Page 1 of 1

Paul Barth--origin of the Mosrite neck/body joint?

Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 11:03 pm
by Deke Dickerson
Hey there listers--

I just was looking at some pictures of a 1960 Magnatone guitar made by Paul Barth (one of the very Rickenbacker looking guitars that Barth made for Magnatone after leaving Rickenbacker).

I noticed in the picture with the pickguard taken off, that the neck/body joint has the "tongue" that extends into the body under the rhythm pickup that all of the post-1950's Mosrites have! I came up with a theory that Paul Barth may be the guy who invented this neck/body joint and that Semie got the idea from him, either when he was working at Rickenbacker or when he was working at Magnatone.

Terry, if you see this post, I'm pretty sure you can confirm that Semie was NOT using this method to attach the necks to the bodies in Los Angeles when you knew him, correct? As far as I can tell you really only see this method of attaching the neck to the body when the 1962-1963 era Mosrite solidbodies came out.

I just thought it was interesting since everybody always talks about Semie got the German Carve from Roger Rossmeisl at Rickenbacker, but I don't think I've ever seen this subject talked about before.

BTW, the guitar also has a zero fret.

Thoughts?

Deke

Image

Image

Image

Re: Paul Barth--origin of the Mosrite neck/body joint?

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 6:24 am
by TerryTNM
No, the under tounge attachment type was not used by Semie on any of the guitars I saw there at the time.

-T

Re: Paul Barth--origin of the Mosrite neck/body joint?

Posted: Sat May 16, 2009 10:45 am
by MWaldorf
Wow, that's cool! I also like the two under / one over bolt pattern. Didn't Semie use this later as well?