Is there a Mosrite/Elk connection?

[handbrake]

Hi all,
I know its the realm of others to explore and document the history of Mosrite and the Bakersfield golden age, but a recent eBay item begs a question. What relationship to Mosrite did Elks have, if any? [Edited] Maybe I'm in the dark or maybe the seller is mistaken, but I haven't been able to find any info on Elks and Mosrite to understand the relationship.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Hi all,
I know its the realm of others to explore and document the history of Mosrite and the Bakersfield golden age, but a recent eBay item begs a question. What relationship to Mosrite did Leo Krebs have, if any? I know he was the collector who had Davie Allan's double neck and he was also a contemporary of Leo Fender. But a recent eBay listing for the ELK guitar (I think it's fascinating that the description doesn't mention (E) Leo Krebs by name, especially considering the length the seller has gone to establish some credibility) claims that the guitar's maker was a Mosrite principal, a "founding member". Maybe I'm in the dark or maybe the seller is mistaken, but I haven't been able to find any info on Leo Krebs and Mosrite to understand the relationship.

Yeah, well some things on this guitar doesn't seem to gel with me smoothly either. Yeah, I know there's a little old decal on the back of the headstock saying that the guitar is from Blaine Washington 98220. I tried doing a Google search and a few other searches with no luck.
I'm not saying that this guitar is not real, there's just way too many things that don't seem to add up. I can't find ANY HISTORY of an AMERICAN ELK Company. But there are a few mentions of an ELK Company in Japan that first got started (1953) making AMPLIFIERS before they started manufacturing guitars as well. There is some hardware (bridge, etc) that suggests Mosrite, but there is just way too many more things that are screaming ELK from Japan such as the Logo itself. This supposedly American Guitar from Blaine WA has the SAME IDENTICAL Logo on it's Bridge which seems to match ALL Japanese ELK Logos.... !!..??
And if this guitar is better built, then why did they use 'open machine heads' as compared to the 'closed' type? Where are the Klusons or Grovers?
Why are the Pickups identical to some of the Japanese guitars from that era? And I swear those Headstocks (the actual shape of the headstock) look as though they came from an old batch of 'Bartell of California' guitars....
Yes, the seller mentions that a well known guitar tech set it up, and you would think that they would of spoken up, so maybe it's just me. But from what I see of this guitar, I just see WAY TOO MANY THINGS ODD with this guitar.....supposedly from Blaine WA 98220

[dorkrockrecords]

I saw more than a few Mosrite-style ELKs during my time in Japan, and I have a hard time believing that the doubleneck on eBay is American made.

[handbrake]

Blah, blah, Elks, etc. [Edited]

[dorkrockrecords]

Don't be so quick to drink that Kool-Aid, handbrake.

I'm still looking for better photos, but for the moment ruminate on the following Takeshi "Terry" Terauchi album cover.

[handbrake]

Nice amps!

[dorkrockrecords]

Look closer and you'll see some nice ELK Mosrite copies in there too (and they all have back pads and ELK embossed pickups as well).

[handbrake]

Look closer and you'll see some nice ELK Mosrite copies in there too (and they all have back pads and ELK embossed pickups as well).

I can't zoom in for the details you see, but I get your drift.

"Elk was a Japanese manufacturer (Miyuki Ind. Co.) who started out in 1953 making amplifiers inspired by the Fender amplifiers of the day. The original brand name was Echo. In the early 60's Miyuki started making pro quality guitars under the brand name of Elk and changed the brand name of the amplifiers to Elk as well. The brand probably stopped in the early 1980's."

From http://www.drtube.com/guitamp.htm

[gplayer]

I ran across this while surfing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ELK-Double-Neck-Gui ... 3003r36596