mosriteforum.com

I bought a new Candy Blue Hallmark 65 Custom guitar almost a month ago, and I'm very pleased. It's a real beauty, and what makes mine special is that Bob Shade, at my request, changed out the white pickguard and replaced it with a black one—at no charge to me. This changes the entire look of the guitar in a dramatic yet understated way (I wish I could post a picture of it on this forum). The 65C also sounds great and is a player's dream (note: like the year of the Custom, I’m 65 years old and have been playing guitar over 50 years). I have been putting the 65C through the paces and comparing it side-by-side with my '72 Mosrite Mark I (by Semie Moseley). In my opinion, this Hallmark guitar compares favorably in every way with that Mosrite. In workmanship and materials, this fine instrument also compares favorably with the other solid-body guitars I've had, including another USA Mosrite (a '70s Vibramute re-issue), several "Mosrite" guitars from two different Japanese manufacturers, a '90s PRS Custom, and a '93 Strat Plus (which I still have). In my opinion, the 65C retains what made the Ventures model a legend while instituting some subtle improvements. I like the Shade vibrato better than the Moseley, not to mention the Vibramute. And I like the C-type neck profile--it appears to be identical to that of my Strat (I can't tell for sure, but it appears that the fretboard radius may be slightly flatter than the 9.5" of the Strat). But I also like the thin neck of traditional Mosrites. I notice that the 65C apparently has a rosewood fretboard—surprisingly, considering the import restrictions (the Fender Mustang 90 I recently bought for my wife has a pau ferro fretboard). I could go on and on about how great the 65C is. I am enjoying this new guitar more every time I play it. Finally, as an actual customer, I highly recommend doing business with Hallmark Guitars and Bob Shade.

Congratulations on the Hallmark! I own 6 of them, and have nothing but good things to say about the guitars - quality, performance, and workmanship.
Dennis

Congratulations Don. If you'd like to email some photos of your new Hallmark I'd be happy to upload them to my Photobucket account and insert them into this thread so all can see that beauty.

My email is; sarah@MosriteCelebrity.com

Thank you for the kind review! I am very happy you are so pleased with the new guitar! Yes a pic would be super. Thanks again!

Here is Don's beauty.



and




Just gorgeous!

Thanks, Sarah, for posting the pictures of my Hallmark guitar for me. Try as I might, my photos don't do this guitar justice. The problem with taking photos of this guitar (in all kinds of natural and artificial lighting) is that they all seem to show the blue as brighter than it really is, which is a deep, candy apple blue metallic (that is why I chose the black pickguard to replace the white one). The photo of the body only is deliberately underexposed, as that shows the true color better.

Good looking guitar...

Definitely looks better with the black pick guard. I wonder how my sunburst 65C would look with one.

Tronman: You can get a good idea how your guitar would look with a black pickguard by doing what I did before making my purchase. You can either use the picture of the sunburst guitar on the Hallmark website and save it to a JPG file, or use one of your own JPG photos of your guitar. Use Windows 10's Paint 3D (or some other such app). There is a command to select any bordered area of one color on the image and, with one mouse click, change it to another specified color. The Paint 3D app gave me a rudimentary view of what the candy blue guitar from Hallmark's photo would like after changing the pickguard from white to black. Still, it was convincing enough for me to request that change with my purchase. If you decide to change out your pickguard, Bob Shade would probably give you a very good price on a replacement.

Hallmark's are great guitars, congrats on the purchase!