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As I study photographs that I've collected of Celebrities I've come across two that have non-Mosrite parts. Specifically pickups and knobs. One is a gorgeous Gospel Guitar with a low serial number and has all gold hardware. I know the tuners are not original as I can see left over little holes on the back of the headstock. The pickups and knobs I am not sure of. The pickups are gold colored humbucking pickups with the black Mosrite surround. The knobs look like black Les Paul knobs. I'm wondering if the customer specifically ordered the guitar with these non-Mos parts or if they had changed them out at some time. This one is curious in that the Mosrite bridge, tremelo, etc are all gold colored.

Any ideas on this?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that its most likely aftermarket. Semie didn't seem like the type that was into doing too much custom work. Don Wilson has related stories about things like asking Semie to wind the pickups a little softer, the neck a tad wider, and look into some issues they had with tuning stability. He said Semie's usual response was something to the effect of "I build them, you play them." Most people I've talked to who worked at the factory gave me the impression that Semie had a lot of self-confidence, coming across as just plain arrogant at times.

So my gut tells me that if he wasn't willing to change anything on the guitars for The Ventures - the one entity that probably had more to do with Mosrite's success than anything else in the 60s, then he probably didn't like taking custom orders from customers either. Of course, mere speculation on my part....I'm sure someone else here on the forum would be able to shed more light on this for you.

Sarah93003 wrote:I know the tuners are not original as I can see left over little holes on the back of the headstock

I would speculate them little left over holes are an indication for the other non-Mo'parts to be aftermarket as well. A smoking gun?

raygun85 posted

..........Semie didn't seem like the type that was into doing too much custom work. ..........

....................Oh Reilly ?!?!???....................

Hmmm, I've been under the impression that almost everything Semie did was custom. My memory isn't the greatest but it seems like I read somewhere that Semie was known to use other pickups from time to time. I've formed the impression that Mosrite was kinda basically a custom shop and a large one during the 1966-1968 timespan. I've talked to a couple of former employees and the credo seems to have been "whatever it takes to get it out the door".

I do hope we get some other reponses to this one.

Actually, Semie did a lot of custom work for musicains such as Joe Maphis, Elaine Frizzell, Larry Collins, and a bunch of others. granted when semie did a custom job it would take forever and a day to get the guitar back. As for Don Wilson, the Ventures were playing production guitars which they had a financial concern and this was also a period of great growth for Semie and his company. The whole idea of doing a custom guitar for Don Wilson was probably not on his high list of priorites. Of course I am speculating.

Sarah93003 wrote:I've talked to a couple of former employees and the credo seems to have been "whatever it takes to get it out the door".

There have probably been, what, probably hundreds of people who worked for and with Semie over the years? Everyone has their own perspective. I know that from my own viewpoint as a business person, it would make more sense to do whatever it takes to get the job because the bottom line is: if you don't get the job then you don't pay bills and you don't put food on the table. The only time period that I've heard about Semie using other pickups was in the early days. Unless they did a lot more custom work than I realized. Keep in mind, too, that I'm referencing mostly the time period between 1963 and 1968. I don't have a great wealth of knowledge beyond those years. I'm still gonna lead toward saying those are probably aftermarket parts.

Sarah posted

Hmmm, I've been under the impression that almost everything Semie did was custom.

Sarah, your 'impression' would be correct , There is info all over the Forum from different threads commenting
about how Semie would use whatever he had to make it work....and then get it out the door . As far as different
pick-ups go, he used the Carvin p'ups back in the 50s and I believe he used the DeArmond pick-ups as well as on the
Mobro/Dobro Series in the 60s.

p.s.-raygun85, I wasn't taking a shot at you, it's just that I have heard this story from time to time and I personally
believe this is incorrect based on all of the 'one off' custom orders that Semie did build. I do not take everything that
Don says seriously. Of course with Semie gone, we only can hear one side of the story.
And you had also posted that Don had said

He said Semie's usual response was something to the effect of
"I build them, you play them."

. Sorry, that just doesn't gel. That's not the Semie that I knew........ .

vjf1968 wrote:when semie did a custom job it would take forever and a day to get the guitar back.

A friend of mine in Tehachepi by the name of Bob Haggard has an early 60s double-neck that Semie built supposedly in 1961 or 1962. 6-string guitar on the top and 4-string bass on the bottom. Uses the dog-ear style covers. He claims Semie used to have a picture of it in his office. Anyhow, he hired Semie to refinish it in the late 60s shortly before they went belly-up.
Some time passed and he couldn't get a hold of Semie and if I remember the story right, he finally tracked down Andy Moseley when they were loading up parts into a truck from a storage facility and he found his double-neck completely stripped down and missing all the parts. He still has the invoice with Semie's signature on it. Last time I talked to him he said he was trying to get Dana Moseley to honor Semie's commitment and see to it that the guitar was refinished and fully restored. He asked me to wind some pickups for it once he's ready to put it back together.

raygun85 wrote:

vjf1968 wrote:when semie did a custom job it would take forever and a day to get the guitar back.

A friend of mine in Tehachepi by the name of Bob Haggard has an early 60s double-neck that Semie built supposedly in 1961 or 1962. 6-string guitar on the top and 4-string bass on the bottom. Uses the dog-ear style covers. He claims Semie used to have a picture of it in his office. Anyhow, he hired Semie to refinish it in the late 60s shortly before they went belly-up.
Some time passed and he couldn't get a hold of Semie and if I remember the story right, he finally tracked down Andy Moseley when they were loading up parts into a truck from a storage facility and he found his double-neck completely stripped down and missing all the parts. He still has the invoice with Semie's signature on it. Last time I talked to him he said he was trying to get Dana Moseley to honor Semie's commitment and see to it that the guitar was refinished and fully restored. He asked me to wind some pickups for it once he's ready to put it back together.

I can believe that . If Bob dropped the guitar off shortly before they went belly up, and ya' got 'da boyz' coming over to put the padlocks on the front door, I would imagine that all kinds of crap was flying all over the place. I read somewhere while Semie and Andy were trying to reorganize, 'da boyz' were already auctioning off a lot of the machinery at a loss. I'm pretty sure that Semie and Andy probably hadn't a clue where half the parts and machinery were, once those nice young gentlemen in black suits showed up..........