Is this the old factory?

[KRamone27]

I wonder if the old wal-mart still stands in Booneville, AR?

[Dennisthe Menace]

Veenture said: "Notice there’s also a date written on the carboard box (I make out Oct. 31, 1989) and it’s anyone’s guess as to what that can reveal about Mosrite history or that it can even be linked to Semie at all. We’ll have to get Sherlock Holmes and Fenton Hardy to solve this mystery!" (heh heh)

....Halloween Costumes??? Sorry, I couldn't resist....

[Veenture]

Ha, Dennis!

You made me roar, but at first the bell didn’t ring because I wasn’t aware that Halloween’s on the 31st. October! Did some ‘sleuthing’ though and when it hit me, your remark had max effect! LOL
(In some places in the land of the dykes, cheese and wooden shoes we celebrate a kind of “trick or treat” but that’s on 11th. November…)

Ah, what a dull place the world would be without humour …and Mosrites!

[dubtrub]

Just to try and put this in chronological order, I've borrowed some photo's scattered around this forum and elsewhere on the net. The first photo is borrowed from TNM Guitars web site (I hope this is alright with Terry) and I will copy his description of the photo.

MISSION HILLS, CA Picture was taken July 19, 2008 - This is the former home and shop of Semie Moseley from 1955 - 1959. Located at the NE corner of Haskell Ave. and Index St. I was fortunate to be able to watch and eventually assist Semie with many of his custom guitar projects in 1958-59. These were the pre-Ventures days. There were 2 garages and one out building. He also used the dining room table to wind his pickups. Semie moved from here and about 6 months later opened a new shop in Bakersfield. The rest of the story is legendary. Unfortunately, I never saw Semie again.




This is the house where Semie was living with his wife and daughter, Dana, in mid 1959 when I first met Semie. The shop was just a step out the back door. The first time I seen Semie he was standing at the side door (located on the other side in the photo) spraying a guitar. I immediately focused on what he was doing and made a bee line straight to his shop. That is where I went everyday after school. It was located on Minner Street in Oildale, (northen section of Bakersfield) just across the street from Standard Elementary/Middle school on the north side. Unfortunately it has now been torn down and a new business and parking lot took it's place. The photo was taken by Artie of Front Porch Music around 2005.



I was only at the Panama Lane shop one time in '62. I had moved to Santa Maria California and my Dad just purchased me a brand new white see through ash bodied Stratocaster (which I still have). I hated that white finish cause 'real' guitars were sun burst, so I went to see Semie to get some paint to change it to sunburst. I recall meeting another person there that Semie introduced as his assistant. Looking back, I'm guessing it must have been Bill Gruggett. Talking with Artie a couple of days ago he confirmed that this photograph is the old Panama Lane tin barn (photo taken in the '90s).



The following photo was borrowed from the Japanese book 'Vintage Mosrites' and are of the P Street factory downtown Bakersfield, where Semie moved to when he made the big time, build guitars by the hundreds. This is only one of the factory building left standing at the time the photo was taken in '91. They City of Bakersfield had already started tearing them down to make room for progress, a new municipal parking lot.



Hopefully as the forum gets new members we will have more photographic evidence of the various location where Mosrites were manufactured as Semie moved around the country. I have a video of the Booneville Arkansas factory but cannot figure out how to grab a still photo off the video.

[Deke Dickerson]

Hey Danny!

Great stuff. Glad to see that Granada Hills/Mission Hills photo up, since it's right in my neighborhood.

I'm not so sure that the tin shed picture is accurate, though. Bob Shade & myself and Bill Gruggett drove out to the place where the tin shed was, and it was much more like a farm than the pic you have there. The tin shed was gone, but there was another tin shed on the property that was much the same as the original, so we took souvenirs. Supposedly the tin shed was on Jelly Sanders' property...Jelly was a local fiddle player and another "investor" in Mosrite. Where did you get the tin shed photo you have posted here? We should all compare notes to make sure things are correct. We could certainly be wrong too....

Deke

[dubtrub]

Deke, I don't know if you saw this or not, it was a portion of one of the responses I made to your earlier post. However I could definitely be wrong about the Panama Lane location. Artie is the one that told me the photo was taken at the Panama shop. Maybe Ed Elliott will clarify it for us, he was there many time as he lived only a short distance away.

Additionally the information about Jelly Sanders is a little confusing. I knew Jelly Sanders and went to school with his son Jim. Jim and I was learning to play guitar together. Jelly was teaching guitar lessons at Parlier's Music in East Bakersfield. Jim would learn from his dad, then we'd get together and he would show me the lessons. Up until I moved from Bakersfield in the summer of 1961 Jelly was living with his wife and Jim in a house they owned on North Manner Ave. about three blocks above China Grade Loop Rd in Oildale. I was only at the shop on Panama Lane one time and never heard anything about Jelly moving to that location.

Also don't know if you saw my response about Doug Brewer and his doubleneck.

[Deke Dickerson]

Hey Danny--

Yes, I did see that, and I guess we're all at the mercy of everybody's memories. Bill Gruggett told us that Jelly sanders owned the property and lived in the "main house" and let Semie and Andy live in the tin shed on the property and make guitars. This would have been in the '61-'63 era, after the house in Bakersfield. Now, Bill could have been wrong, but who knows.

I do know that Jelly had something to do with Mosrite as a couple of Jelly Sanders instruments turned up about ten years ago. That "first Mosrite bass" that Artie has at his shop was owned by Jelly Sanders (though Merle Haggard borrowed it for a while when he was playing bass for the Buckaroos and Wynn Stewart), and there was a really cool '63 pearl white doubleneck that wasn't finished until '66 that had "JS" inlaid on the pickguard, also made for Jelly. So he must have been another early "investor" who got paid off with some guitars....

All of us who weren't THERE, are just guessin'. But we have to go by the photos and stories and people's recollections.

Deke

[dubtrub]

The mystery of the whereabouts' of the Panama Lane Mosrite Guitar shop of l960 -63 is coming to a close. Today Doug Brewer and I drove out the Panama Lane and found the old 'tin' barn. It is located at the back of a recently constructed (within the last 30 years) residence and the building, although highly modified by newer siding, windows and room additions is still there. The following photographs are of the west side of the shop building and other than the wood siding, the door and one window are part of the original shop. The double door opening is still located on what would have been the north east side of the shop. They are now encased in the room addition where the building has been converted into farm labor quarters, yet now abandoned. We talked with a farmer caretaker of the property and he said all the old tin siding had been removed about twelve or more years ago. This is the same building depicted above photo showing the tanks and large truck in the yard.

Doug said the 'walk through' door in the photo is where he entered every day after school when he would go to the shop to work in order to pay for his double neck guitar. He said he recalled Bob Regan coming there and entering through the double door on the opposite end of the building and Lucille was sitting just outside the doors in the car. That too is the way I recalled entering the one time I was there in 1962. Unfortunately we didn't want to press on our intrusion by asking to go inside to photograph more as the caretaker wasn't too concerned with our historical quest.

[Dennisthe Menace]

HOLY XXXX!!!
Danny,
Like you said, not wanting to intrude, but what are the chances of
maybe going back and getting inside shots of the "TIN?"

[dubtrub]

Like you said, not wanting to intrude, but what are the chances of
maybe going back and getting inside shots of the "TIN?"

No chance at all. This guy didn't even want to allow us to take these pictures. He was very unimpressed with our historical trek.