Those Moserite guitars were definitely made for us by Semi Moseley. We irreverently referred to them as giant safety pins!
He brought them to us at Original Sound Recording Studio in 1967. We tried them out but had difficulty keeping them in tune. Consequently, we never really used them in concert, recording or on TV. We just gave them back. I think he wanted them back if we weren't going to use them.
Von Dutch did the pin striping....here's some wierd info...but, we didn't commission them...
In the late 1960’s, about ten years after The Folk Scare, we encountered another music problem that came to be known as The Psychedelic Era. This was characterized by guys usually dressed in clothing they bought from women’s clothing stores (that’s where Hendrix got his attire...you don't believe me? Check it out!) who imagined they could play guitar which led to writing really awful poetry to complete their musical scat. Essentially these fellows just made extremely loud noise through powerful Frigidaire sized amplifiers and sang their meaningless bad lyrics.
The Strawberry Alarm Clock was one group that actually showed some skill and put together some tunes that people enjoyed. So the music powers that be got them a lot of air time on the radio and a lot of face time in concerts. I won’t go into all the Alarm Clock’s history. Suffice to say, “Incense and Peppermints” is still one of those classic songs no matter how hard you try, you can’t get out of your head because you've heard it since 1967 due to 47 years of radio play.
Somehow Moseley hooked up with the Alarm Clock and was commissioned to design a set of two guitars and a bass for the group. These guitars all had Mosrite style parts, pickups, vibrato and bridges, but also had the bizarre feature of being surrounded by a wooden frame.
After finishing the bodies, Moseley shipped them to famed California artist Von Dutch. He was known for unusual auto pin striping and painted body designs as well as painted designs on surfboards. Due to his involvement the guitar became known also as The Surfboard Guitars.
So here are the Strawberry Alarm Clock Guitars. One of these is housed at the Lemelson Center of American History in the Smithsonian Museum.
Posted by Marc at 8:10 PM
1 comment:
Steve Hale said...
My Uncle, Al Hartel made the "Surf Guitars" in his garage in Downey California. Al worked as a pattern maker for Garrett Air Research in Torrance Ca. He made Guitars, Boats and sculptures in his spare time.
January 10, 2011 at 11:29 AM
--Previous Message--
: Hi guys, thanks for the great music. I would
: like to know some history on the Mosrite
: surfboard guitars. Did they ever get used in
: concert? Any other info about them? Thanks
:
Message Thread
« Back to index
Hosted for FREE by Boardhost.
Create your own free message board! |
---|