It doesn’t look much like a Ventures model, or any other Mosrite guitar, but the notches in the peghead forming the letter M clearly identify this offball as one of Semie Moseley’s creations.

Moseley used this skateboard-with-cutouts framework to create a green six-string, a red 12-string and a purple bass for the West Coast psychedelic band Strawberry Alarm Clock, a one-hit-wonder group who had a No. 1 record in 1967 with “Incense and Peppermints”.

Despite the odd, cumbersome-looking frame, the essentials were all there, including a pair of Mosrite pickups and (on the six-string) a Mosrite vibrato unit. The finish work on the Strawberry Alarm Clock instruments was done by legendary hot-rod and motorcycle painter Von Dutch (the professional name of Kenny Howard), who was the first custom-builder to paint stripes and flames on motorcycles in the 1940s and 1950s.

Although Moseley fell on hard times shortly thereafter, the oddball guitars did not hurt Von Dutch’s career, and his legacy continues today as Von Dutch Kustom Motorcycles.