GREAT DANA MOSELEY INTERVIEW

[GTSP]

Do we know if anyone has played that "Danamite" guitar?

[Sarah93003]

Do we know if anyone has played that "Danamite" guitar?

Dana has. She loves it.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Well, she's a member on the Forum, so maybe she'll be able to explain what she meant. The thing with the Sunburst, she might of meant that her
father came out with the 3 tone color before Fender did?? And she also might of meant that her Dad designed (invented) his own trem system.

[oipunkguy]

Agreed Dennis, I think she might have meant that Semie invented the sunburst that is famous for mosrites, and not really the sunburst. I mean i've worked on old gibson archtops from the 30's with a tobacco burst.
wasn't the first trems came on maybe a strat 54-ish, and bigsby may have came up with his around the same time, I'm not sure. but from my understanding is semie's trem was an improvement on what came before. you can't really improve on something that ceased to exist previously can you?...unless semie invented a time machine too and we don't know about it...

[Sarah93003]

Vibrato tailpiece

Rickenbacker Electro Spanish with Kaufmann Vib-Rola
Kaufmann Vib-Rola rear - note spring mechanism.One of the first mechanical tremolo/vibrato units (although not hand-operated) was the Kauffman Vibrato as used on Rickenbacker Vibrola Spanish guitars. They were not operated by hand, but rather moved with an electrical mechanism. It was developed by Doc Kauffman to simulate the pitch manipulation available with steel guitars. A hand operated unit, the Vib-Rola was also patented by Kaufmann in 1935 and distributed as an option with Rickenbacker's Electro Spanish guitars[2]. A later unit was created and used on Rickenbacker's Capri line of guitars in the '50's, such as John Lennon's '58 325. It was a side-to-side action vibrato unit (rather than the up-down action of later units) that was notorious for throwing the guitar out of tune, hence John's replacing it with a Bigsby B5. It was later replaced by the Ac'cent Vibrola, which used no coiled springs to change tension, giving it less chance to throw the guitar out of tune.

The first commercially successful tremolo arm was the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, most often just called a Bigsby, and invented by Paul Bigsby. The exact date of its first availability is uncertain, as Bigsby kept few records, but it was on Bigsby-built guitars photographed in 1952, in what became its standard form. In several interviews, the late Merle Travis, for whom Bigsby designed his first vibrato, recalled the prototype as being built for him in the "late '40's".
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Remember Semie applied for his Moseley Tremolo patent in 1964 and was granted in 1966. C. L. Fender received his tremolo patent in 1956. The earliest patent I can find for a tremolo was filed on May 26, 1936 and was granted April 4, 1939 to G.D. Beauchamp, patent number 2,152,783. If you look at Semie's patent application you will note that this was his first citation.

[oipunkguy]

wow, nice work Sarah. Are you a detective by trade?

[jfine]

It's certainly possible that Semie was the first to do a black-red-yellow 3-color burst--wasn't Joe Maphis's original doubleneck done in that color? And that was what, 1954? Fender didn't do a 3-tone burst until '58 or so. As far as Semie's inventing the zero fret, that's been in use on European guitars at least since the 1930's, and maybe before. He probably got it from Roger Rossmeisl when he worked at Rickenbacker. I think what Dana meant when she referred to Semie's inventing the vibrato was that he invented the Vibramute/Moseley vibrato, one of the best ones out there if you ask me! The earliest vibrato I'm aware of is the Kauffman Vibrola, which was in use by the mid-'30's, and there may be earlier ones.

[Sarah93003]

wow, nice work Sarah. Are you a detective by trade?

Nah, just an infomaniac! I'm a paralegal actually and know my way around the Patent/Trademark website.

[connie_mack]

all that work wasted trying to come up with a vibrato.

they just shoulda played the steel guitar.....

It was developed......to simulate the pitch manipulation available with steel guitars

[apossibleworld]

The original Kauffman Vibrola was operated by hand, and only the later one was powered electrically. A lot of people used them in the 30s and 40s, including Les Paul and Merle Travis. Interestingly the Bigsby came about because Merle Travis couldn't get his Vibrola to stay in tune (because they won't unless you return the arm to the position you found it in), and he asked his friend Paul Bigsby if he could come up with something better. Semie's vibratos are a takeoff on his observations of Bigsbys.

I'm pretty sure there are earlier mechanisms for vibrato-like actions too. patents.google.com is fantastic, and also a fantastic time-waster.

Ooh here's the Kauffman patent

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=ltRGAAAAEBAJ&dq

and here's one from 1904!

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=Z5dMAAAAEBAJ&dq