Mosrite was built by Semie Moseley. This particular guitar had an offbeat swooping shape. The guitar design came about when the outline of the Stratocaster was drawn on a piece of paper and the image was than reversed. Moseley than added his own artistic creations on the design and the result produced was an evocative design in the history of the electric guitar.

With its neat design and slim looking thin necks, it also had fast action in terms of playing. It's neck snug easily and comfortably into the player's body. Most of all, it has great tone control and the tone produced are inline with today's music.

The guitars attracted players like Nokie Edwards of the Ventures, Joe Maphis and Johnny Ramone and many other players.

Semie Moseley

Semie Moselry was born in Durant, Oklahoma in 1935 but grew up in Bakersfield, California when the family moved there in 1940.

Moseley began playing guitar by age thirteen in an evangelical group. Soon he and his brother began refurbishing and customizing guitars.

In 1954, he made a triple neck instrument that had standard, octave and mandolin necks. A double necked model was given to guitar super picker, Joe Maphis. During this period of 1954, Moseley got more into building guitars than playing guitars.

About this time, Moseley even had a working stint with the Rickenbacker company.

In 1956, Moseley and his brother, Andy started the Mosrite of California company, which was funded by Ray Boatright, a minister from the Los Angeles area. From there, the name "rite" was included in the company's name.

The Ventures and the Mosrite Guitars

As the company build handmade guitars in many locations, it was Nokie Edwards of the Ventures who noticed the guitar.

After that, all the band members of the Ventures began playing on the Mosrite guitars. Than in 1963, The MX 1 Ventures model was put into production at Bakerfield. It was funded by the Ventures and the group became the exclusive distributor of Mosrite products. By doing this, sales took off very well and the Moseley brothers formed another business venture called Mosrite Records which saw Barbara Mandrell, a well known country singer and instrumentalists, began to ascend to national attention.

Sadly after five years, the distribution deal with the Ventures turned sour. A new deal was made with Thomas Organ but sadly, the deal was a failure and in 1969, the company went bankrupt.

In 1970, Moseley got the rights to the name and he began to make guitars in the city of Pumpkin Center in California. Moseley over the years moved to different locations like Oklahoma, Jonas Ridge, Boonville and finally in Arkansas, the place where he died in 1992

Brian Lonbeck

Brian Lonbeck, who played lead guitar for Barbara Mandrell, was a close friend of Moseley.

Moseley taught him to build guitars and also gave him a place to board at. All week the duo would be working on guitars and on Sundays, Moseley would preach in church and Brian would play the guitar for the service.

Moseley's last gift to Brian was a 1992 classic Anniversary model. He was given a beautiful 1992 40th Anniversary model which had a cherry body and the top inset was made of flamed maple with thick strips of walnut. Moseley was actually targeting for forty of such guitars, but succeeded only in building one. This was the last guitar that Moseley made before his demise.

Altogether, Moseley with Brian Lonbeck, built and made around a hundred guitars.The demise of Moseley was really a great loss to the guitar world and to Brian who had lost a dear friend.

click here to return to top of Mosrite

click to return to Ultimate Guitar Playing Homepage