HALLMARK GUITARS
JOHNNY RAMONE
BY CHARLES SAUFLEY
No one ever mistook Johnny Ramone for Django
Reinhardt. But while Johnny
wasn’t the most technically adroit guitarist ever, it
would be hard to overstate
his impact on popular
music. Along with three
fellow misfits from Forest
Hills, New York, who
became the Ramones in
1974, he shaped a mutant
rock sound—part dirt
bike, part machine gun,
part bubblegum pop—that
turned the music world on
its ear. The Ramones weren’t
the first band to do damage
with a distorted power chord,
but no one did it quite as raw or
fast. That unholy union of speed
and power made them the godfathers
of punk and the seed that spawned
everyone from the Sex Pistols and the
Clash to Black Flag and Nirvana.
Johnny’s guitar approach was dead
simple—fast sixteenth-note downstrokes
pumped through a cranked Marshall stack.
But the element of Johnny’s style that
most fans recognize (apart from his trademark spread-eagle stance) is his mid-’60s
Mosrite Ventures IIs. Johnny later claimed
he bought his signature instrument (
apparently at Manny’s Music in New York City
for about $50) because it was the only guitar he’d ever heard of that he could afford.
But with its thin and lightning-fast neck,
the Mosrite was the perfect vehicle for
Johnny’s Gatling-gun, modulating power-chord approach.
Unfortunately for players aspiring to
Johnny Ramone-style tones, the Mosrite
Ventures II is an impossibly rare guitar
(purportedly only 25–30 originals were
made). Though future incarnations of the
Mosrite brand made versions of Johnny’s
guitar, they were far from punk-rock priced.
Hardcore Johnny fans need not despair
any longer, however, thanks to the revived
Hallmark Guitars company. In cooperation
with the Johnny Ramone estate, Hallmark
has created a loud and beautiful-playing
take on Johnny’s signature axe at a price
that real punks can afford.
Hall while working at Mosrite in the mid
’60s. Hall’s intent was to create a more
affordable version of the more ornate
and upscale Ventures model. As such, the
Hallmark lacks the carved body, and instead
features a tapering contour on the sizable
bass bout and a one-ply pickguard that
looks like a cross between the one's you'll
find on a Mosrite and a Telecaster.
Other features will be familiar to any
Mosrite fan, and they’re executed faithfully
and lovingly. The beautiful, one-piece rock
maple neck is carved with an integrated
headstock that, while virtually parallel with
the fretboard, is about an inch lower—
creating both a better string-break angle and a
cool volute that strengthens the headstock-neck junction. The headstock has a delicate
hourglass taper and a unique “M” carved
Solid-brass locking roller bridge and flush-mount tailpiece High-output alnico single-coils Nickel-plated “easy action” knobs
Blitzkrieg Blue
While our gloss-blue test guitar has the
unmistakable elongated-lower-horn silhouette of a Mosrite Ventures model, it’s
significantly different than the most famous
version of that guitar in many respects.
Johnny’s two original guitars were designed
by original Hallmark Guitars founder Joe
