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Step in Leo Fender…
Around the same time another man who liked tinkering around with electrics developed and manufactured the early version of what we know today as the Telecaster. On the early guitars the necks bent like bananas and most were recalled. This promoted the bolt on rod supported neck. Leo was shrewd because he listened to what the working musician wanted in a guitar and thus produced the revolutionary Fender Stratocaster, a double cutaway and ergonomic body coupled with 3 way switching to control the pick ups being effected made this so versatile an instrument that it became an instant success and still remains relatively unchanged in design.
A Brief History of the Electric Guitar
Prior to the electric guitar as we know it, musicians would place a microphone infront of a guitarist whilst playing. This basic response to electrifying the guitar sounds caused problems with feedback and any unwanted sounds also being amplified.
Step in Les Paul, a pretty decent Jazz and country guitarist who liked experimenting with electrics. Paul was unsatisfied by the electric guitars that were sold in the mid 1930s, such as Adolph Rickenbackers hollow body design, so he began experimenting with some designs of his own. Famously, he created "The Log," which was nothing more than a length of common 4" by 4" fence post with a bridge, neck and pickup attached. The pick up he used was a modified gramophone needle run through an old transistor radio. For the sake of aesthetics, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar with the Log running through the middle. This hybrid solid body guitar was the birth of all solid body guitars thereafter.
Because the electric guitar was amped, Artists such as B.B. King found they could bend the strings to add expression. In the sixties innovative guitarists including Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck found that by revving a valve amp to full they could make it distort and a whole new world of sound. Jimi Hendrix took this to the extreme, using distortion and feedback to create melodies and effects never heard before.
In 1941 Paul designed the first true solid body, these were taken on and put into production by Gibson Guitars, as, yes you've guessed it, the Les Paul model, still a favourite with musicians today.
A lot is written about the history of the electric guitar, Mosrite are rarely mentioned. Both the Les Paul and the Stratocaster stayed the same stylistically, if it ‘ain't broke why fix it'? It took another guitar designer to transform the design aspect. Mosrite Guitars, formed by Semie Mosley were really a
guitar shop and modifier for a number of years. Mosley produced double neck modifications on Gibsons and later on his own custom guitars. The Ventures model gave Mosrite the marketing it needed and as more musicians picked up the instrument they found that the quality and workmanship rivaled, if not exceeded Fender and Gibsons very fine but still very much mass produced guitars.
Mosrite guitars became known for innovative design, beautiful engineering, very thin, low-fretted and narrow necks, and extremely hot (high output) pickups. The
guitar reviews are still exceptional. The latter technical twist gave the average guitarist a meaner edge, this led to harder musical styles being achievable. The legacy of which was punk rock pioneers such as the Ramones which in turn heavily influenced grunge rockers, especially those three unwashed lads from Seattle, Nirvana. God bless you Semie Mosley. The lights are out, but you still entertain us.
Leo Fender
California Times News Archive Photograph 1958, Mosrite Manufacturing House, Bakersfield, California
