Mosrite S Series Are Listed

The angled fingerboard end and neck pickup angle are typical Moseley.

In fact, if it hadnt been for his serendipitous relationship with The Ventures, he might have been one of those obscure guitarmakers we have to scramble to identify.

And we might not know anything about this circa 1971 Mosrite Stereo 350 Model.

Not that we know that much about it, anyway This Mosrite Owners List is provided with Serial Number, Type, Color, Owners Name, and Picture of the Mosrite.

Mosrite S Series Are Listed

In the 1966-1967 Mosrite catalog the Celebrity series are listed as NEW.

Vintage Mosrite Serial Numbers In 52, Moseley began his career doing piece work for Paul Bigsby.

Following a tiff with Bigsby, he began building his own guitars, and at some point in 52 or 53 began making necks for Paul Barth at Rickenbacker.

It was there he met Roger Rossmeisl, the German luthier, and was introduced to the German carve, a relief around the top edge that characterized many of Moseleys guitars thereafter, including the Ventures models..

Moseley continued building his own guitars while at Rickenbacker, which made Barth suspect he was copying theirs.

There, an evangelist named Ray Boatright, with whom Moseley traveled and performed, encouraged him to go into business, and supplied him with tools from Sears; Mosrite a blending of the names Moseley and Boatright was born.

Among Moseleys early gigs was a challenge to design a guitar for Bob Crooks, who built Standel amplifiers and wanted to get into the guitar business.

He asked Semie to design a guitar like a Fender Stratocaster but not like one.

Voila What became the Ventures guitar had arrived Some 25 or so Mosrite Standels were built circa 1962, including one for a local guitarist named Gene Moles, who showed it to Nokie Edwards (of the Ventures), who stopped by to get one.

Semie offered to give it to him, but Edwards insisted, and paid 200.

Moseley was on his way He reached a licensing agreement with the Ventures management and began producing Ventures models in 63.

In 67, the Ventures deal ended and Semies tribulations began.

Not adept at the business aspect of running a guitar company, things began to unravel for him, and in 69 Mosrite went bankrupt.

Sears bought the name but never used it and by the following year, Semie had scraped together enough money to buy it back.

In late 1970 or early 71, he returned to making guitars on a limited basis, designing new models like the Bluesbender and Stereo 350.

The Stereo 350 21406 NM was probably an early example of this fine guitar.

Its serial number (A0060) probably means it was the 60th one produced.

The NM likely means natural mahogany since the body is mahogany and the finish is natural.

The neck is bolt-on maple with a tongue that extends into the body, under the neck pickup.

This is interesting because this was also done on Japanese-made Acoustic Black Widows of the time, and Moseley reportedly built a couple hundred of those.