13/9/2010 - New Guitar Day! Mosrite of California(MIJ) 2000's

I'm sitting here chewing the remains of my burnt dinner to give my first impressions of the guitar I bought a couple weeks back. It turned up at work today and all the strings were relaxed to east tension for travelling.

Unfortunately circumstances had it that I wasn't able to play. It arrived after lunch and the boss was.... in a mood.  Anyway I tried tuning it by ear. It's a noisy office and not particularly loud when unamplified.

Anyway I played a couple of chords before I went home and wondered what I'd bought. I have short, wide finger tips and the neck is nice n' narrow, but I had my concerns that I was going to have trouble with the guitar.  Anyway I trundled it off home and put on some Man or AstroMan? to get  me in the mood.

So... what can I say?

It's a weird guitar.

Very thin neck, in both directions.

The strings are close together and I thought maybe I was in for some trouble. It didn't sound quite right. I played it through my Epiphone Valve Jr Stack(un-modded). Its nice, but doesn't really do the guitar justice.  For reverb I used a Line 6 M13 and a boss SD-1.

Arrival at the office.

First off the SD-1 kills the bottom end and tone out of this guitar so I ditched it from active duty(still in the chain). It's not bad on the Guyatone, but on this guitar it's just not good.  Oddly enough the "Tube Drive" model on the M13 actually sounds good!  The HOG sounded terrible with it, so it's not an all rounder.

After a while of playing I put the guitar down and picked up the Guyatone version. Suddenly it was obvious that the Mosrite felt weird, be cause I din't have to fight the guitar to play it! It also became clear that the Guyatone needs a good setup. It's been a while and feels like piano stings on there. Also accounts for the discomfort in my finger tips! 

I ended up playing the Mosrite for 90 minutes tonight and enjoyed the feel of the neck, though it will take a while to become familiar.  The whammy is responsive and easy to go crazy on, a little too easy... I already broke a string.