Recently purchased a Hallmark clone of Mosrite-love it !

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 18 Nov 2022 4:22 am

i recently purchased a Hallmark guitar which is a copy of the old Mosrite guitars. I was curious if anyone else had one of these. I really love this guitar and play it all the time. I got it from my love of the Ventures and Nokie Edwards. I took it to my guitar tech and he was blown away with the build quality, sound and neck of this guitar.
As a side note, the first good guitar I ever purchased was in 1963 a used Fender Jazzmaster, so it had to be an early one...again this purchase came about from my love for the Ventures...As many of us did in those days, I like to say I learned to play guitar from their records, their music was pretty simple and sounded great...i learned doing the "drop the needle routine"...play a few notes, copy them, drop the needle, learn a few more,,,etc...its all we had in those days to learn from other than an in store teacher, which I learned from also,,,Bill Pruitt. I still have all of those records from that era. Here 60 years later, I am still playing those old Ventures tunes and more that I never got around to learning until the last year or so.

Dang same problem I have with all my pictures, but you get the idea of the guitar...forget about the ugly guy holding it

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 18 Nov 2022 6:09 am

http://hallmarkguitars.com/ is their website. Thanks for sharing!

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 18 Nov 2022 7:29 am

Ah! Such a cool guitar Larry. New to me. Great looking retro style guitars. Cool site too. Have to check out some of the artists and music listed there.

The Ventures, yeah. Used to listen to all those records back in the day.

Big fan of guitar instrumentals from the era. Splashy reverb...maybe some slap back, tremolo...and those rhythms, yeah!
I'm a hack guitar player, but I still mess around with a lot of tunes from that era.

Congratulations.

I tried to save and rotate your photo, but it didn't work like it used to.

Edward Dixon · Post by **Edward Dixon** » 18 Nov 2022 7:46 am

I'm a big Mosrite fan I may have to order one of these. Thanks for the topic and thanks for the website link.

I had a 72 Mosrite but sold it a couple of years ago.

Still have my Danelectro Baritone.

Can you say how the Hallmark compares to the Mosrite weight-wise?

Edward Dixon · Post by **Edward Dixon** » 18 Nov 2022 7:54 am

Ken Pippus · Post by **Ken Pippus** » 18 Nov 2022 9:29 am

Very cool guitar. Are the necks still painfully skinny?

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 18 Nov 2022 9:30 am

These are very popular on the surfguitar101 forum. Most reviews over there are positive, but there have been some negative ones. Naturally, not every guitar is for every guitar player, so I take that with a grain of salt.

I've been pondering one of these. I have an active (until pandemic - we're re-grouping now) surf/guitar-instrumental oriented band, and I would love to have the Mosrite sound, which is a very distinct sound. And I've had some Mosrites, both vintage and reissue. The problem has always been the super-skinny/narrow necks and real low frets. I like a pretty beefy neck - at least vintage Fender sized and actually prefer typical pre-'66 Gibson-sized - and at least reasonably tall frets - super-tall, jumbo, or super jumbo not necessary or even desired.

What's your take on the neck size/profile and frets?

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 18 Nov 2022 7:15 pm

Dave, I really like the neck on this guitar...my cousin had a Mosrite that he bought back in the 60s and it was way too skinny for my taste...this one doesnt seem that skinny to me, but then perhaps my memory has slipped or my hands have changed and accept things differently now. I think that is one of the changes the Hallmark people addressed and made them beffier, but not baseball club size. I had a friend who is a pro player try it out and he immediately gave it back to me, saying the action was too low for him. I like a low action, but he plays slide guitar on his Strat sometimes and he said it wasnt to his liking. Right now, for me it is my go to guitar...I like it better than my Gretsch CG and the neck is bigger than my Ibanez GB mini archtop. Sounds like I have skirted the question here, but for me it is a fit...I played a Jazzmaster recently and it didnt feel right to me, but back when I was 16 I loved that guitar...so maybe experience and old age has changed what feels good to me in reference to the neck. Thanks for all the responses, I am having a great time with this guitar...definately a different sound that I like ! Check out a guy named Jay Smith. on some of his videos his sound is different than what I like on my Hallmark but it shows the versatility of it I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nBBpMU3pr4

Larry Lenhart · Post by **Larry Lenhart** » 18 Nov 2022 8:35 pm

I might add that another company makes the Mosrite copy called Eastwood,,,their equivalent is called the sidejack pro.
I did some verbal research on both brands and decided that the Hallmark is what I wanted, but the Eastwood pro is worth looking into, and is about the same price. Its hard to know since you cant really find either in a store to try them out first hand, but I have been elated with my choice. Your opinion may differ, of course. Thanks for all the input, I am having a blast with this guitar, and also my Zum Encore that I recently purchased...I go back and forth all day long playing each of them. I feel like a very lucky guy.

https://eastwoodguitars.com/collections/sidejack

Lloyd Walsh · Post by **Lloyd Walsh** » 20 Nov 2022 12:48 pm

I have two Mosrites, one ink blue '66 the other an early 80's custom model signed by Semie. They are both great players and have a very distinct sound (listen to The Ventures Live in Japan '65 to hear it at it's best).

I haven't owned a Hallmark but played a few in stores when they've come in. I've also had correspondences with Bob Shade (owner of Hallmark) several times for original and reproduction parts for mine and can assure you his are about as close as you'll get to that sound and look without having to buy something vintage. To answer someone else's question about the neck size the Hallmarks are a tad wider and thicker. Also, the Eastwoods are just meh.., save and get a Hallmark if you're going that route. If you want true Mosrite pickups Semie's daughter still makes them and they fit right in to the Hallmarks (from what i understand), also there's a builder who worked for Semie and still makes his own signature Mosrite-like guitars and pickups too (Ed Elliot). You can find him on Facebook selling his reproductions. Used Hallmarks pop up for sale on Reverb.com every once in a while but they go very quickly, if that's any indication of their build quality and sound.

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 23 Nov 2022 9:28 am

I picked up a Hallmark a few years back. This photo is from the website but it's the color I chose..it's a cool guitar but I don't play it much.Maybe this weekend! LOL!