Here's a photo of Bill Woods and his very early oddball Mosrite. I think this one must have been done right about the time that Semie hit Bakersfield...1959, 1960....it still has the Carvin pickups....but it has the look of the early Bakersfield guitars, with the zero fret and the like...
Bill Woods was a bandleader in Bakersfield who is most famous for bringing up Buck Owens in his band in the early 50's. He played fiddle and piano with Merle Haggard, released tons of great obscure country & rockabilly records, and knew Semie quite well.
One story which Bill Woods always told, and I believe him, was that he was the one who came up with the idea of the red, white, and blue paint job for the Mosrite. As the story goes (and chime in if anybody else has better knowledge) Semie had painted up a few Mosrites with tri-color paint jobs for the jobbers to show the different music stores the paint schemes available. Bill Woods saw this and suggested Semie make a red, white and blue model "to be patriotic." Later Buck Owens had Semie make him a red, white and blue Mosrite acoustic, and Semie was to make a Buck Owens model acoustic, but Buck ultimately went with Harmony and had them made on the cheap, taking the red, white and blue paint job as his own creation.
Bill was so put out by Buck taking his idea he had his original Mosrite painted red, white, and blue sometime in the 1960's. It is now owned by Marc Lipco and can be see in a glass case at Alan's Kern Pawn Shop in Bakersfield. it's not for sale, of course, or I wouldn't be telling you about it. ha.
This one is a bit of an oddity, like the "Buckaroo by Moseley" guitar. The headstock throws back to the earliest Mosrite headstocks but is in more of a "hook" shape. Suffice it to say I think this one was a one-off and Semie never made any other ones exactly like this.
Deke
Bill Woods' early oddball Mosrite guitar...Bakersfield?
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Re: Bill Woods' early oddball Mosrite guitar...Bakersfield?
Hey Deke, Bill Woods once told me that Semie had made him a custom double neck when Semie first came to Bakersfield, Bill used this guitar on a local country music television show
any word or photos on that one, I'm thinkin' around the same time Semie built Roy Nichols
double neck. Roy's Mosrite double neck set in Gene Moles shop in the early 70s forever waiting to be restored. Everytime I'd go over there I had to check it out, it was pretty much
a mess, Gene said Roy was doing a photo shoot On a horse and was pretty drunk, he fell off the horse holding the guitar. I seen the guitar a couple of years ago on eBay, Gene put it back togeither with all new style Mosrite parts.
Eddy
any word or photos on that one, I'm thinkin' around the same time Semie built Roy Nichols
double neck. Roy's Mosrite double neck set in Gene Moles shop in the early 70s forever waiting to be restored. Everytime I'd go over there I had to check it out, it was pretty much
a mess, Gene said Roy was doing a photo shoot On a horse and was pretty drunk, he fell off the horse holding the guitar. I seen the guitar a couple of years ago on eBay, Gene put it back togeither with all new style Mosrite parts.
Eddy
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Re: Bill Woods' early oddball Mosrite guitar...Bakersfield?
Hey Ed, I never heard Bill Woods had a doubleneck but it seems like everybody did around this time, didn't they? I bet it's still floating around the central Valley somewhere.
I have some pics from that ebay auction of Roy Nichols doubleneck a while back, but I saved them as .html files and I can't figure out how to upload them to show the list.
I think Roy Nichols had two doublenecks....can you confirm? His son told me a funny story that Roy apparently hated the doubleneck so much he left it behind in a bus station on purpose! Many years later a vintage dealer found the guitar and tried to return it to Roy and he said, "heck no, there's a reason I left that thing at a bus station!" pretty funny.
Here's a pic where you can just barely see Roy playing the doubleneck on stage with Wynn Stewart. This is a fairly legendary instrument, because as the story goes when Merle Haggard, fresh out of San Quentin prison, went and saw Wynn Stewart's band in Las Vegas at the Nashville Nevada club, Roy Nichols saw Merle and handed him the doubleneck so he could take a piss break. Merle sang a couple of songs and impressed Wynn Stewart so much that he asked Merle to join his band on bass. So really, Roy Nichols doubleneck is the instrument that started Merle Haggard's career!
But I showed this ebay auction to Roy's son and he thinks that his dad may have actually had two, and that the one you speak of that was in Gene Moles' shop for a long time was a different one?? Man, it gets confusing sometimes...
Deke
I have some pics from that ebay auction of Roy Nichols doubleneck a while back, but I saved them as .html files and I can't figure out how to upload them to show the list.
I think Roy Nichols had two doublenecks....can you confirm? His son told me a funny story that Roy apparently hated the doubleneck so much he left it behind in a bus station on purpose! Many years later a vintage dealer found the guitar and tried to return it to Roy and he said, "heck no, there's a reason I left that thing at a bus station!" pretty funny.
Here's a pic where you can just barely see Roy playing the doubleneck on stage with Wynn Stewart. This is a fairly legendary instrument, because as the story goes when Merle Haggard, fresh out of San Quentin prison, went and saw Wynn Stewart's band in Las Vegas at the Nashville Nevada club, Roy Nichols saw Merle and handed him the doubleneck so he could take a piss break. Merle sang a couple of songs and impressed Wynn Stewart so much that he asked Merle to join his band on bass. So really, Roy Nichols doubleneck is the instrument that started Merle Haggard's career!
But I showed this ebay auction to Roy's son and he thinks that his dad may have actually had two, and that the one you speak of that was in Gene Moles' shop for a long time was a different one?? Man, it gets confusing sometimes...
Deke
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