I got an email from Andy Moseley this morning. I sent him pictures of this guitar to see if he had any thoughts on it. He said I had stumbled upon quite a find. When they were first getting the Celebrity line figured out they were working with Framus to supply bodies and body parts. It began with five prototypes. These were one piece mahogany necks, large F holes hand bound, Vibramute half trem, etc. The rims did not fit very well on the first five so they had to come up with something to cover the seam on the bottom of the bout. So, they covered it with a tortoise shell cover, put the strap pin there and made one to match on the other strap pin. These were considered CE-I's but were thin bodied. Semie and Andy decided to change the specifications to a much thicker bout which became the first order of 100 bodies for the Celebrity-I's. These are the "original" Celebrities. Helen was an employee at Mosrite during that time. He said this would be 1965.
So, I now have one of the first five prototype Celebrities ever made! Woo hoo! How cool is that?
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