Semie had been working with Bob Crooks of the Standel guitar company who wanted Semie to design a guitar for him "like a Fender". The most popular Mosrites were the Ventures models and today, when guitarists talk about Mosrites, they are usually referring to the models shown on Ventures' albums. They were also producing effects pedals, amplifiers, Dobros (which Mosrite bought in 1966), and Melobar slide guitars, which Semie was making for the Melobar company. Initially building 20-30 guitars a month, the orders kept coming in and Mosrite was on its way to becoming a credible American guitar manufacturer.Īt the peak of production in 1968, Semie, his brother Andy and their crew of 107 employees, were making about 600 guitars a month - acoustics, standard electrics, double-necks, triple-necks, and basses. That was enough to start the ball rolling and soon Mosrite had substantial orders from dealers, which signaled the start of Mosrite's heyday. The back of one of their albums read, "Guitars courtesy of Mosrite Distributing Corporation". Nokie was the lead guitarist for the Ventures, an instrumental group, and by 1962 the entire band was playing Mosrites on songs like "Walk Don't Run" and the theme from "Hawaii 5-O". It was probably Nokie who made the Mosrite name famous. This was to change everything! Nokie bought a guitar from Semie and, within a year, an endorsement deal with the Ventures would make Mosrite a household name, at least in the surf/instrumental guitar world. Semie had built a guitar that he lent to Nokie Edwards of the Ventures to use on some recording sessions. Semie had set the neck too shallow and needed to recess the unit into the body, necessitating a plate to hide the mistake. This guitar also has what was to become known as the "mistake plate" around the vibrato. The symmetrical headstock says "Joe Maphis model by Mosrite of California" as the Ventures deal hadn't been worked out yet. As you can see, the guitar is close to the final early "production" model, but with a few small exceptions. This is one of the Ventures prototypes from the late '50s with bound body and set neck. He had no money and wanted to start a guitar manufacturing company but could not get financed. In the winter is was bitterly cold and he would burn wood cuts and shavings from guitar remnants in a 44-gallon drum to keep warm. The Bakersfield location would give rise to his association with the now famous honky tonk, "Bakersfield Sound", known for its country western twangers. He would later move to a cement block building on Kern Street in Oildale and then to Bakersfield, California.
The first Mosrite Ventures model prototypes were built here, as were several double-necks and more standard "Tele"-shaped single-necks, still with mainly hand-made parts as in the beginning Semie did everything himself. This infamous "tin shed" in Oildale, California, is still standing and is about the size of a two car garage.
Semie even set up shop in a friend's barn outside of Los Angeles, rent free. This double-neck was one of the slightly bulkier designs, also used by Larry Collins whose double neck was finished in 1956, unlike the smoother double-necks made a little later in the 1950s for people like Brian Lonbeck.Īt first, it was all custom, handmade guitars, built wherever the Moseleys could put equipment - in garages or storage sheds.
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"It was a beautiful instrument" said Gene Moles, an assembly line inspector for Mosrite guitars, a session musician from Bakersfield, and a member of Jimmy Thompson's TV band. He also went through the time consuming process of forming the pickup covers over a mold in his oven and winding the bobbins by hand.Įarly models he built included a double-neck for Joe "King of the Strings" Maphis. These early guitars were almost completely handmade by Semie from 1952 to '58/'59, using primitive hand-tools and carving the aluminum vibratos by hand. Semie had been obsessed by guitars as a teenager and started repairing, and later building them, because he could not find one that felt or sounded quite right.īy the time he was 19-years-old, Semie had not only built his first triple-neck guitar, he was repairing guitars for local artists like Merle Travis. Ray Boatwright, who bought Semie his first band saw in the early '50s. The Mosrite company was started in 1952 by Semie Moseley with the financial help of a friend, Rev.
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