{{Short description|American luthier (1935–1992)}} {{Infobox person |name = Semie Moseley |image = Semie Moseley Image On Vintage 1960s Mosrite Guarantee Guitar Bass Warranty Tag Cropped.jpg |caption = Moseley in the 1960s |image_size = |birth_name = |birth_date = June 13, 1935 |birth_place = Durant, Oklahoma, U.S. |death_date = August 7, 1992 (aged 57) |death_place = Arkansas, U.S. |occupation = Luthier }}
'''Semie Moseley''' (June 13, 1935 – August 7, 1992) was an American luthier and the founder of guitar manufacturer Mosrite.<ref name="mosrite.us website">Mosrite.us website http://www.mosrite.us/en/about.php</ref>
==Biography== Moseley was born in Durant, Oklahoma, in 1935. His family migrated to California along a path similar to many Bakersfield Okies, first moving to Chandler, Arizona, in 1938, and two years later to Bakersfield, California. Moseley's mother worked in a dry cleaner’s shop, his father with the Southern Pacific Railroad.<ref name="BC">Price, Robert, {{cite web |url=http://www.bakersfield.com/static/FP/baksound/mosrite.htm |title="The Man Behind the Mosrite" |accessdate=2008-07-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080712034122/http://www.bakersfield.com/static/FP/baksound/mosrite.htm |archivedate=July 12, 2008 }}, ''The Bakersfield Californian''. Has biographical notes on Semie Moseley.</ref>
In Bakersfield, Moseley started playing guitar in an evangelical group at age 13.<ref name="GP">Thompson, Art, [http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/mosrite-40th-anniversary/jan-07/24776 "Mosrite 40th Anniversary"], ''Guitar Player'' magazine, January 2007.</ref> Moseley and his brother Andy began experimenting with guitars in their teen-age years, refinishing instruments and building new necks.<ref name="BC" />
thumb|right|175px|Joe Maphis's Mosrite double-necked guitar
In 1954, Moseley built a triple-neck guitar in his garage (the longest neck was a standard guitar, the second-longest neck an octave higher, the shortest was an eight-string mandolin). He presented a double-neck to Joe Maphis, a Los Angeles-area TV performer. By 1956, with an investment from Ray Boatright, a local Los Angeles minister, the brothers started their company, Mosrite of California. Moseley, who built guitars for the Los Angeles-based Rickenbacker company, said to his co-workers that he was making his own product, and he was fired by Rickenbacker.<ref name="BC"/>
Initial Mosrite production was all custom, handmade guitars, built in garages, tin storage sheds, wherever the Moseleys could put equipment.<ref name="BC"/>
In 1959, Andy Moseley moved to Nashville, Tennessee, for a year to popularize the Mosrite name and sold a few to Grand Ole Opry entertainers and both studio and road musicians. Andy Moseley said: "And that’s how we kept the factory going at the time: custom guitars".<ref name="BC"/>
Later the brothers also got into the recording business by establishing Mosrite Records.<ref name="GP"/> They signed Barbara Mandrell, a teenage daughter of a music-store owner who sold Mosrite guitars.<ref name="BC"/> They also signed guitarist Ronny Sessions and others.<ref>[http://www.rockabillyhall.com/RonnieSessions.html "Ronnie Sessions"], ''Rockabilly Hall of Fame''.</ref>
At the peak of production in 1968 Moseley and his brother, with their crew of 107 employees, were making 1,000 instruments per month, which included acoustic guitars, standard electrics, double-necks, triple-necks, basses, dobros, and mandolins.<ref name="BC"/>
Mosrite of California went bankrupt in late 1968 after they contracted with a competitor to market their guitars. After this, they tried to deal directly with stores, and they sold 280 guitars in 1969 before they came to the shop one day and found their doors padlocked.<ref name="BC"/>
Two years after his bankruptcy, Moseley was able to get back the Mosrite name, and in 1970 started making guitars again in Pumpkin Center near Bakersfield. He moved his factory three times in the next 20 years, to Oklahoma City in the mid-70s, to the township of Jonas Ridge in Burke County, North Carolina in 1981, and to Booneville, Arkansas in 1991.<ref name="BC"/>
Six months after moving to Arkansas, Moseley became ill with bone cancer. He died six weeks later, in August 1992.<ref name="BC"/>
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * Landers, Rick; Brennan, Tim, [https://web.archive.org/web/20060513234719/http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/000231.html "The Story of Mosrite Guitars, Part One"]. ''Modern Guitars'' magazine, January 18, 2005
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20010220143529/http://www.northamericanguitars.com/gtrs/gospel.html The Mosrite Gospel guitar], North American Instruments, 2000. With some personal notes on its builder. *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060621125844/http://tymguitars.com.au/mosriteinfo_history_01.html "Mosrite History"], ''Tym Guitars'', Australia.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moseley, Semie}} Category:Guitar makers Category:American luthiers Category:1935 births Category:1992 deaths Category:People from Durant, Oklahoma Category:People from Chandler, Arizona Category:Musicians from Bakersfield, California Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee Category:People from Oklahoma City Category:People from Burke County, North Carolina Category:People from Booneville, Arkansas Category:20th-century American musicians Category:20th-century American artisans