Deke's Guitar Geek Festival

[Dennisthe Menace]

Just a sudden thought: the top of the headstock shape of the MYSTERY DOUBLE NECK could be (meant to be?) a stylised letter "R" (for Rickenbacker?) and the big "S" indeed perhaps for Semie who possibly 'farthered' the guitar while working there?
Boy oh boy, I'm probably way off track...

Paul, that's what's got me going on this, I SAW that too. Could this possibly be
the guitar that Semie was working on in the RIC Factory, and then got fired!!?!?!?

[MWaldorf]

This one threw me. Obviously new, but I can't quite make out
what it says on the Headstock (who's model?).
And what's up with the different hardware and signatures??

This is a parts-rite that Bill Gruggett put together for Steve Soest of the Torquays - hence "The Torquays" model. Since Steve usually plays Jazzmasters, it's got a JM bridge and vibrato (under a custom plate). I forgot to ask about the signatures.

Thanks Mel, wander if Steve ever played it on stage......

Well, he played it on stage for the All Mosrite band, so it at least got that far...

[Dennisthe Menace]

Mel had posted:

Well, he played it on stage for the All Mosrite band, so it at least got that far...

........OK.......well......never mind.......

[dorkrockrecords]

Just a sudden thought: the top of the headstock shape of the MYSTERY DOUBLE NECK could be (meant to be?) a stylised letter "R" (for Rickenbacker?) and the big "S" indeed perhaps for Semie who possibly 'farthered' the guitar while working there?
Boy oh boy, I'm probably way off track...

Paul, that's what's got me going on this, I SAW that too. Could this possibly be
the guitar that Semie was working on in the RIC Factory, and then got fired!!?!?!?

Kudos to your thought experiments, boys, but I think you may be thinking too much. I remember when the "mystery doubleneck" was up on eBay and I saw none of the hallmarks of Rickenbacker or Moseley design. I know Deke's a sucker for hillbilly luthiery so my guess is it's just that. Maybe he'll chime in when he awakens from his guitar geek induced coma.

As far as the guitar that got Semie canned by Rickenbacker, the only guitar of Semie's I've ever seen documented specifically from his time there is on page 81 of the Vintage Mosrite book, zero fret and all.

Adam

[Dennisthe Menace]

dorkrockrecords posted:

As far as the guitar that got Semie canned by Rickenbacker, the only guitar of Semie's I've ever seen documented specifically from his time there is on page 81 of the Vintage Mosrite book, zero fret and all. Adam

Kewl....OK....and that particular photographed model was which one??....

[dorkrockrecords]

dorkrockrecords posted:

As far as the guitar that got Semie canned by Rickenbacker, the only guitar of Semie's I've ever seen documented specifically from his time there is on page 81 of the Vintage Mosrite book, zero fret and all. Adam

Kewl....OK....and that particular photographed model was which one??....

It is a Rickenbacker Combo (800?) with a zero fret, rounded off fretboard end and three dots on the seventh fret. This Japanese fanpage may take this thread on yet another tangent: http://www.tatadoheaven.com/Ric/germancarve.html

[dorkrockrecords]

[Deke Dickerson]

Hello Gentlemen!

Adam was half right, I was recovering from the post-Guitar Geek coma, but also returning the p.a. gear, returning the video gear, unloading the truck, man I've got about 7 hours of sleep in the last 4 days combined....whew!

But I think you all can see from the photos, it was a truly historical event. I'm so happy that it came off as well as it did, and I'm so happy that we had some of the Mosrite Forum boys there in person too!

The All-Mosrite band was one for the history books! i didn't count how many we had at the end, but you have to figure any set that includes Brian Lonbeck, Larry Collins, A Ventures tribute band, Bob Shade and John Lackey from Hallmark, Terry McArthur from TNM Custom, several guys from the forum AND 84-year old George Barris running through the aisles during "Batman" is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Not to mention Dana Moseley and Mr. Yusa were in the audience as well....wow.

