Mosrites in Gospel Music

[Deke Dickerson]

You guys are correct in thinking there was a Semie connection with all these gospel guys. The thing you HAVE to remember about Semie is that he was ALWAYS a gospel musician. Semie was never a country or rock and roll musician, even though those guys played his guitars.

Semie started in the 1950's to build guitars and sell them or trade them to preachers in exchange for just about anything--money, cars, fancy clothes, a place to live, food, etc. In the 1960's and 1970's Semie traveled the gospel music circuit and, well, pardon me for saying--he pimped the heck out of his guitars to the gospel guys! ha ha.

I posted all these before but I'll save you the hassle of looking through my old posts to find these Mosrite-themed gospel LP covers....

And by the way, thanks for posting all these other ones, lots of ones I had never seen before!! Great stuff!

Deke

Sadly I don't have a scanner big enough to scan whole album covers, but I'll add comments:

Little David Smith album cover taken in the early 70's Mosrite factory!



An earlier LP cover of Little David sporting a doubleneck:



An LP Cover of "The Calvary-aires:"



Gospel guitar of Johnny Young:



The Young Trio featuring Reverend Charles Young on the custom-ordered Mosrite Tripleneck:



Semie playing on a 45 by Rev. Buford Dowell:



There are a bunch more I haven't scanned before, including Wendy Bagwell, the Happy Goodmans, the Broome Brothers, etc.

But yeah, as far as Semie was concerned--gospel musicians were the most important to him and he always tried to get them to use his guitars....

[Veenture]

Nice Deke!

[dubtrub]

Block inlay position markers on a Mosrite.

[Veenture]

Block inlay position markers on a Mosrite.

Yeah! ...and I didn't even notice ...a 'first time' again

[Strat-o-rama]

Paul, Thanks for the compliment about my adding to this post. Unfortunately, living in south Florida, there is very little I can contribute other than maybe connect some dots every now and then. Dennis the Menace owns 90 percent of the Mosrites within a 250 mile radius.
Great stuff, Dennis Gatton Fan and Deke!
There seems to be a lot of double necks in the Gospel music circles (at least the circles Semie was a part of). I would guess this to be a direct result of Semie's salesmanship, but other practical reasons as well?
The double necks are all over the place, including a bass neck, 12 string, and octave neck. I can't see these folks playing like Larry and Joe or Phil Baugh. Lyrics are most important, intended to move the spirit or inspire. I would guess most of the time these instruments really serve for strummed chords/rythym guitar. It would be interesting to hear these Gospel Artists that played Mosrites to compare their use of the double necks. How much did these instruments shape their playing?

[dubtrub]

I can't see these folks playing like Larry and Joe or Phil Baugh. Lyrics are most important, intended to move the spirit or inspire. I would guess most of the time these instruments really serve for strummed chords/rythym guitar.

Over the years I have watch several Gospel musicians play and most can make those guitars smoke. Many have really developed the Chet Atkins style and classical style. Some of those traveling Gospel artists are very talented musicians, chording in church and pick like Joe Maphis when they are jamming.

[Deke Dickerson]

I agree with Danny. Most of those guys were killer musicians, but they were usually allowed only one "barn burner" during a church service or gospel show, and it was usually an instrumental gospel song like "I'll Fly Away" or something. The rest of the time they played simple chordal backing. But don't let that fool you, those guys were monsters.

Also, a tip for you vintage guitar collectors--rock and roll guys always trashed their instruments. Now, if you go find a Mosrite that belonged to a gospel musician--that sucker is almost always MINT, MINT, MINT! They took really good care of their guitars.

Deke

[zarfnober]

that double neck with the bass/guitar, is that the one that belongs to the nice lady from Southern Culture On the Skids? Sure looks familiar.

Rocco

[Deke Dickerson]

I'm sure that Mary Huff would be really happy to hear you calling her a "nice lady," ha ha. I have never seen her actually playing that thing live, I believe that they either borrowed it for the photo or is part of bandmate Rick Miller's collection. It sure DOES look like the same guitar/bass doubleneck, but who knows....

Deke

[zarfnober]

I attended a guitar show with Loretta in NC back in 97(?) and met SCOTS, Rick bought a case from Loretta for a Ventures model, and they were all very nice. Rick was wearing a Link Wray t-shirt that he made with an iron on patch from a computer printer. I had no idea who they were at the time, but got along with Rick due to my own Link Wray appreciation. Great band, highly recommended to see live. And on top of that, he has produced some of the Fleshtones stuff.

Anybody have an idea how many bass/guitar doublenecks were made? I'd have to guess not too many.

Rocco