In 1959, Andy moved to Nashville, Tennessee for a year to popularize the Mosrite name and sold a few to Grand Ole Opry entertainers, people, and to road musicians. When Semie did not deliver, Joe Hall wound up working with Semie, learning guitar making and later founding Hallmark Guitars with the help of Bill Gruggett. This was quite a lot of money in the early 1960s.
Joe sold his Gibson ES-147 and paid $400 in advance for a custom order with Semie Moseley. Joe Hall a R&B musician, became an employee a different route. Other guitar guys like a young guitar maker named Bill Gruggett were attracted to the usual guitars Mosrite was producing and became an employee. Semie and Mosrite struggled to survive in Bakersfield, trying to work their way out of the tin shed in Oildale. Ultra fast players like Joe Maphis and Larry Collins loved their playability for their “shredding” style in the 50s and 60s. They weren’t copies of Fenders or Gibsons – Mosrite guitars had many unique features including ultra-slim necks, zero frets, high output handmade pickups, custom built aluminum hardware, and double cut-a-way body shapes had the lower horn longer. Guitars that Semie built were quite different, and original. When they began, their production was all custom, handmade guitars, built in garages, tin storage sheds, wherever the Moseleys could put equipment. The name “MOSRITE” comes from a marriage of these two names MOS (Moseley) RITE (Boatright).Īfter a few years of struggling in Los Angeles trying to turn Mosrite into a mass producing guitar building operation, Semie moved his small operation in Oildale, just outside Bakersfield, California. Semie, who built guitars for the L.A.-based Rickenbacker company, said to his co-workers that he was making his own product, and he was fired by Rickenbacker. By 1956, with an investment from Reverend Ray Boatright, a local Los Angeles minister, Semie and Andy started their company, Mosrite of California. During this time he mastered the art of the “German Curve” body style that was later employed on his Mosrite guitars. Semie Moseley became a master luthier after he apprenticed with Paul Bigsby and later at Rickenbacker with Roger Rossmeisl, a German born jazz guitarist and talented luthier.
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