To answer some questions on down the line, I'll try to remember them all from the 5 pages of posts here....

1.Hate to burst any bubbles, but the "mystery doubleneck" in the guitar museum is pure hillbilly luthierie--no Semie involvement. It's just as crude as can be. My guess is that some hillbilly built it from pictures he saw in "Country Song Roundup" magazine, as nothing is very refined on it. It's cool, but definitely not a Semie guitar.

2.The Rickenbacker Adam was talking about is the Combo 400 guitar in the "Vintage Mosrite" book. Basically, Rickenbacker started making solidbody electrics in 1954 with the Combo 400, which was a one-horseshoe pickup carved top electric very much copied after the Merle Travis Bigsby solidbody (its even routed out the exact same way from the back, with a plastic plate on the back of the guitar!). Semie must have worked on some of these guitars before he got fired, but its impossible to say which Rickenbackers Semie Moseley personally worked on. I don't think Semie ever worked on any Combo 800's because they didn't come out until '56....the Combo 400 (single pickup) was the only model in '54 and '55 when Semie was there....am I correct here? Interesting side note if anybody is keeping track of this stuff--I talked to John Hall, the current owner of Rickenbacker and son of F.C. Hall who ran the company from the 50's until the 80's, and he said that they stayed friends with Semie even after they fired him well into the 70's. IN fact, interesting bit of trivia, John Hall even remembers them letting Semie use the Rickenbacker facility in the early 1970's to finish a run of Acoustic Black Widows that he had been hired to make for the Acoustic company. Interesting, yes? Okay, back to the Geekfest--

3.The Danelectro Guitarlin on display in the museum is mine, and I'm 99% sure that it was Link Wray's original Danelectro. I have a bunch of pretty convincing evidence that it is his guitar. I will be writing an article about it for Vintage Guitar at some point, just still trying to collect more evidence and hopefully prove conclusively that it is indeed Link's....

4.The red 1965 candy apple red Mosrite is an original guitar that was refinished by Bill Gruggett. It is owned by Mel of the Phantom Surfers.

5.The blue 3-pickup guitar is another guitar that Semie gave to Brian Lonbeck in the 80's.

6.The two 1950's single neck guitars are from the same batch, which I mentioned on another thread on this list. One of them is mine, the other one (the one on the right) belongs to R.C. Allen, who is the older gentleman who sat down on the far left side of the All-Mosrite band. They are virtually identical. You might also notice two other R.C. Allen-made guitars in the pictures of the museum, a red 1964 guitar he made for country player Roy Lanham, and also a recent Bigsby-style hollowbody. R.C. is part of California's guitar history too, he knew Semie well back in the 50's and 60's!

I'm still a little scatterbrained! Any other questions?

Thanks so much for all who came down, and I hope that you guys will make the Geekfest the official meet & greet of the Mosrite Forum.

The DVD will be out in a few months, everybody should buy a copy, there won't ever be better Mosrite porn than that!

Deke

[Bigtikidude]

hey all Jeff from Surf Guitar 101.
just want to say Hi,
Thanks to Deke for another amazing show/day/night again,
and let you know there is some reviews and pics over on sg101 on page 5 and 6
at: http://www.surfguitar101.com/modules.ph ... 6&start=60

enjoy
Jeff(bigtikidude)

[Bigtikidude]

This one threw me. Obviously new, but I can't quite make out
what it says on the Headstock (who's model?).
And what's up with the different hardware and signatures??

This is a parts-rite that Bill Gruggett put together for Steve Soest of the Torquays - hence "The Torquays" model. Since Steve usually plays Jazzmasters, it's got a JM bridge and vibrato (under a custom plate). I forgot to ask about the signatures.

Thanks Mel, wander if Steve ever played it on stage......

I didn't see the show,
but Steve's band the Torquays were the back up band for Nokie in the 90s
at a show here in OC.
wonder if he had the guitar then?
or if he got it recently?

Jeff(bigtikidude)