of this stuff blasting out of his dorm room, I would occasionally wander in to find out what he was playing. While I wasn't (and to this day) still am not a huge Punk fan, there were certain things I would hear that tweaked my ear, because under the surface, Punk has certain "Heavy Metal" leanings. So one day, I hear "One, two, three, four" and this band kicked into a two minute song. After that, they did it again. And again. Well I had to know who the heck this was so I went to Garth's room and it was the classic scene I remember from the 70's and 80's: A guy sitting Indian- style in the middle of the floor, staring at an album cover with the stereo cranked up. I've done this a million times myself and it's a fond memory from my teenage years. Too bad these millennial kids today will never know what it feels like to partake in this sacred rite of passage. So I yell at Garth, "Hey Garth. Who's this?" and he rolls his eyes before yelling back at me, "It's the Ramones." I checked it out for a minute, nodded my head in semi- approval (I was much more of an Iron Maiden guy) and eased on out of his room.

   How the above tale ties in with this guitar is because of what it made me recall on the ride home from the Charlotte Guitar show as I was mentally going over what Lee and I had bought that past weekend. I'm just a bit too young to have captured that Ventures wave and so whenever I see a white Mosrite like this one, I think of the Ramones. It's as simple as that. This guitar will be 50 next year and to be a half a century old, it's in gorgeous, original condition. You like Mosrites? Then here is the next addition to your collection and I might as well mention, the handle is missing from the case. Heck, that's the only thing I can find wrong with the entire package and as a super 60's added bonus, you'll get an old book on how to care for vinyl records. It was in the case when we bought the guitar, so it gets passed along as it was presented to us. Great vintage, great memories and so many stories to tell. That's how it is here in the land of the 'Elk. Thanks for stopping by!