Lorrie's Acoustic from "the Collins Kids"

[Dennisthe Menace]

Deke,
Do you by chance know anything about Lorrie's Acoustic Guitar? I know Semie definitely built the neck.
I recognized what I'm going to call or title the "FIRST GEN HEADSTOCK." . However, did Semie build
the Acoustic Body on this, or was this another (Gibson?) Manufacturer with a "Switched out Neck and Headstock?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGKgTRQwl_E

[Deke Dickerson]

Hey there--

I've actually got a great picture of Lorrie's headstock on my darn cell phone, but I can't figure out how to download the pics off of my cell phone on to my computer...???

Here's the story on Lorrie's guitar. It started out life as a Martin D-18, and around 1953 she got a pickguard put on it at Paul Bigsby's shop, and it was Semie who did the work. There are NO photos of the guitar with the Bigsby pickguard that I've seen, but I have seen of all things a Super 8 home movie that showed it in this early state!

Then about 1956 Semie put a new custom neck on it, with the early 6-on-a-side headstock. However, the headstock is much more refined on Lorrie's guitar than on the other examples I posted photos of. For one thing, Semie finally figured out how to make a Kluson 6-on-a-side set like a Fender or a Bigsby guitar, instead of using 3 and 3 Left and Right side tuners. Also the inlay work is much more advanced. Semie really did a nice job on Lorrie's guitar, you can tell he put everything into that one, because he knew it would be seen on TV!

I've attached a photo here from the "Town Hall Party" album cover, you can see not only Lorrie's guitar but also Larry's doubleneck with the early headstocks and Johnny Bond's guitar too. About a year later Larry got his necks redone to have the big 3-on-a-side headstocks.

The Johnny Bond guitar is on permanent display at the Autry Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles in Griffith Park near the zoo, if you're a guitar nut like me you can go see it there. IT still has the early headstock.

Like I said, Semie finally changed the design because too many people were confusing it with Bigsby's headstock design, and by 1957 he had redone Joe Maphis and Larry Collins' doublenecks to have the 3-on-a-side headstock.

Whew, if I type the word "headstock" one more time I think my head might explode. ha!

Deke

[Deke Dickerson]

Okay, I just found this picture from my guitar geek festival last year, it's got a real clear shot of Lorrie's guitar's headstock (if you can see it through the maze of other Mosrite necks, ha!)

Deke

[Dennisthe Menace]

Deke, I have 1 or a thousand questions to ask ....J/K!
You had mentioned:

Here's the story on Lorrie's guitar. It started out life as a Martin D-18, and around 1953 she got a pickguard put on it at Paul Bigsby's shop, and it was Semie who did the work. There are NO photos of the guitar with the Bigsby pickguard that I've seen, but I have seen of all things a Super 8 home movie that showed it in this early state!

Then about 1956 Semie put a new custom neck on it, with the early 6-on-a-side headstock. However, the headstock is much more refined on Lorrie's guitar than on the other examples I posted photos of.

This is great! I just went back and checked the youtube I had posted a few threads back......
1) About 32 seconds into the time frame, Are we looking at Lorries Guitar with the New Neck on it, BUT, possibly with the P'Guard that Semie had installed when he was working for Bigsby?
2) The reason I'm asking is because strangely enough, at 52 seconds, there's Lorrie again, but with (another guitar?) a NEWER Headstock and a different P'Guard again. And the one at 52 sec, I don't think I ever saw her again with that guitar. But what caught my eye was, the ornament (decoration trim) seems to match the triple neck that had shown up at the guitar show on youtube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGHWIvV-EUA

[Dennisthe Menace]

Okay, I just found this picture from my guitar geek festival last year, it's got a real clear shot of Lorrie's guitar's headstock (if you can see it through the maze of other Mosrite necks, ha!)

Deke

I can see it perfectly! That PIC came out so nice, you can also see "MosRite" on the Headstock.
I wander if anyone had noticed Larry's guitar??? ....Check the trussrod cover on the Octave Neck...
That's actually a pick waiting for Larry, whenever he decides to use it ...........

[Deke Dickerson]

Man...this gets confusing, so hold on...

First of all, let me just say that I've been trying to nail down Larry and Lorrie for an interview to put in my book. This whole history of Bigsby, Mosrite and the hundreds of variations that Semie did for them would take a book in itself! But here's the basics....

Lorrie had the Martin which originally she had customized at Paul Bigsby's shop where Semie was doing some of the work. Semie did a black Bigsby-style pickguard on her Martin, didn't even say her name on it, and left the stock martin neck on.

At the same time, Larry had a little 3/4 size Gibson ES-140 customized at Bigsby's shop as well with a fancy pickguard and armrest.

A year or two later, after Joe Maphis had switched allegiance to Semie and Mosrite, Semie built Larry a doubleneck like Joe's, and re-necked Lorrie's acoustic, both with 6-on-a-side Mosrite headstocks. Larry's guitar was then updated a bunch of times, but Lorrie still has THIS guitar in its original state, and that's the one you see in the recent photo of them playing with me behind them.

Okay, once again if you're still following along, here goes. Around 1957, Semie redid Joe and larry's doublenecks with 3-on-a-side headstocks. I believe he just replaced the necks but used the same bodies.

A little while later, maybe 1958 or 1959, Semie replaced the necks YET AGAIN on larry's doubleneck, and took out a bunch of wood inside the body to make it lighter. This variation had smaller headstocks (like the tripleneck on youtube) that were part of the effort to make the guitars lighter. At the same time, he made a completely new guitar for Lorrie which had a dark finish, the 3-on-a-side headstocks with the black & white motif and spray-painted "mosrite" logo in the middle (that's the one that appears mid-way through that youtube video). Larry's original doubleneck is in THIS state now, with the 3rd neck variant. The acoustic that Lorrie got around the same time, she does not own anymore--but strangely enough, she still has the ORIGINAL one from 1956.

Larry then had at least two other doublenecks made for him. One in the 60's with a double-cutaway (!) and then one in 1988 which his wife had Semie make as a birthday present for Larry. That's the red-burst one you see in the modern photograph, and the main guitar Larry plays now.

Like I said, I've been hoping to do an interview with the two of them, to get all these stories straight, but from the photos and what I've managed to gleam from them so far that's what I know. I wish I could say "hope that clears things up" but with all things Mosrite I've probably just made it more confusing!! ha ha

Deke

[Strat-o-rama]

Went to Youtube at lunch and put in "Town Hall Party". What a goldmine! You can see the necks change on Larry's guitar from clip to clip. Lorrie is the quintessential rockabilly queen, and Larry had more moves than Chuck Berry. Great stuff!