TRIVIA TIME

[Dennisthe Menace]

Does anybody roughly know when Semie had
started his famous logo on the Headstock?:

(M)mosrite
of California

[TerryTNM]

Hi Dennis,
I assume you're talking about the "M" in the head and not the Mosrite decal?
I don't think you'll find an earlier "M" then on the second version of Joe Maphis' headstocks. Joe's heads began life as inline 6 heads, kinda like the Bigsby. I think it was about 1955 that that Semie created those large 'paddle' heads on Joe's doubleneck with the "M" at the top. Gary Lambert has his version of this 'who was first with the M' chronology as Semie modified Gary's 6120 Gretsch with a new head that resembled the DiAngelico but with an 'M' in the top. As Gary tells it: Joe saw Gary's modified Gretsch and ask Semie to do something similar with his doubleneck. I think that's also a possiblity.

-Terry

[Dennisthe Menace]

Hi Terry,
That is interesting History in itself! Actually, what I'm trying to find out, is when did Semie start putting the infamous (M)mosrite of California on the Headstocks (3X3 tuners)? This would answer a lot of questions that have popped up (for me at least).

[TerryTNM]

Oh, that. . . I don't know. -T

[Dennisthe Menace]

Thanks anyways Terry .
Anyhow, I didn't say this
was going to be easy .
Maybe Deke, Adam, or Eddy,
or someone might know.. .

[EFElliott]

Ok Dennis, answers are 50 cents, right ones $1.00,

I guess you get a dollar one, Semie started using it out there on Panama lane around 1962
Semie told me he went to a graphic artist there in Bakersfield, I think it was "Valley Decal"
Valley Decal made all of Mosrite silkscreens through the 60s and 70s.
Anyway Semie ended up not having to pay for the new logo, he went down to pick up his new logo,
Semie said the artist pulled out the logo and was just staring at it, he said "I got a logo for you but I'm sorry
it's no good, It looks to much like Mattel's logo"and he tossed it into a big trash can next to his drawing board, Semie grabed it out of the trash, the guy said go a head and take it if you want, Semie said he ran out of the place before the guy changed his mine. To say the least Semie though it was cool!

Dennis, do you remember the old Mattel Toy Company logo from the 60s, It was the seal with the jaget edges with a big "M" I think there was a lttle cartoon caricature sitting on top of the "M".Anyway real close to or Mosrite logo.
That should be worth at least a buck.

Eddy

[dorkrockrecords]

[Dennisthe Menace]

Ok Dennis, answers are 50 cents, right ones $1.00,

I guess you get a dollar one, Semie started using it out there on Panama lane around 1962
Semie told me he went to a graphic artist there in Bakersfield, I think it was "Valley Decal"
Valley Decal made all of Mosrite silkscreens through the 60s and 70s.
Anyway Semie ended up not having to pay for the new logo, he went down to pick up his new logo,
Semie said the artist pulled out the logo and was just staring at it, he said "I got a logo for you but I'm sorry
it's no good, It looks to much like Mattel's logo"and he tossed it into a big trash can next to his drawing board, Semie grabed it out of the trash, the guy said go a head and take it if you want, Semie said he ran out of the place before the guy changed his mine. To say the least Semie though it was cool!

Dennis, do you remember the old Mattel Toy Company logo from the 60s, It was the seal with the jaget edges with a big "M" I think there was a lttle cartoon caricature sitting on top of the "M".Anyway real close to or Mosrite logo.
That should be worth at least a buck.
Eddy

Eddy, Yes I remember Mattel, and I always thought about that everytime I looked at the Mosrite Logo!(LOL)
Your answer was "right on the money!" (pun intended, I.O.U. $5, not $1! LOL).
I ain't that young, as I turn the big 'Hawaii Five O" in September.
What you just did though, was confirm something I was questioning, and Deke was saying it all along referring to the '59 Joe Maphis Model that eventually became the Ventures Model. The '59 has to be a '61 or '62, just on the Info that you just gave us on the Forum. That '59 has to be a '61-'62 proto.

And I too, as well, am not trying to stir up any arguments, only just to see if we can set the record straight.

I am 'borrowing' this info from another thread in it's full posting, as to not twist anything.......

Deke had posted from the 'Elaine Frizzell Thread':

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

The point I'm trying to make is how could a '61-62 Logo be on a 1959 Guitar....(without me getting shot at)? ...J/K.....

[mosman]

Is it just me or does anybody else feel a bit off balance when they look at a picture posted 'upside down' like this one?
Oh ... it's just me eh?
Dammit!
Bill.

[Veenture]

Bill, especially for you …and mind your head!

A very good point Dennis has there, it makes perfect sense then that the logo dating from ‘61 – 62 also places this mistake plate-Joe Maphis guitar in the same period …and not 1959, inspite of earlier dates on the pots as discussed earlier in the Elaine Frizzell thread