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Hey there Guys and Gals,
I thought I might share a couple of photos of the 3 new E.F.Elliott
'63 Ventures style side-jack guitars I'm in the process of building. I
plan on building some of the 59-62 Joe Maphis single and double neck
pre-production models along with the the 63 Ventures, bearing my
own logo of coarse (E.F.Elliott) I just finished spraying the clear
lacquer on the sunburst guitar I'm holding this morning. I've been
sanding on the sealer on the other 2 behind me that's
setting on my trusty ol' Onsrud Pin Router. My router belonged to
Semie Moseley,along with my shaper, that still has Semie's neck
shaping blades on it, and about another dozen pieces of machinery
that belonged to Semie that he used to build the last real USA Mosrites.
I found these tools about 10 years ago over at Booneville, Ark. about
90 miles from here at a mini-storage, Loretta Moseley hadn't paid on
her storage bill in 3 or 4 years, and wouldn't respond to there letters
from the storage company, so they were taking bids to cover the
storage bill, the bidderunder me wanted the tools to sell as scrap iron.
" I had to have these tool"! It ment a lot to me, because they were
Semie's, my ol' friend and mentor. I just couldn't see them being sold
as scrap iron, so I scrambled and sold guitars right and left to get the
money together.I guess I'll keep the old tools till I'm to old to use them.
Hopefully in the next 20 years or so I can build a bunch of Cool vintage
style guitars with the old tools, but just a few at a time , no factory.
Anyway, when I get the Sunburst buffed out and put together
I'll post some more photos.
Ed Elliott

Ed, what a fantastic story! I look forward to seeing your endeavors. IF you should desire to sell one or two, where would one go to inquire?
By the way, the color of the sunburst on that headstock absolutely nails it. I have never seen that kind of burst duplicated before. Bravo.

Yeah, what Strat said. Great story and info! I really look forward to follow your line of guitars, Elliot, and am pretty sure they'll sell way faster than you can make them.

Do I understand this correct: Panama Lane refers to a certain number of Mosrites made in a building in that street in (city, year)? How come they are extra special? Only a few pieces made or ?

ElTwang wrote:Do I understand this correct: Panama Lane refers to a certain number of Mosrites made in a building in that street in (city, year)? How come they are extra special? Only a few pieces made or ?

ElTwang, see response here.

Ed, glad to hear you saved those tools. I have a video with those tools in use at the Mosrite Factory in Booneville Arkansas, back in '93. It would have been an absolute shame for them to be sold as scrap metal.

That is outstanding that you are going to be reproducing these guitars. We will all be anticipating your progress and photo's.

P.S. I sent you a pm about the video.

Ed, like everyone else has already mentioned, it's great that you got to save the machinery and tools. It's not just equipment to make guitars, but it is also some bit of History that has been saved from being "melted down."

Ed,
That's a beautiful guitar, and the added connection to the Mosrite factory is very cool. So, are these custom orders or are you planning to make these models available to the public? If these guitars play as well as your pickups sound, I bet that these will be amazing instruments when they're done!
Mel

Ed:
What is the neck and fretwork like compared to the typical Mosrite thin neck and speed frets? Were the earlier sidejack necks and frets different from the later top jack models?

Bill

Hey Bill, For the most Part my necks are pretty much like the early original Mosrites,(Thin and Narrow) that's the way I like'm, they very a little due to the handmade nature, 2 of the ones I'm building
now measure 1 9/16 at the zero fret and 2 3/32 at the 22nd fret, for the last several years I've been using the smallest fret wire I could fine, Stewart McDonald's Banjo fretwire,
but still a little bigger than the old Mosrite stuff, about 12 thousands wider and 20 thousands
taller, but that's a good thing, some customers want a little more fret hight for easier string bending, others I can file'm down almost to the fingerboard to make speedfrets for that fast flat pickin' ,like the Joe Maphis style. The other 63 Ventures "style" guitar I'm building now Has a wider thicker, very heavlly flamed maple neck, with bigger Strat sized frets, going to spray it sunburst in a day or two. It measures 1 11/16 at the zero fret and 2 3/16 at the 22nd fret. So pretty much anything is possable.

Hey Guys, Well I hope to have some photos of my
'63 Sunburst Sidejack custom clone up this evening.
It's looking pretty darn good, looks like it almost
belongs in Bob K's collection. Yesterday I got the
fingerboard all cleaned up, the frets dressed and
polished, the finish wet-sanded and buffed, this
morning I've beem molding pickup covers and winding
coils, so we're getting close.
Here in the near future I'm wanting to build a clone
of a 30th Anniversary Nokie Edwards Model,
the one with the sparkling Blueburst Paint job.
Does anyone out there own one or have a good
close up photo ??

Thanks Guys!

Eddy

Here you go, Eddy. In exchange for the photos do you think you could PM me about my '78 Bluesbender/Brass Rail style guitar you built?
Best, Adam