What kind of Mosrite?

[halfpast]

The one on the bottom left.

[Bob Shade]

That is a "Buckaroo" model made by Semie. There was a time between business ventures that Semie was trying to get Buck Owens to play his guitars. He was successful to a degree. The first episode of Hee Haw sported Buck playing two different acoustic models and Bucks right hand man Don Rich using what looks to be a semi hollowbody one off tele style guitar also made by Semie.

The Buckaroo pictured here was owned by Andy Mosleley and was most likely left over from that association with Buck Owens. Just a guess on my part. My thinking is it was a concept that was built, that never got delivered, or it could have been turned down by Buck.

Andy told me when he loaned it to the Country Music Hall Of Fame, but I never did know what it looked like until later when the display was opened up. If I had known it was a "one off" I would have asked more questions.

Check out the rare Ventures II plate for the vibrato made into a stop tail for this model. He uses what he had laying around for this one. Pretty neat!

That's all I know.

Bob

[Nitromessiah]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall reading somewhere, possibly the Buck Owens book, that Don Rich introduced Nokie Edwards to Semie, and thus began the Ventures association. And that Don owned serial number 1 of what would be the Ventures model, and Nokie ordered serial #2?

At any rate, Buck only played guitars he was paid to play. Fender had a deal with him, where they would supply the band with custom guitars. However - Buck wanted to keep the older ones and Fender wanted them returned, trade-ins for the new models. Buck's answer was to court Gibson, which is why you see Don Rich playing Gibsons for 1970. People don't realize just how big or influential Buck and Don were.... they were to the Telecaster what Hendrix was to the Strat. I think we'd all like to have the gold crushed mirror Tele that Don played around '67.

[Bob Shade]

That was Gene Moles that introduced Nokie to Semie. Gene and Nokie were very close friends as well as writing partners from time to time. You will see Gene's name as a writer in some of the songs the Ventures recorded.

It was Gene that owned the early prototype and let Nokie borrow it when Semie was shaving the neck on his Tele. Nokie used the early guitar with the Ventures and during a typical break the guitar would be on a guitar stand on stage. Guys would walk up to it and stare at it and ask Nokie what the heck kind of guitar it was. That was the beginning.

Bob