Gospels and Holey Headstocks

[Sarah93003]

The first time I ran across a headstock with these two holes in it, I just didn't know what to think. I've seen a few of them.


.
Then while photographing Arties collection of Celebrity based guitars I saw the same two holes in a Dobro.

[Sarah93003]

Recently I was contacted through my website by a person who has a Celebrity-II (M series) that was coverted to a Gospel.
The serial number on this one is M0393G. Obviously the G was added for "Gospel". M0395 has the holes but not the plate.

I think this explains the two holes.




Has anyone seen these before?

[Veenture]

Excellent detective work, Sarah

[Dennisthe Menace]

Sarah posted:

Then while photographing Arties collection of Celebrity based guitars I saw the same two holes in a Dobro.

Sarah, are we possibly looking at a Dobro/Gospel Model>!>......
btw-Is this the same gtr as on your website (color-red-s/n# D00306)
2nd from bottom of post on DOBRO Thread....................

[Sarah93003]

Excellent detective work, Sarah

I was so tired last night when I posted this I forgot to mention my theory. The purpose of this little "Gospel" plates seems to be to cover up the Mosrite logo. I'm thinking that after Semie lost the right to use the Mosrite name that he had an inventory of necks and rather than strip and repaint them he simply had the plate made to cover the name. We've seen Gospels that had the Mosrite logo with "Gospel" across the top; and we've seen Gospels that did not have the logo at all. Obviously he could have added "Gospel" to these headstocks but chose to cover up the Mosrite logo instead.

[Sarah93003]

Sarah, are we possibly looking at a Dobro/Gospel Model?!?.......
btw-Is this the same gtr as on your website (color-red-s/n# D00306)
2nd from bottom of post on DOBRO Thread....................[/size][/i][/b]

Dennis, I don't think it is a Dobro/Gospel model and yes indeed it is D00306. I think the holes in this one are from a plate that covered the Mosrite logo. Who knows what may have been on the plate as the Dobro logo would still have been visible. It may have been a blank plate or it may have had Semie's name or anything else. We won't know until one surfaces that has the plate intact.

I've only been able to document 8 Dobros so far so my information is rather scant. When I started this project and website I wanted to focus solely on the Celebrity based models. The Dobro/Mobro story leaves me wondering what to do. There are the resonators which were made using a Celebrity body (D-100 Californian) and a unique headstock shape (although we already see departures from that) and then the resonators that had an acoustic body (D-50), of which some say "Mobro" on the headstock, and of course some do not .

I'm tempted to expand my Dobro page to include the Mobro even though it's not related to the Celebrity, but it is related to the Dobro.

I've now documented 300 surviving Celebrities and have a massive update planned for my website. Since going live a year ago I've still learned alot about the Celebrity, including my misunderstanding the relationship between the "Original Celebrity" and the "Celebrity-II". I've now documented two of the original Celebrity prototypes and much to my surprise they are totally different guitars which makes me wonder what the other two prototypes were like. And of course I've collected all kinds of little tidbits like these mystery holes. I hope to start focusing on rewriting the pages and adding a few more pages in the next month or so.

I have noticed that I'm beginning to see Celebrities that I've already documented and it's becoming less and less frequent that I come upon a Celebrity I haven't seen before. My website is being found by Celebrity owners all over the world so that is a new source of information. They are all very happy to discover my website. Some are looking for parts to restore their guitar and I'm happy to help them locate the parts.

I think I might just take on the Combo next. I like these guitars as well and I think they should have their own website. I will probably wait six months to a year before I start that as I have a couple of guitar builds I want to do.

A couple of years ago I bought a trashed out Gretsch Streamliner (Cat eye soundholes) on eBay. My guitar tech is putting a new fretboard on it for me and then I plan to do all of the modifications myself. That will include adding a third pickup and installing three P90's, adding two more cat eye sound holes, simplifying the control layout, installing an N-Tune onboard tuner, and doing a lot of turquoise inlay on a white paint job. It should be radical looking, awesome sounding, and pretty all at the same time. I plan to have this done by September for the Gretsch Roundup in Northern California.

This winter is going to be a biggie for me. I have done a lot of thinking and planning and I believe I've worked out all of the angles so that I can build the Celebrity doubleneck I've always wanted. It will be a departure from the building techniques that I've seen on the Celebrities that I've studied internally. So far I've seen four different internal arrangements for the Celebrity. I plan to make the doubleneck a 17" bout instead of 16". It will have trestle bracing which I think will support the center of the top so I won't have to worry about it sinking. I'll use the rosewood/aluminum stop tailpieces for each neck (I never use a tremolo). I'm thinking of using Eddy Elliotts pickups for the six string neck and Mosrite Humbuckers for the 12 string neck. I have a 12 string neck that I bought a while ago and am still on the look our for a 6 string neck. If anyone has one that they will part with, please let me know! I haven't decided on color yet, but it will be a stunner no matter what!

[stl80]

Sounds like a great winter project.
Jim

[Sarah93003]

Sarah posted:

Then while photographing Arties collection of Celebrity based guitars I saw the same two holes in a Dobro.

Sarah, are we possibly looking at a Dobro/Gospel Model>!>......
btw-Is this the same gtr as on your website (color-red-s/n# D00306)
2nd from bottom of post on DOBRO Thread....................

Dennis, I've been thinking about this one a lot and I'm having second thoughts. You might be quite right in that this could have been a "Gospel Dobro". Semie could have very well put a Gospel plate on this one and given it to a musician, or church. I don't see why not. And yes, this is the same guitar that is on my website.

[Sarah93003]

Excellent detective work, Sarah

I was so tired last night when I posted this I forgot to mention my theory. The purpose of this little "Gospel" plates seems to be to cover up the Mosrite logo. I'm thinking that after Semie lost the right to use the Mosrite name that he had an inventory of necks and rather than strip and repaint them he simply had the plate made to cover the name. We've seen Gospels that had the Mosrite logo with "Gospel" across the top; and we've seen Gospels that did not have the logo at all. Obviously he could have added "Gospel" to these headstocks but chose to cover up the Mosrite logo instead.

I am expanding my thinking on the "Gospel Plate" with another theory. As a couple more of these have turned up I'm seeing that they were various models and it seems like they just added the plate and a letter "G" after the existing serial number and called it a Gospel. Could this be a quick and easy way to give a "Gospel" guitar to a church or gospel musician?

I've now seen this done to a Dobro, a Celebrity-II, and several Celebrity-III's. The Dobro serial number did not have a "G", but all of the CE-II's and CE-III's simply have a normal serial number with the letter "G" stamped after it. The "true" Gospel guitars have a "G" in front of a number.

[Sarah93003]

Incidently, I was contacted by someone, via my website, who has a Gospel CE-III. It is serial number K2222G. It was missing the Gospel plate and he had sone made for it. The font that was used isn't exact.

The owner of the guitar is interested in selling it so I thought I'd mention it here in case there is some interest. I think he is looking for something around $1,000 for it. If there is interest let me know and I'll put you in touch with him.



Here is the headstock without the Gospel plate.



Here is the original serial number with the letter "G" behind it. I've seen several CE-III's and a couple of CE-II's done like this.



Here is the new plate that he had made. It's not perfect, but better than missing entirely. I'm thinking perhaps I should have some correct plates made just to have in case someone needs one.