M for MOSRITE?!?

[Veenture]

Mosriters, I have always assumed that the carved out "M" on the headstock (or peghead) on any Mosrite guitar stood for "Mosrite" or even "Moseley" but…read what it says here on this website:

http://www.celebrityrockstarguitars.com ... is_joe.htm

"After watching Joe [Maphis] on TV, a young boy by the name of Semie Moseley dreamed about making a guitar especially for him. With the help of a preacher friend of his, he was able to meet Joe and agreed to build a double-neck guitar with the top neck an octave higher. That beautiful Mosrite guitar was presented to Joe on stage ; there was even an 'M' at the top of the peghead which stood for Maphis."

I know one should not always believe what is printed...

[TerryTNM]

"After watching Joe [Maphis] on TV, a young boy by the name of Semie Moseley dreamed about making a guitar especially for him. With the help of a preacher friend of his, he was able to meet Joe and agreed to build a double-neck guitar with the top neck an octave higher. That beautiful Mosrite guitar was presented to Joe on stage ; there was even an 'M' at the top of the peghead which stood for Maphis."

That's not exactly what happened. Joe was presented the doubleneck backstage at Town Hall Party. It wasn't quite finished either. It had a blonde finish and a few of the
inlays hadn't appeared yet and it didn't have the recognizable big "M" heads. It was first built with inline 6 heads like you see on Semie's first version triple neck and still see on Lorrie Collins original Martin. There is some wonderful photo documentation of this event that will have to wait until Deke's book comes out.

As I've heard the story, Joe was constantly getting asked it it was a Fender as it had it had that type head. Semie changed the heads (not the necks) to the big paddle
"M" heads about a year later and was not for Maphis but Mosrite. Gary Lambert has a different version and there is some evidence that he may have had the first M on his Semie-remodeled Gretsch. There may be other yarns out there as well.

-Terry

[Veenture]

Terry, that is exactly what is so good about this Forum: THE FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE...!

Thank you for clearing that up, I feel much more comfortable now...

Paul