Wilson Brothers' Ventures

[jfine]

As I've posted elsewhere, I had a Wilson Bros. VCM2003, candy apple red, no body binding, Jazzmaster bridge and vibrato, made in Japan by Aria. Great pickups, nice neck, but the Jazzmaster bridge was so problematic that I had to send the thing back. What I really wanted was the VCM2001 with the Mosrite-style vibrato and binding, but they couldn't get me one. That being said, everybody at Wilson Bros.--James Fox, Don and Tim Wilson--was great to deal with, and if the vibrato had worked properly with .010"-.046"-gauge strings, or been far enough from the bridge that a Buzz-Stop could be installed, I'd still have the guitar. Wilson Bros. is basically a distribution company--they're kind of limited to what Aria Japan chosses to send them.

[oipunkguy]

with these guitars, I can't get past the idea that these are just cheap knock offs of the real deal. Maybe that's completely not true, but it just looks too much like a univox and a silvertone to me. It's a nice guitar to have if you can't find a Mosrite, but other then that I wouldn't care for one IMHO.

[Martin]

I've got 3 of them, 2 guitars and a bass. I'm super impressed with them I have a Mosrite looking one VM-65 With Strat trem and a VM-10 Strat and the VMB-55 bass.
Nice necks sound fantastic and tuning stabilty is great. My strat VM-10 was one of the first made either Japan or Korea. I would put it up any new USA Fender
I like them a lot if I'm not playing my Mosrite onstage it's the Wilson Bros

[raygun85]

I like them too, though I feel the VM-110's tuning stability could be better. I believe its the angle of the headstock and the fact that the strings actually drag across the string guide rather than float over it. I have played a fair number of them, I would have to say that I'm probably a fan. I think the prices are good too. The VM-110 is definitely a better guitar than Fender's new Classic Player series Jazzmaster. Definitely. And they're both in the same price range.

[bakeoboy]

The Wilson Bros. guitars are o.k. but I sell the Aria Diamond mosrite knockoff for under $300.
At least they have more of the mosrite shape,rather than a strat shape...Plus they have a "diamond" in the headstock!

[raygun85]

Yeah...Don Wilson found out about those Diamond series guitars and called his attorney in LA, he said Aria's not supposed to be selling those outside of Japan per their endorsement...
I like those little axes myself though. I think The Ventures model should go back to the basic shape...not sure why they don't.

[LOSTVENTURE]

I noticed this afternoon that Musician's Friend and Guitar Center (aren't they related?) have both dropped the Wilson Brothers guitar from thier internet site. Does anybody know what's going on. I do know from recent views, that the guitars never seemed to be in stock, always a month out on order. Distribution problems?
Don

[ZacJM]

When I saved up for my guitar I really wanted a Wilson Bros. being a Ventures fan and never knowing about Hallmark. I had ordered in Nov. for one off Musician's Friend and was told it would be back ordered till maybe Jan. of next year(this being Nov. 2009). I wasn't going to wait so I emailed the source and talked to Tim Wilson about it. He said then that they canceled production to make their Shop NBC special which premiered in Jan. or so. Anyways I ended up finding a dealer in Texas that had two and I ended up with this one:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2991
Anyways he said the same thing about production. Maybe they stalled then and never got back on foot and orders stopped coming in. I still wanted one at one time and for awhile after that special they only carried a few colors on Musician's Friend and Guitar Center online. Maybe demand has dropped alot for them. I'm happy with what I got and even had I know about the Hallmark at the time I probably still would have picked the Wilson Bros. just to get the The Ventures logo on the headstock.

[Edward Lopez]

I'll join the conversation with some comments that may or may not make sense. The Wilson Bros contracted with Aria and called the results The Ventures although they didn't resemble the The Ventures "signature" style, especially the headstocks that have been criticized aplenty. So, can anyone express their opinion as to why The Wilson Bros didn't (or may have)contract with Dillion (American and/or Canadian) since their products seem to have been/are made by Aria. While I would like the quality of The Wilson Bros Aria-made bass because of the zero nut (whatever that means and whatever the effect is, I don't know) and, maybe, higher build quality, my Aria-made Dillion DMB7504 bass resembles a Mosrite more than The Wilson Bros models and I'd rather own my Dillion than a The Wilson Bros bass.

Are you confused yet?

[Veenture]

Are you confused yet?

We getcha but the zero fret is always a cool feature contributing to low action playing. It allows for ideal string height at the nut and it is as if invisible fingers are already pressing down the strings onto a fret...practically cutting out any of the familiar nut-hassles like being either too high (usually) or too low