Elaine Frizzell

[mosriteforever]

The rumour is that the Gene Moles Guitar is the one Nokie borrowed while Semie worked on his and Nokie liked it and that started the Ventures Model and that this happened in late1962 or early 1963. I don't know if it is true and as Gene is no longer with us, it would take Nokie to verify it.

Mosriteforever!!!

[TerryTNM]

Here's my 2 cents.
I was with Semie until summer of '59 when he sold all his equipment, closed up shop in Granada Hills and told me he was joining a traveling gospel group. There was no flipped-Strat design prior to this. That leaves a few months left of 1959 but it doesn't seem likely. The last guitars we were working on at the GH house were the 12-15 single necks being built for Castle's Music in San Fernando. Deke has one of these as well as R.C. Allen. I think the very soonest that design was hatched would be when he started his new shop in Bakersfield. That date certainly must be out there. Sadly, I never saw Semie again.

Terry

[Dennisthe Menace]

Deke posted:

I honestly don't think they showed up until '61 or '62, there is just no evidence out there to prove they were made any earlier.

That's what I remember reading over the years unless someone found some factual evidence to show something different.
As a matter of fact, late '61 WOULD make sense, because I think everybody forgot another piece of history that would fall
into the 'Historic Time Capsule' correctly.
Actually sometime from late '60 to '61, Semie was contacted by the Standel Amp Company's founder Bob Crooks. It was
actually Bob Crooks who had asked Semie to build a guitar something like a Fender, and THIS is where Semie got funny
and flipped a Strat over and traced it. You see, Semie was contacted to build guitars for Bob, being that he wanted to
have a line of guitars to go with his amps as well. However, that deal fell through when some of the investors for Standel
backed out. Semie had made roughly about 25 of these guitars, and that's another LONG story in itself. But, THIS is
where the Joe Maphis Model evolved (not the Ventures)......we also know that it eventually became the Ventures Model.

[Veenture]

The rumour is that the Gene Moles Guitar is the one Nokie borrowed while Semie worked on his and Nokie liked it and that started the Ventures Model and that this happened in late1962 or early 1963. I don't know if it is true and as Gene is no longer with us, it would take Nokie to verify it.

Mosriteforever!!!

...Vincert, do we have us here an honourable task layed away for you? If you get to speak to Nokie again, he might remember things if he's asked...that would be real cool.

[dubtrub]

So...........are you folks ruling out Bob K's, 1959 Mosrite Joe Maphis Model #1017, as not being a '59?

[Veenture]

...//...It was actually Bob Crooks who had asked Semie to build a guitar something like a Fender, and THIS is where Semie got funny and flipped a Strat over and traced it...//...THIS is where the Joe Maphis Model evolved (not the Ventures). But we also know that it eventually did become the Ventures Model.

Wow Dennis, this seems to clinch the case and there goes the Ventures myth right out the window!
I shall now have to draw sufficient consolation from what you say in your closing sentence about the Ventures' role in this to me so very interesting aspect of Mosrite history.
There is always it seems, more to every Mosrite story and guitar (each and every one of 'em!) than first meets the eye...
good old Semie!

[Desert Surfer]

The rumour is that the Gene Moles Guitar is the one Nokie borrowed while Semie worked on his and Nokie liked it and that started the Ventures Model and that this happened in late1962 or early 1963. I don't know if it is true and as Gene is no longer with us, it would take Nokie to verify it.

Mosriteforever!!!

It is true that Nokie introduced Mosrite guitar to The Ventures. While I was in Bakersfield about a year and half ago, Danny and I tried to find the place where Nokie and Gene Moles had met. We circled around and around in that area as the neighborhood has changed, finally Danny thought the following photo was the location. The old house was torn down.



Nokie does not talk much about Mosrite guitars but he did mention Gene Moles when we talked about the song "The Sunny River" (The Ventures twist party) which Nokie and Gene wrote together. Gene and Nokie were good friends.

Re: REVERSE STRAT design.
Whatever the case may eventually turn out to be, I personally prefer to believe that it was for The Ventures -through Nokie Edwards, who was befriended with him- that Semie came up with this idea to reverse a strat, trace it's outline and further add his own mod to it. Not that I begrudge Joe Maphis or any other fine artist of having the honour but attributing it to the Ventures seems just right. After all, it was the Ventures who got me so interested in the Mosrite guitar and for a number of reasons, this being one of them.

Now I think I'll stop talking and do some more drooling over those ULTRA COOL Mosrites pics in the link Danny so kindly dug up for me

Very true, I love Mosrites because of The Ventures too. (and Nokie of course)

It was Nokie who put the Mosrite in worldwide fame. The Ventures sponsored Mosrites just for a few years. but Nokie has kept the friendship with Moseley until Semie's last day.

[Desert Surfer]

The rumour is that the Gene Moles Guitar is the one Nokie borrowed while Semie worked on his and Nokie liked it and that started the Ventures Model and that this happened in late1962 or early 1963. I don't know if it is true and as Gene is no longer with us, it would take Nokie to verify it.

Mosriteforever!!!

...Vincert, do we have us here an honourable task layed away for you? If you get to speak to Nokie again, he might remember things if he's asked...that would be real cool.

I will ask Elaine and Nokie if they have the booths together again at CAAS event in Nashville. I hope I can go this year. Last time Elaine was playing an old Gretsch, did not see her Mosrite at that time.

I may see Nokie in early May if he is in Yuma, AZ (I will be in Vegas and drive down), I will ask him the other question.

[Veenture]

So...........are you folks ruling out Bob K's, 1959 Mosrite Joe Maphis Model #1017, as not being a '59?

Danny, do you have something up your sleeve perhaps and planning to go for that free Hallmark guitar?!

Nokie does not talk much about Mosrite guitars but he did mention Gene Moles when we talked about the song "The Sunny River"...//...Gene and Nokie were good friends...//...

I may see Nokie in early May if he is in Yuma, AZ (I will be in Vegas and drive down), I will ask him the other question.

If you do that would be wonderful and give him our regards

[Deke Dickerson]

Again, I hate to open up a can of old worms, and I certainly don't want to offend anybody, but I am offering my educated opinion.

Bob K insists that his guitar is a 1959 because the pots are from 1959. His guitar is a beautiful guitar, by far the finest example of the pre-Ventures Joe Maphis model guitar, but as Ed Elliot pointed out, Semie may have bought a box of pots in 1959 in Granada Hills and continued to use them for a couple years in Bakersfield. While the pots may say 1959, all other empirical evidence points to those guitars being '61 at the very earliest. I certainly don't want to get in any kind of grudge match with Bob K or anybody else, but I do think that all the facts point to these guitars being from '61 or '62, and the fact that the pots are from 1959 are not conclusive proof of anything in guitar dating--they are merely a general guideline to show that the guitar couldn't be any EARLIER than the pot date, but could have actually been made years after the pot date. It's a rough dating guideline at best.

The batch of 25 Standel guitars made in 1960 looked like this, not like the Joe Maphis/Ventures body shape (first picture, the brown single-cutaway guitar):

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=709&p=5907#p5907

The one underneath it, the black one in the Joe Maphis/Ventures body shape, is one of the next generation Standel prototypes, from '61 or '62. The actual birth of the Ventures body shape.

Deke